Martha Stewart

Guesses are welcomed, even encouraged. I recall back in the mid-90s her businesses, at least in the popular press, were said to generate close to a billion dollars. Post-2008, how much now? What's the amount of her personal wealth?

She was a great debate moderator. Wish she moderated the Presidential Debate.
Look at her product placement to get a guesstimate. Home Depot paint deal. Check. Craft stores are really thinning out her product line of late, I've noticed. Her website is doing well and holding steady.
Weird you bring this up...I just randomly checked her stock price the other day out of curiosity. It's $3. Does she even have a show anymore??
Was Karl Rove partially responsible for her downfall?
She criticised the soup selection at our local breadline.
Her show on the Hallmark channel was canceled.
Her Hallmark show was like watching QVC. Every segment she was trying to sell her crap.
She just started a new show on PBS. I'm sure her personal worth is a fraction of what it was 10 years ago. According to the linked article, things aren't so great at MSLO.
http://nymag.com/news/features/martha-stewart-2011-8/
When her company first went public, she was worth $1 billion, but over the years her net worth has been cut in half. I think I saw where she's now worth around $400 million.
I loved Her 90s show "Martha Stewart's Living." Her gift as performer was her assumption that you lived a life where you had the time and money to do the meaningless projects she presented. Poor as church mouse and as pitiful as it sounds, I felt flattered watching her show.
Della
[quote]Her website is doing well and holding steady. Hew website is crap. It is incredibly slow and the search function is awful.
The article is a snooze. Get to the comments and see GChu's numerous postings. I agree that GChu is A)Martha B)An employee of MSLO whose sole job is to defend the company online C)A stalker. Okay, we had Janbot, what is GChu, MarthaManiac?
Alot of the comments on her recipe site are criticisms.
Julia Child
Time for that bitch daughter of hers to sell her $30 million condo...momma needs her retirement money back.
Her daughter is a total bitch. She bought a motel in Bridgehampton and "renovated" it in a style that could be called "extreme minimalist" or even "monastic." She failed and blamed it on the guests. Then she bought a gym, but couldn't stand the clients. Fail again. Then she had a radio show and wrote a book with a friend, then defriended her publicly by refusing to acknowledge her presence on the Today show. I think Martha is worth more like $250M. No matter how much money, Alexis Stewart will never be happy.
Friend who worked on her show said the Alexis would be Martha's downfall... so much anger and Martha, who is known for being a cunt, will not stand up to her.
WTF happened to Alexis, and why is she so horrible to everyone, including her mother?
Alexis is even estranged from former friend and co-star, Jennifer Koppelman. I wonder what caused their falling out?
Alex wishes she had identity, like her mother does, but she is vapid, and without real interests, or ambitions, or passions.
Does Martha still have her stuff in K-Mart? I think it was linens. Michaels still carries her stuff - all on sale this week. She also had her name on housing developments.
Alexis has drifted from one business scheme to the next--hotel owner, gym owner, talk show host--all of which Martha set her up in, and all of which Alexis failed miserably at.
Baby%20Jude
Jennifer went on Howard Stern and said that one day Alexis just stopped talking to her and never explained why.
R20, I read MS withdrew her name from K-Mart merchandising after she went into a store and saw how shoddy the product had become. It didn't start out that way, but that's what K-Mart has turned into.
Her blog is really cold and clinical. Weird. Were Joan Crawford alive in this day and age she would have a blog just like Alexis'.
http://www.alexisstewart.com/blog_alexis_stewart/blog/blog.html
Are we meant to believe that Alexis made these dishes herself? The photos look straight out of MSL.
Photos of the back of the head of her kid are fascinating. Is she friends with Goop?
Martha has competition from others who seem to be warmer, more human versions of her. Ina Gartner and Rachel Ray seem more approachable and less clinical than Martha. And really, how many gewgaws can you create for your Thanksgiving dinner table before you run out of ideas? There are top chef shows, iron chef shows, restaurant shows, cake and cupcake shows, pick the next decorating genius shows, project runway shows, say yes to the dress shows --- none of these shows were around in the 90s during Martha's heyday. They've all stolen some of her thunder. There's no longer just one program that shows baking, roasting, grilling, growing, basting, sewing, hollowing gourds, attractive plating, nice fabrics, etc. Martha is a victim of her own success.
Why does Alexis have a nanny? She doesn't do anything but stay home and blog.
OMG, Alexis Stewart has granite stairs. HGTV househunting couples would die...
I have no clue as to her net worth or the goings on of her daughter (who really should move to France and pick up a drug or religion habit). I think Martha should move away from consumerism with her demographic audience and she could make the IMclone circus pay off. She should produce and star in a personal finance program for people kissing the edges of retirement age - review funds, successful companies, troubled companies. and clueless idiots facing their golden years. Part of her appeal to me is that she assumes the viewer is somewhat intelligent and shares her attention to detail. Detractors would state she's the 1% discussing issues that only appeal to other rich people. People who have gained control of a lump sum of cash through inheritance (we have a huge wealth transfer going on as the Greatest Generation dies off) or retirement (IRAs maturing) would appreciate the hard edge she gives to judging any business.
I occasionally listened to Alexis and Jennifer's radio show on Sirius, and Alexis was always so unpleasant and unfun.
I'm glad I'm not her kid. All that squash and sardine spaghetti. I like goat cheese, but in moderation, not in nearly every meal. Unfortunately, I don't like tomatoes, so I'd starve to death at Alexis's house. Where does she live? It looks like Springs.
Martha turned Halloween from a one night event into a full season. Years of her TV show featuring Halloween decor, lighting, costumes, food, etc. took this one day and built it into a huge industry with chains of Halloween stores that open mid-September and are out of business on November 1st. Christmas stores used to appear in malls every year and then shut down after the holiday. Now we've got the same with Halloween stores.
I take it Alexis is bringing her kids up vegetarian. Who wants to bet Jude becomes an obese, pimply faced teen who hoards Mars bars and sneaks out of the house at night to go to McDonalds?
The dismal reviews on Alexis's book are quite fun to read...
http://www.amazon.com/Whateverland-Learning-Live-Alexis-Stewart/product-reviews/0470907584/ref%3Dcm_cr_pr_btm_link_4%3Fie%3DUTF8%26filterBy%3DaddOneStar%26pageNumber%3D4%26showViewpoints%3D0
Thanks, R8 -- I didn't know about her new PBS show. I loved her original show & still miss it, maybe this one will be as good as that was.
Big%20Bob%27s%20BBQ%20Baked%20Beans%21
Didn't Alexis adopt the kid from South America? Did she order one of the German blonde South Americans? Remember how she patted herself on the back for adopting from a 3rd world country?
R27, Ina Garten used to be a fairly regular guest on the cooking segments of MS' show. Not having anything to do with the Hamptons, that's the only place I ever heard of her. They might not be on good terms now, but they always seemed quite friendly back then. After IG moved on, her recipes, some of which were excellent, were removed from MS' website. Rachael Ray is an idiot whose food background consisted of arranging candy displays. I have never been bothered by or minded MS' personality, especially after her mother was on her show a number of times. Her mother was such a cold, nasty, mean bitch she made MS look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms. MS was always a very good cooking teacher, and that's why I watched her show. Sure, she was OCD but who cares? I wasn't planning on moving in with her.
She used a surrogate, she didn't adopt
[quote] Why does Alexis have a nanny? She only had children so she could show mommy that she is a better mother than mommy was. She had surrogates birth her TWO children because mommy only had ONE child, therefore she is twice as better than mommy was. . And it's about controlling when and how mommy can see Alexis' perfect children. NO, NOT TODAY, MARTHA! The children are going to the museum with the nanny while I get a massage and rest for a bit. It's so hard being the perfect mother to perfect children. Don't forget I have to prepare their dinner -- artichoke and chick pea salad drizzled with warm goat cheese dressing and served with mint flavored soy milk. And i must prepare their dessert -- tarts. Tomato, cilantro and fresh peach tarts with unsweetened whipped cream (made from heavy goat's milk). I've already gathered the dandelion greens for their zucchini and millet carrot bread bar bedtime snack. It's not so easy being the perfect mother to TWO perfect children.
Hit%20%22Send%22%20For%20Me%2C%20Bitch
There are so many cooking shows on tv I can't imagine anyone has time to watch l of them. They're even rerunning Julia Child on PBS and they'd probably rerun the frugal gourmet if he hadn't run into .. ahem.... intern problems.
Alexis is like the real life equivalent of those spoiled daughters on "I, Claudius" and HBO's "Rome." Slapping slaves around, insulting their mothers, insulting their mother's lovers, calling for some poor wretch to be whipped to within an inch of his life. "He looked at me! Looked at ME!" Only in real life she will never be exiled to a desert island or thrown from a cliff when her uncle takes power. Too bad.
[quote]Rachael Ray is an idiot whose food background consisted of arranging candy displays. I love when assholes on DL make up "facts" to suit their idiotic notions of reality. They've shown Rachel's bio show on the Food channel about a million times R38. She used to give cooking demos in a grocery chain in the Northeast (cooking entire meals using the grocery stores' products in about 30 minutes...remember that for later), then she started also doing short segments on a local tv station, then she was asked to do a spot on the Today show where the Food Network saw her and gave her a show called '30 Minute Meals' based on her background doing quick cooking demos in grocery stores. But please DO NOT let the facts get in the way of your (ahem) "reality".
MARY%21
r43 - that's Rachael Ray's "cooking" background? That is really pathetic. Sorry.
This is really disheartening to read.......I had thought I had you gays on my side at least.
M.%20Stewart
r45 - mostly we're putting down your cunty daughter. It seems we actually like you.
It is NOT "arranging candy displays" R44. And that was my point. Get it?
probably%20not
Ina Garten's recipes are much better than Martha's. Ina actually develops her own recipes and enjoys cooking. Martha employs cooks at her house who do all the cooking. She just sashays into the kitchen periodically to inform them how she would do things differently, and to remind them to keep a tidy kitchen.
I was sent a few issues of Martha Stewart Living magazine as a "bonus" for buying something (can't remember what). It was so boring. It had photos from some new domicile Martha had acquired. "We decided sheer panels would best frame the outdoors" and there would be a photo of some long room with floor to ceiling windows and some rumpled, gauzy full length curtains. Then "A sense of the past, that wonderful feeling you get from well-used things" and a picture of some dented bucket atop a rickety old step stool in a corner. A dirty, nasty-looking outdoor table with some plain drinking glasses filled with club soda and a mint sprig, some recently picked pansies lying next to the minty water. "On a warm day, the simplicity of country life fills the soul." I was all "WTF?
Martha has 3 test kitchens.
She is such a demented control freak that when she had her favorite Persian cat bred she had three test kittens.
R50, Martha isn't in the kitchen developing the recipes herself. She hires people to do that. Ina, on the other hand, tests her recipes herself and tweeks them to perfection. Big difference. That's why Ina's recipes are almost always tasty and fool-proof.
[quote]Martha has 3 test kitchens. That must be a busy house with all those cooks testing recipes in three kitchens.
I think Alexis is secretly homophobic. She made fun of her gay cousin and other gay Martha guests on her "Whatever, Martha!" show.
MSLO runs the test kitchens. She is rumored to have nine personal assistants. She owns homes in Bedford, East Hampton, Maine and 5th Ave. it must cost millions just to keep those homes going. I think she's a hoarder. She just hoards different things than most people do. Kitchens, homes, dogs,, horses, assistants... instead of newspapers, telephone books, beany babies. She must be driven to earn money so she can pay for her addictions.
[quote]She owns homes in Bedford, East Hampton, Maine and 5th Ave. it must cost millions just to keep those homes going. She features all her homes in her magazine and TV show so she can write-off the upkeep on her taxes.
She's actually quite the fag hag and a big donor to the Democratic party.
Martha, Martha, Martha!
Alexis
For a long time and up until recently, I dated someone on the Martha team. Martha is a better person intellectually than she is emotionally and in practice. She is very supportive of gay rights, a defender of health care reform, and a Democratic ally. She is also a control freak who takes failure by an employee as an attack on her person and lashes out. (And then feels badly about it afterwards. She does have a conscience.) Ina Garten, Rachel Ray -- all those people can't really hold a candle to what Martha is or does. She is consummate (cooking, gardening, decorating, crafting.) She has a clear design aesthetic that is beautiful and eloquent and even original. Martha is still relevant, because no one as multi-talented as she is has come along yet, and young women are still learning to cook, clean, entertain, etc. The PBS show is pitch perfect for her. (Did you see the episode on eggs? It was kind of beautiful. And I never watch cooking shows.) Martha's talk show was not pitch perfect. She should never have had to interact with people. It's one of her weaknesses. I sometimes wonder if she doesn't have narcissistic personality disorder or some other kind of mental illness. She does better with animals than she does with people. Rs 57, 56, 55 -- all true. As is just about everything said about Alexis on this thread. Alexis is a terribly damaged human being. Martha knows it, and I think that is partially why she has indulged her all these years. Guilt. Now that there are grandkids, I think Martha is genuinely vulnerable with love for those children, and Alexis will use it all as a weapon, I suspect. (r40, you must know her.) Martha's team at MSLO is a good team, though it's been horribly thinned out, and it's either aging or too wealthy, too urban, too liberal to consistently advocate for what flyover state Americans really want from their homey/cooking/crafty media. (Plus, I don't think there is any one person there who is as multi-faceted as Martha and can take over for her in that regard.) I think there is still value in what Martha does, and value to her as a brand. (Martha doesn't do the crafts, cooking, etc, but she still has oversight on all of it and is very involved in the oversight.) I think she has some of the wrong people executing it for her on the corporate level. The company is horribly, horribly top heavy -- I think Alexis is even on the payroll -- though upper management will keep buying time by laying off underlings until the teat is well and fully dry. Time will tell, I guess. In the mean time, I genuinely like Martha (deeply flawed as she is) and am rooting for her and her company. There are incredibly talented people working there -- as the NY Mag article comments said.
Alexis needs to get over it. Or she'll damage her own children with her emotional mommy dearest issues.
I agree with R59...her original show was great. I used to take naps with it on, as her voice was so soothing. It was just a comforting show to watch. Then she "sold out" and started having celebrity co-hosts and filmed in front of a studio audience which made the show louder and less "Martha." That was just weird, and it didn't really work all that well. You could tell that format was a bit uncomfortable for her. Whatever issues Martha has with being social, Alexis inherited tenfold.
I should also say that I do believe Alexis loves her kids and is trying to give them (what she considers to be) the best life possible.
r59
"I love getting rid of friends--it's so much fun!" --Alexis Stewart
Spoken%20like%20a%20true%20sociopathic%20cunt
R 52 and R 50: And that is why Ina is fat and Martha is not.
Lila%20McKann
Thanks R59, that was really interesting and I've read almost everything I could about Martha. Her father was a monster and her mom just put up with it. When Martha used to have her mother on her show, you could feel the animosity between them as they traded barbs. I've never understood why Alexis didn't try to make up with her father to whom she hasn't spoken to since her parents divorce. Maybe he would have had a moderating influence on her. I feel sorry for those kids being used as weapons.
R59, Is that Marcy lady, who runs the MS Weddings magazine, the heir apparent to Martha? She's always featured on Martha's TV show. Marcy seems to have a disdain for Martha, and I have a feeling she talks badly about Martha behind her back. And what are your feelings about Kevin Sharkey? He seems to be Martha's most trusted sidekick.
I always felt sorry for Martha when her mother was on the show. It seemed like Martha was still trying to please her, and nothing was ever good enough.
I remember the time MS recreated a potato dish a relative used to make. She was obviously so pleased she had finally figured it out after a lot of trial and error. She served it to her mother who rudely rejected it and put down MS. I actually felt sorry for MS. She was still trying to please her mother, an obviously impossible task. Incidents like that made it very clear what was going on with MS. I guess that's why I never hated her. Well, that and the fact that I happen to respect successful women.
R40, 42, 49 made me laugh out loud. Thanks.
I seem to remember Martha giving as good as she got from her mother. That family was/is a mess. I don't know what the situation is now, but about half of her siblings don't even speak to her.
I loved it when Martha would have her drunk banker friend Jane Heller cooking her own recipes on the old MSL show.
Lucinda Scala Quinn
I just saw a video (at a link on the Apple Pie thread) of MS making pies with her niece Sophie, who comes across as a very pleasant & admirable young woman -- looks healthy, pretty, smart, quietly humorous, helps at a school or orphanage in India, & teaches yoga in NYC. They worked well together & seemed to enjoy each other's company, with mutual respect & affection. Not sure whose daughter Sophie is, but I'll bet poor Martha wishes her own kid had turned out half as well. Must have something to do with the way each girl was raised.
http://www.marthastewart.com/340605/cheddar-crusted-apple-pie
R51, they probably don't speak to each other either. I came from an embattled family, and it's all about survival schemes. Part of what parents like that do is pit their children against each other.
Years ago Martha Stewart and Barbra Streisand were both big financial supporters of Clinton and the Democratic Party, They were famous and gave BIG bucks. They were both very public about it. The Repugs went nuts and went after them both. They started rumors that Martha was a lesbian and got her thrown in jail on something they all did. They made it a huge public case and almost ruined her. She went to jail. They tried a bunch of stuff to intimidate Barbra to shut her up. They spread rumors that her son had HIV and other things about her, nasty stuff. It didn't work, they couldn't intimidate her. Who knows all the things they did? This got the word out so celebs and big donors knew that Rove played tough and if you supported the Dems you were fair game. It worked.
Martha and Streisand are good friends. Barbra and Jim have spent the weekend at Martha's Maine estate, and Martha has been to Barbra's Malibu estate. Martha even planted some of Barbra's roses for her.
[quote]And what are your feelings about Kevin Sharkey? He seems to be Martha's most trusted sidekick. Seems nice but has awful table manners. Chews with mouth open. Shovels the food in, etc. I watched a segment where he and Martha were eating at a restaurant. Had I been the producer of that segment, I would have stopped it and either corrected his manners (a bit difficult for all involved) or adjusted the camera so he didn't show very much.
That's odd. He seems to be nearly as OCD as MS. When he bought his current apartment, they did a series in the magazine about renovating and decorating the place. It was as crazy as the wedding of that lunatic woman who is head of the wedding division. He looks like he would be too dainty to have bad table manners. I'm not disagreeing with you but it doesn't fit my image of him.
Sharkey is fine until you do something he doesn't like. Then, he has a temper and is vindictive. I think it's born of insecurity, which leads him to do and say horrible things. I also think he's a bit self-loathing about being gay. I imagine that part of why Martha trusts him is that he will rage, the way she does, against people who do something "wrong". He has good qualities though. Martha has taken him in like the son she never had, and I think he tries very hard to be a safe, neutral member of their family. He genuinely cares for her, and I think she for him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/business/at-martha-stewart-living-martha-may-be-the-problem.html%3Fpagewanted%3Dall