Martha Stewart Could Face Bare Walls and 'Scrubs'
07/15/04 - 02:16 PM EDT
Gregg Greenberg
Stewart will also not be able to transform her cramped new bedroom into a cozy version of a Maine cottage. Prison rules prohibit wall hangings and only allow non-sexually provocative family pictures in a wall locker. Standard issue for a cell is similar to what is given to military personnel in dormitory settings.
The good news for Stewart -- depending on how she looks at it -- is that there is a very good chance she will be spending time working in the kitchen at Danbury, thanks to her culinary skills and short sentence. Unfortunately, her vast previous experience -- including the recipes published in her magazine -- may neither translate well nor, in fact, apply at all. Speaking of magazines, Martha will be permitted to order the one that bears her name, as long as it comes directly from the company. If Martha gets tired of reading her magazine, she can surf the television channels to find a rerun of one of her old programs. (The BOP says regular television is allowed as long as it is nothing provocative. ) That will pretty much be the extent of her contact with the media empire she founded. An imprisoned person has severe limitations on his or her ability to engage in his or her business, so Martha Stewart Omnimedia shareholders thinking Martha can use her prison stay as downtime to strategize the company's re-emergence had better adjust their thoughts. "For all intents and purposes, for the amount of time that Martha is incarcerated she will not be able to attend to her company's business," says defense attorney Charna E. Sherman. The company has anticipated and prepared for this by marginalizing Stewart's presence on both the flagship magazine and new product launches. (Another ironic twist, considering that Morvillo is widely expected to plead for a reduced sentence on the grounds that removing Martha from the company would cause hundreds of job losses at MSO.) Finally, Internet access is prohibited in prison, so she won't be able to check her personal or company Web sites, never mind the company's stock price. And if she wants to call her broker, it will come out of the precious 300 minutes inmates are allotted per month. Obviously, she will not be calling Peter Bacanovic.
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