Stewart, true to form, offers stylish surrender
By Erin McClam
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Even at a wrenching moment of surrender, Martha Stewart was — as always — under impeccable control.
Associated Press
Her announcement yesterday that she would report to prison as soon as possible came in a light-bathed studio, before a brilliant backdrop of color swatches, perfectly choreographed for television. She lamented that she would miss her beloved pets — cats, dogs, horses, canaries and chickens — and hoped to be free in time for her spring gardening.
"I must reclaim my good life (and) return to my good works," said Martha Stewart, who plans to report to prison as soon as possible.
"I must reclaim my good life," the 63-year-old millionaire businesswoman declared. "I must return to my good works and allow those around me who work with me to do the same." Her lawyers stressed that her appeal would proceed.
Speaking before a bank of cameras in a cavernous room that her company uses to test recipes and photograph products, Stewart said she hoped to end a period of "immense difficulty, immense sacrifice and immense agony" for herself and her media empire, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.
Shares in Martha Stewart Living rose 12 cents to close at $11.26 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock had been trading around $19 per share before Stewart's name was tied to the scandal.
People close to Stewart said they expected her to report to prison — most likely to a facility in Danbury, Conn., near her home, or possibly in Florida — in a matter of weeks. Her lawyers have asked a federal judge to lift a stay that had been placed on her sentence while she appeals her guilty verdict on charges of lying to investigators about a 2001 stock sale.
After the five months in prison, Stewart still must serve five months of house arrest. She has said she will spend that time — during which she will be allowed to work — at her 153-acre estate north of New York City.
The 10-minute announcement was a striking example of Stewart's trademark image: a tightly controlled one, of good taste, gracious living and self-discipline.
Stewart stood in front of a brilliant backdrop of more than 2,000 color swatches, and to her right was a dining table that looked as if it was about to be used for one of her television programs on entertaining. She was emotional at times, nearly crying at one point.
"It's odd what becomes of immense importance when one realizes when one's freedom is about to be curtailed," she said, "and it is frightening and difficult to have to grasp these realizations."
