Has Martha Stewart changed? NEW YORK (AP) -- Martha Stewart took up the cause of prisoners' rights during her five months in prison and calls her time behind bars "life altering and life affirming." Other white collar criminals have proclaimed themselves equally transformed after emerging from prison. But are they really? "If you're changed, then let's see the action," said Fred Shapiro, a lawyer who served time for bank fraud in Philadelphia in the 1990s, and went back to prison for a separate episode of white-collar crime 10 years later. "Everyone says they've changed after they've left prison, but only time will tell." Stewart, released Friday after five months in prison for lying about a stock sale, is the latest in a long line of high-profile white-collar convicts -- from junk bond king Michael Milken to hotel queen Leona Helmsley -- who have returned to freedom saying they have been renewed. "I can completely identify with her comments about prison," David Novak said of Stewart. The flight school owner did time for mail fraud in 1997 and today acts as a consultant to other white-collar convicts. "To this day, I look back at that time as probably the greatest blessing of my life," says Novak, of Salt Lake City. "Not the going to prison part. But the opportunity to be still and reflect upon a lot of the poor judgments I made." His assessment is supported by Ellen Podgor, a professor of law at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. A prison term "is mind altering. I don't think it's just for the press what's being said," said Podgor, an author of two books on white-collar crime. More: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/06/martha.stewart.ap/index.html

NY Times spin: Cult of Stewart Bounces Back in the Magazine By CONSTANCE L. HAYS Published: March 7, 2005 f there was any question that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has been eagerly awaiting the return of its founder and namesake, the coming issue of the magazine Martha Stewart Living lays it to rest. On the cover is a bowl with daffodils, and attached to the binding is a half-cover flap featuring Ms. Stewart, looking cheerful in a pale-blue barn jacket and cradling a chicken. Readers are directed to "her new monthly column" on Page 32. "Welcome home, Martha," the headline says. This worshipful focus on Ms. Stewart is a departure from the last two years, when the magazine minimized Ms. Stewart's name on the cover and replaced some features that bore her name with more generic columns. Since Ms. Stewart was convicted last March of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements about the sale of stock, there has been a debate in and outside Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia over whether to expand the company beyond Ms. Stewart's personality or to rebuild around her.

And msnbc.com: Plenty of precedent Stewart, released Friday after five months in prison for lying about a stock sale, is the latest in a long line of high-profile white-collar convicts � from junk bond king Michael Milken to hotel queen Leona Helmsley � who have returned to freedom proclaiming themselves changed people. But are they really? What to make of Stewart�s assertion, posted on her company�s web site, that prison �has been life altering and life affirming?� The spotlight and public relations campaign surrounding Stewart, if anything, seems to make those more difficult questions to answer. �I can completely identify with her comments about prison,� said David Novak, a flight school owner who did time for mail fraud in 1997, and today acts as a sentencing consultant to other white-collar convicts. �To this day, I look back at that time as probably the greatest blessing of my life,� says Novak, of Salt Lake City. �Not the going to prison part. But the opportunity to be still and reflect upon a lot of the poor judgments I made.� Ellen Podgor, a professor of law at Georgia State University in Atlanta, agreed.

And Tina Brown weighs in in the NY Sun: For a P.R. Boost, Serve Time, Not Canapes BY TINA BROWN March 3, 2005 The Jail Thing is working so well for Martha Stewart it may become the p.r. strategy of choice for other public figures who have run afoul of the image police. Jennifer Lopez didn't have to go to all the trouble of designing a new fashion line, toiling over a new album, and rebounding into a doleful marriage to Marc Anthony. She should just have stood up in court and said, "Your Honor, I committed the crime of being on the cover of US magazine with Ben Affleck 100 times too often. My lips were too shiny. I made horrible movies. For my penalty I accept five months in Alderson jail in West Virginia." Ditto Bernard Kerik. Why hang around waiting for some fresh embarrassment to surface? Just tell it to a judge: "Your Honor, I milked the 9/11 aura once too often. I shilled for President Bush on cable shows past the point where I was bearable. I refused to admit that Homeland Security tsar was where my overreach had hit the ceiling. As penance, I will be a stand-up guy and do my 90 days in the image clink more at http://www.nysun.com/article/10055

From Denver Post business columnist Al Lewis: Source: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~130~2743569,00.html

A billion for being in prison. That's living! By Brett Arends Jail has been good to Martha Stewart. The domestic diva emerges this week from ``Camp Cupcake'' with something she didn't have when she went in. A billion dollars. That's right. Stewart, 63, has literally become a billionaire in the clink. It has happened suddenly. According to her company's latest regulatory filings, she owns 29.1 million shares in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. A year ago it traded around $10. Last spring, when Stewart was convicted, the price sank as low as $8.70. With the company's franchise figure being measured for handcuffs and prison stripes, many wrote the enterprise off. Fast forward to today, and the stock is flying high. Stewart hype, and anticipation of her release this week, is generating wild excitement. At $35.35 the stock has quadrupled since early July. And it values Stewart's stake at a cool $1.03 billion. That's even after she cashed in nearly $13 million worth last year - petty cash, really, to take care of incidentals. If she'd waited she could have made an extra $15 million: She dumped a pile of shares at the lows. But who's counting? Regardless of what the future holds, these are good times at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. In total, company disclosures suggest executives and staff have made an estimated $67 million on share options alone since the company's founder went off to camp. It says something peculiar about U.S. society that Martha can make so much money apparently for being sent to jail. Stock in Stewart's company drifted along at $10 for years when she was a free woman. Even before her stock-trading scandal erupted, in early 2002, it was only around $20. In the next few weeks, she'll get the kind of free publicity that apparently only a scandal can buy. More: http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=70912

Friday, March 04, 2005 Martha's Stock Continues to Climb CNN offers a brilliant timeline that compares milestones in the Stewart Saga against MSLO stock price. You can see clearly see how things are already ramping up for MSLO. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has already announced plans to have Stewart write a column for the company's flagship Martha Stewart Living magazine. Also filling up her schedule: She's scheduled to star in two television shows next fall and there is talk of plans to launch a clothing line. And all while wearing an ankle bracelet, folks! My next Martha prediction: SOMEONE from Camp Cupcake has probably snagged some of Martha's personal prison items and they will show up on E-Bay within the next week. fropm http://marthastewart.blogspot.com/

Bernie Ebers of Worldcom went on trial today for an $11 billion dollar fraud and the helicopters are circling over Martha Stewarts house. The media and the public are riveted on Martha Stewart. She got weepy yesterday when she was addressing her employees. Kind of touching isn't it?

Nice shot of homegirl and her new ceo, Susan Lyne. Kind of looks like a younger version of Martha, doesn't it?

There's even a Martha Stewart victory song

And the NY Daily News is telling us . . . Knit-wits crave Martha poncho Coming soon to a knitting klatsch near you: a pattern for Martha Stewart's infamous prison-break poncho. The nation's top yarn company will introduce a free "Welcome Home" poncho pattern, satisfying crocheters and knitters who took one look at the domestic diva's garment and were hooked. "There's so much demand for that pattern," said Debbie Stoller, author of the popular "Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook." "Everyone wants to make it." Soon after Stewart boarded a plane to New York wearing the handmade garment, Lion Brand Yarn fielded hundreds of E-mails and calls - the most requests it has ever gotten for a pattern. "People are saying, 'You read our minds,'" said Alana Rabinowitz, director of consumer marketing for Lion Brand. The free pattern will be ready Tuesday or Wednesday on the yarn company's Web site (www.lionbrand.com). But for those who need a quicker fix, a knockoff poncho on eBay is going for $152.50. "There's been so much buzz," said Barbara Hillery, founder of the New York City crochet guild. "Everyone is wondering how to make it." Last Friday, do-it-yourselfers across the country logged onto Internet message boards and began pondering the poncho's design. Chatter over the pattern landed crochet near the top of the Yahoo! Buzz Index on Tuesday, with searches on the topic jumping 8% the day after Stewart shared the poncho's origins at her New York offices. It was a going-away present, she told her staff, from a fellow inmate who crochets 12 hours a day with yarn from the prison commissary. "The night before I left, she handed it to me and said, 'Wear it in good health,'" Stewart recalled. Staying true to the original design of Stewart's blue-and-tan cape, Lion Brand's first pattern will be crochet. In a few weeks, it will introduce a knit version. Carrie Melago Originally published on March 10, 2005

Martha's Argument in pdf file format shows that she did get treated unfairly and didn't get the right to a Fair Trial. You have to do some digging in this document, but it's there.

my friend sent a copy of the pattern for martha's poncho *laugh*

She's going to have her own satellite radio station. That and the reality show.

you know, martha is the butt of so many jokes....but you gotta hand it to her, like her or not, she's a shrewd business woman. she's going to be with stern on sirius? *laugh*