Martha Stewart's cabbage

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Stewart Gets Sliced Up 
 
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 26, 2002; 8:50 AM 

She kept futzing with the stupid salad!

Martha Stewart, under fire, under scrutiny, on the cover of Newsweek for
"Martha's Mess," goes on the CBS "Early Show" and ? tries to do some cooking.

Surreal. Bizarre.

And verrry awkward.

America?s homemaker, you may have noticed, is under suspicion for insider
trading -- that is, the sheer coincidence of dumping her ImClone stock on
the day she left a message asking to talk to her pal the CEO, which was the
day before the company announced that the FDA had rejected its proposed
cancer drug.

Since then, Stewart has limited herself to terse written statements, even
after Merrill Lynch suspended her stockbroker.

But there's a slight problem. Martha Stewart the corporate brand requires
the occasional presence of Martha Stewart the person. You know, the person
who likes to chirp about the perfect apple tart and great decorating ideas.
Not the person who has to explain why she sold $175,000 in ImClone shares
just before other stockholders took a bath.

So she shows up for her regular "Early Show" gig, all decked out in pink,
and is at the kitchen counter, ready to make a salad.

But journalistic integrity requires that co-host Jane Clayson ask a few
questions before turning to the lettuce. "Our good friend Martha Stewart
has been in the headlines lately," she begins.

"Well, we're going to make salad," Stewart says.

Not so fast. Clayson persists. "As you understand," says Stewart, looking
washed out and none too happy, "I'm involved in an investigation that has
very serious implications. The investigation really centers around ImClone
and its drug called Erbitux, which many of us thought had great potential
and probably still does have great potential for curing cancer."

When Clayson asks another question, Stewart starts slicing a big fat cabbage.

"I'm just not at liberty at this time to make comments whatsoever and I
certainly hope that the matter is resolved in the very near future,"
Stewart says, lawyer-like.

What about your stockbroker's suspension? Clayson wonders. Won't that
further complicate matters for you?

Slice, slice.

"Well, again, I have nothing to say on the matter. I'm really not at
liberty to say."

"I know that image is so important for you and everything you've created
over the years," Clayson says. What about her company's sliding stock price?

By now Stewart looks like she may find another use for the carving knife
with which she is obliterating the cabbage.

"I'm in the media business," she says, suddenly remembering to smile.
"That's why the company is called Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. I have
been the subject of very favorable reporting and very unfavorable
reporting. . . . And I choose to go ahead with my work, to concentrate on
the good work that our company does. My employees and I are hard at work in
making our company the best ominmedia company in the world, Jane. And I
want to focus on my salad, because that's why we're --"

"One more question."

Slice, SLICE.

What about all the media attention?

"When I was a model, and I was all during high school and college, I always
wanted to be on the covers of magazines. That's how your success was
judged. Well, I am the CEO of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company and
I don't want to be on any covers of any newspapers for a long long time."

Now it was Clayson's turn to exclaim, "Let's cook. Summer salads."

"These are called pot luck salads," Stewart says, as if the unpleasant
interrogation never happened. "They're made maybe from a leftover like a
chicken breast. . . . This is a beautiful salad. . . . It can travel and
stay fresh for quite awhile." Before you knew it Jane Clayson was smelling
her fish sauce.

"DICEY," says the New York Daily News banner headline.

Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org



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