Sunday, November 27, 2005
Friday, November 11, 2005
Martha is back
Martha Stewart is probably not as widely known in Europe as she is in the US. Here, everybody knows her, even the men……though Martha is in a business many men don’t have anything to do with – decorating, baking, cooking, growing roses, and other similar “female” things. Except, of course, because this is not such a “housewife” thing - Martha built her empire from scratch and became a celebrity and a billionaire.
Last year, Martha was investigated for insider trading of stocks of the company ImClone. She got a tip that suggested that the stock would to fall. She should never have used the tip and should have not sold her stocks. (The profit from this sale netted a miniscule amount, compared to her net worth.) The insider trading charge could not be proven, and so she was sent to jail because she lied to the investigators about whom she spoke to regarding ImClone stocks. In my opinion, the whole scandal was blown out of proportion because she is woman. Martha belongs to the still small group of women, who have been able to fight their way into the still male dominated world of big business and be successful there – playing the men’s game. She made a lot of enemies in the process.
Also, Martha is not a nice person. She screams at her employees and at employees of other companies, she is rude and commanding. During her trial, that was public, we learned a lot of information about Ms. Stewart. While the press did mention that if she were a man, she would have been treated differently, from the emails and phone transcripts we learned how she was not nice to her family and friends either. And complying with the laws of karma, she went to jail partially because of this too. Because if she were nice, fair and respectful with the people surrounding her, they might not have testified against her and if so, there would have been no evidence against her at all. The sentence of five months in prison and five months under house arrest surprised many.
One of the TV stations made two movies about Martha. The first was about how a Polish-American girl became Martha Stewart - the divorced mother of a daughter and a billionaire. If Martha saw the movie, she could have not been too thrilled with it. The second movie aired at the end of September 2005, and it describes Martha’s trial and her months in jail. It is a little more on Martha’s side, but maybe this is also because we don’t know much about what happened during those months in jail.
But Martha is back. And she is back big time. Those, who thought that the humiliating trial, the jail time and the house arrest would be the end of Martha, were mistaken. Even during her house arrest, she was allowed to work a few hours a week and she went on every TV show in the country and proudly showed her ankle bracelet, which is electronically connected to the police. This was just the beginning. There is more Martha on TV now than ever. (During her trial, almost all of her shows were taken off the air.) She has a new daytime show, there is The Apprentice Martha Stewart every week and there are the good old cooking, decorating, gardening shows. All her magazines, published by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are flourishing too, and her merchandize at K-Mart is selling extremely well.
What happened to Martha is a fascinating human drama. This might be one of the main reasons behind the interest that the public is showing in her - it seems like her story was taken out of a cheap paperback novel about millionaires. Personally, I would like to know if Martha learned from her experience. Is she more humble? Is she respectful to the people around her? For her own benefit, I hope so.
(Published at www.baratno.com)
Martha Stewart is probably not as widely known in Europe as she is in the US. Here, everybody knows her, even the men……though Martha is in a business many men don’t have anything to do with – decorating, baking, cooking, growing roses, and other similar “female” things. Except, of course, because this is not such a “housewife” thing - Martha built her empire from scratch and became a celebrity and a billionaire.
Last year, Martha was investigated for insider trading of stocks of the company ImClone. She got a tip that suggested that the stock would to fall. She should never have used the tip and should have not sold her stocks. (The profit from this sale netted a miniscule amount, compared to her net worth.) The insider trading charge could not be proven, and so she was sent to jail because she lied to the investigators about whom she spoke to regarding ImClone stocks. In my opinion, the whole scandal was blown out of proportion because she is woman. Martha belongs to the still small group of women, who have been able to fight their way into the still male dominated world of big business and be successful there – playing the men’s game. She made a lot of enemies in the process.
Also, Martha is not a nice person. She screams at her employees and at employees of other companies, she is rude and commanding. During her trial, that was public, we learned a lot of information about Ms. Stewart. While the press did mention that if she were a man, she would have been treated differently, from the emails and phone transcripts we learned how she was not nice to her family and friends either. And complying with the laws of karma, she went to jail partially because of this too. Because if she were nice, fair and respectful with the people surrounding her, they might not have testified against her and if so, there would have been no evidence against her at all. The sentence of five months in prison and five months under house arrest surprised many.
One of the TV stations made two movies about Martha. The first was about how a Polish-American girl became Martha Stewart - the divorced mother of a daughter and a billionaire. If Martha saw the movie, she could have not been too thrilled with it. The second movie aired at the end of September 2005, and it describes Martha’s trial and her months in jail. It is a little more on Martha’s side, but maybe this is also because we don’t know much about what happened during those months in jail.
But Martha is back. And she is back big time. Those, who thought that the humiliating trial, the jail time and the house arrest would be the end of Martha, were mistaken. Even during her house arrest, she was allowed to work a few hours a week and she went on every TV show in the country and proudly showed her ankle bracelet, which is electronically connected to the police. This was just the beginning. There is more Martha on TV now than ever. (During her trial, almost all of her shows were taken off the air.) She has a new daytime show, there is The Apprentice Martha Stewart every week and there are the good old cooking, decorating, gardening shows. All her magazines, published by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are flourishing too, and her merchandize at K-Mart is selling extremely well.
What happened to Martha is a fascinating human drama. This might be one of the main reasons behind the interest that the public is showing in her - it seems like her story was taken out of a cheap paperback novel about millionaires. Personally, I would like to know if Martha learned from her experience. Is she more humble? Is she respectful to the people around her? For her own benefit, I hope so.
(Published at www.baratno.com)
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