Happy Birthday to the extraordinary and incomparable Martha Stewart. Thanks to her for all she’s done to promote beautiful things for people’s lives, and better, healthy living. At 74, she’s still surprising us with new things. Happy Birthday, Martha!
The reviews are in: Martha is receiving near unanimous praise for her comedy monologue (video) at Comedy Central’s Roast of Justin Bieber. If you are familiar with these roasts, you know that there is little that is considered “crossing the line”–and Martha certainly delivered with no holds barred. As she has done in the past, Martha did not shy away from references to her time spent in a women’s penitentiary, and offered Bieber some advice for surviving prison. The other panelists, and the audience, absolutely LOVED it. It seems the public agrees, as Martha has been the toast of the internet and social media since the program aired!
Watch Martha’s segment here (video). PLEASE NOTE: The humor is NSFW.
These jokes were reportedly cut from the telecast:
“Justin, you have no idea what you’re in for. I’m sure it’s great to have 60 millions followers on Twitter. But the only place people will be following you in prison will be into the shower.”
She also offered Bieber some advice on his tattoos:
“You have an owl on your arm and the word ‘patience’ on your neck. I would suggest the words ‘White power’ so you don’t look like some 14-year-old girl’s Trapper Keeper.”
After this performance, it seems likely Martha will be asked back for more. It’s gonna be tough to top this one!
Is there anything this woman can’t do? In her new housekeeping video, a partnership with Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, Martha raps! And, predictably–it’s not bad! Martha has much to be singing about: The stock price for her namesake company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), has been performing quite well lately, as investors see Martha poised to enter international markets to help those new middle-class homemakers find solutions to everyday issues. Martha is known the world over as THE resource for all home-related issues. Well done, Martha!
Watch the Arm & Hammer video here, and let me know if you think Martha and her friend, Snoop Dogg, should record an album together! 🙂
The Biebs needs a good talking to–and who better to school him that Martha herself? The lifestyle expert was one of the roasters at Comedy Central’s Roast of Justin BIeiber. The show airs on March 30, but from the looks of how things went on the red carpet, Martha is more than holding her own with other roasters, including (her pal) Snoop Dogg, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Hart, and others. Martha’s presence has become quite the talking point over the past few weeks, and even warranted this full article from the UK’s Daily Mail.
Martha’s outfit, hidden in the above photo, is described as “an ornate red and pink floral-printed jacket dress with skinny black leather-like leggings and black sandal heels.” Always stylish, I love that Martha is getting cred for her playful side, and her sense of humor–which I’m sure has served her well over the ups and downs of her career. FOMs: So, are you going to watch Martha roast Justin Bieber on March 30?
Read the full article from The Daily Mail, and see many more photos of Martha having fun.
Martha and Macy’s appear to have gotten their business relationship back on track, and have just announced the all-new Whim Collection of household items, to be sold exclusively at Macy’s. Based on Martha’s quote below, it sounds as if the new collection has much in common with the items planned for Martha’s store-within-a-store at JC Penney’s stores. Interestingly, the new collection is presented as stand-alone, and branded with the Whim logo (shown above). The collection does look to have brighter colors, and might appeal more to a younger demographic. FOMs: What do you think? Are you ready for the Whim Collection, or do you think Martha Stewart doesn’t need a sub-brand?
From the press release:
“It’s wonderfully fun, fresh and vibrant, easy to live with, and in addition, very affordable,” said MSLO Founder and Chief Creative Officer Martha Stewart. ”I think consumers who want something new and different will discover a lot to love in the Whim collection. Add a bit of whimsy to your rooms!”
If you like, you can read the entire press release.
It’s easy to see a shift is underway at MSLO. After declining ad revenues throughout the publishing industry, as advertiser dollars migrate online, MSLO shed the production portions of its publication divisions, while continuing to contribute content development for the popular books and magazines. This is part of the company’s strategy to cut costs at MSLO while expanding its profitable merchandising division, which has been responsible for almost all the company’s profits for several years now.
In this Bloomberg article, Martha is optimistic about her company’s future and her ability to leverage her personal brand to be ambassador of “good things” to homemakers all over the world. Martha has worked hard to earn the public’s trust–so there’s little doubt she’ll succeed.
She also provides very good advice on gift giving for executives, including this one: “What they want is a beautiful piece of jewelry, a handbag — something you’ve thought through. That’s something you don’t mess up.”
Lastly, doesn’t Martha look buoyant and fabulous in the photo? Happy New Year, Martha!
You can read the entire Bloomberg article here.
This is excerpted from the article, as is the photo shown above:
Now I’m more devoted to making things really, really good than making things monetarily successful. If you make them good, the success comes. My company is a case in point. This company has to grow now. It has to. It has every single quality of a really good company and now all I have to do is help make that happen.
Martha is venturing into retail again, this time in the form of a cafe! Martha and Co. will be opening a cafe in the same building in which MSLO is headquartered; the landmark Starrett-Lehigh Building in Manhattan’s Chelsea District. Details are scarce at this point, but the search for qualified baristas has already begun.
One detail that was made public during Macy’s lawsuit against Martha is the fact that in the “exclusive” contract with Macy’s, Martha has retained the right to sell Martha Stewart-branded items in stand-alone stores that bear her name. At the time, there was a Martha Stewart store in Japan, that sold Martha items.
Knowing Martha, this cafe will be only a beginning. Since product licensing represents a significant amount of MSLO’s profit-making enterprises, it seems reasonable to expect there will be other Martha Stewart-branded items for sale here. And with America’s love affair with all things Martha continuing, one can be sure the cafe will be a smash success. I mean, who wouldn’t want to share a cup of coffee with Martha herself, right?
Martha has put her seal of approval, and name, on a new line of coffee. The coffee products were developed by Ulivjava, a company cofounded by Martha’s personal trainer, Mary Tedesco. The coffee is infused with vitamins and herbs, and fits in nicely with Martha’s call to us all to live “the good long life”. What do you think, FOMs: Will you be having coffee with Martha?
My opinion: This product line has a bad name, if you ask me–it’s difficult to know how to pronounce when you read it, and essentially un-Googleable. Also, I see it spelled both “Ulivjava” and “ULIVjava”, so there’s built-in opportunities for inconsistency. My alternate suggestion would have been “Javalive”, which is much easier to pronouce and based on the same two words. Also, I would make Martha’s name bolder on the labels–but I’m terribly biased on that topic. 🙂
From the Daily Coffee News article:
Stewart’s personal trainer for the past 10 years, Mary Tedesco, and “celebrity nutritionist” Kathleen Schoen, who co-founded the Ulivjava brand, say the product was “inspired by Martha Stewart and her commitment to health, wellness and vitality.” As luck would have it, Stewart enjoyed tasting the RTD product so much that she decided to put her name right there on the package and help the owners push Ulivjava through her social media channels and her Martha Stewart Living magazine. “I love everything ULIVjava stands for — health and wellness with your daily coffee,” Stewart said in an announcement this week.
A very nice, flattering article on Martha appeared in Haute Living Magazine. FOMs, read the entire article for more Martha love, including an interesting Q&A at the end.
From the article as is the above photo, which appeared on the cover:
It is this kind of brazenness and no-holds-barred attitude that has propelled Stewart to superstardom and enabled her to revolutionize domesticity, transforming household tasks and do-it-yourself projects into a mainstream, buzzworthy phenomenon. “It took a lot of time, a lot of hard work, and a lot of creativity to not exactly redefine lifestyle, but to popularize lifestyle,” she confesses. “We made home-keeping more of a pleasure than a chore… and made it more important than just a menial job. I do not believe that taking care of the home or family is in any way menial. I find it extremely important and I think it is just as important as going to the office every day, maybe even more so.”
Martha traveled from NYC-LA (among other reasons, to attend the wedding of music mogul-turned-luxury home designer Sandy Gallin and Bryan Fox), completely unaware there was a spy on board apparently observing her every move. Said spy later reported to Daily News that Martha was the “perfect” passenger–politely inquiring about wine offerings, neatly folding her blanket after use, and freshening up just before landing–and cleaning the sink behind her! Bonus points for traveling in impeccable style, I’d add. FOMs: This is why we love Martha, right?
The full story can be found here.
From Daily News (as is the above photo):
Martha Stewart is a domestic diva even when she flies. A first-class spywitness on an American Airlines Friday flight from JFK to LAX tells us the homemaking maven was an utter delight on board — but refused all offerings on the wine list, including a Bogle Sauvignon Blanc, an Echelon Chardonnay and an Oakley 82 California Red.
Friends of Martha: Celebrating All Good Things Related to Martha Stewart 