31: Martha Stewart Hates Her New Netflix Documentary (But I Love It)

we love martha stewart and stan a controversial queen. 

Hey besties, UHM CHRISTMAS TIME (yes) enjoy another fun lil one. Martha Stewarts life is SO interesting. Honestly, very berry much  love her. merry holidays or whatever you guys do. k love you

Chapters
0:00 | hey besties
1:25 | 1940's- 1960's martha stewarts childhood & intro to teen modeling + first marriage & baby
10:19 | 1970s - she becomes a stockbrocker (lol???) + she basically plays animal crossing in real life
12:50 | 1970s - 2000's the martha stewart brand as we know it today begins to build
21:35 | the beginning of martha stewarts downfall (the fbi gets involved)
28:02 | martha stewarts road to redemption (her friendship with snoop dog & Justin Bieber roast)

Transcript

Welcome back besties, gather round Grandma's got a story to tell. So again, it's the holiday season yay! And we know what that means! :) Jesus? NO. Martha Stewart :) I just wanted to stay on theme you know I--- I like the holidays let's talk about the holidays~ We know her and we love her but honestly when I was looking her up I really don't know her so let's dig into some Martha Stewart lore which is surprisingly very very juicy and I need to share with you guys what makes her such a marketing genius and how she has just remained relevant and in the public eye for more than five decades almost 60 years now. So, on Reese Grey Analyzes we look at creations and experiences in art media music and even video games to explore exactly why we think the way we think question what we believe and learn something new and you might be like why did you think of Martha Stewart for the holiday days and so I went to Michaels right and I saw Martha Stewart branded stuff all over Michaels and I was like oh cool didn't she like go to prison and stuff yes she did but she also did a lot tons more uh before she got to that point and her journey is just so fun now to start out I didn't actually know that Martha Stewart was a teen model so that's her kind of introduction into the spotlight the Limelight she's always been gorgeous even now at 81 years old in 2023 she was the oldest woman to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated which is just amazing and awesome so she comes from really humble beginnings so she grew up in New Jersey New Jersey her mom was a homemaker she mentions too that her mother was also a school teacher and she would make 16 meals a day like for the children and her class and that also growing up that really inspired her too to respect and love homemaking and her father was a Salesman in her words he was a failure so he could not provide for the family he sold things very badly and so what had to happen is that Martha Stewart had five brothers and sisters so they were a family of eight and the dad couldn't provide so what actually happened was Martha Stewart's father had them cultivate a garden so that they could eat out of their Garden so out of very dire circumstances Martha Stewart's introduction into gardening and homemaking was one of stress because she also explains how her father as well was in her words mean literally so mean and would start his day out with a cup of coffee and a glass of wine but he was a functional alcoholic she said because you know he wouldn't stumble around and be violent um and act like a classic drunk but he definitely had his issues and she probably came to love homemaking and gardening and stuff she mentions that she was her father's favorite because like him she was also a perfectionist and then again out of desperation came her stumble into modeling so her neighbor's child actually did modeling on the side and they were friends and she asked her like you know you're pretty enough to be a model too like do you want an introduction and she's like so of course you're going to do that right that sounds so fun and she did it and she was really really successful she was a successful um commercial model and if anyone knows anything about the modeling industry commercial modeling is where you make your money fitting models the models who try on clothes for companies they probably make on par or more than commercial models so that's what she did and she mentioned she got paid in the60s mind you like $15 an hour that's the basic rate of like a fitting model nowadays 100 bucks an hour so that's how her family put food on the table they basically used Martha Stewart's um career as a model to put food on the table it's like a classic like Britney Spears story right so very sad but that is her introdu ction to the Limelight there so after like doing some modeling for like American Apparel deodorant commercials everything like that she was like the talk of her New Jersey town right so after that she just decides that the cookie cutter life isn't for her she wants to get an education she wants to go to school so in the 60s she goes to Barnard College in New York a very prestigious school if if you will and uh she goes there on scholarship as well so she's around 18 or so and she studies architecture and of course on campus you know she she makes a little name for herself uh being being the pretty girl in class right and so Martha sees like this fancy classmate of hers always showing up in rollsroyce right and so she's like M that she makes friends with her you know because she's a networker she knows what she's doing she's a smart lady okay and so they're like besties or whatever and then she says you you know what I have a brother I have a brother who goes uh to Yale law school like do you do you want to talk to him do you want to be introduced which is crazy like I would never I don't know and so enters Andy Stewart Andy Stewart is a is a rich boy you know like he has an American Express card which is a really big um way to show that you have a lot of class in that time right so they travel everywhere vacation everywhere it's like living the High Life together so they go through this Whirlwind romance and a year later Andy proposes to Martha okay and of course she's so excited and so she tells her dad like oh I'm going to marry this guy Andy Stewart and he slaps her across the face so this is her story her dad in her words too called him a bigot so Martha's dad didn't want her marrying Andy because he was Jewish so you know what Martha did married him anyway in Martha fashion like it in true Martha fashion she she just does what she wants you know so she goes on Mar's Andy and they go on an extensive femon luxurious european vacation and all of this vacation she writes down all the food that she eats she writes down all of the architecture that she sees and she's very very inspired by the museums and the food and she mentions that sophistication like in the' 60s like it wasn't really a thing in American housekeeping it was all about things being like quick and easy you know quick and easy things to do for your family for women on the go because women also worked at that time and everything like that so this vacation really solidified like her her want for the Finer Things but like a a little piece of tea here that also happens in this European Vacation remember that this is their honeymoon all right so this is their honeymoon vacation and Martha goes to the DW alone so that's like a cathedral in Italy right she goes there alone and you know she describes the scene as like romantic there's all this like Cathedral music and everything and she has a conversation with a handsome stranger and ends up kissing him in the Cathedral on a lot of levels there's like thing like tears of wrong like adultery in the cathedral like on your honeymoon oh my God but she mentions like not feeling bad about this cuz it was a fleeting moment right and it was just romantic and she hopes that everyone can experience something like that and I know within the confines of marriage everyone's boundaries are different this could be okay for some couples right if it is consented to and conversed of before the fact but this is definitely like adultery like and this comes back later this infidelity issue it comes later and we'll get to it I promise so Martha and Andy after the 5 months of their honeymoon which is a crazy amount of time for a honeymoon anyway they return to the United States and do what everybody does at the time they have a baby so they have a little baby named Alexis right now Martha would be 18 when she had her kid and she's like yeah I mean like everyone was doing it it was the style it was the culture to just have kids really young so they have Lexi and then she talks about being a mother a little bit and how it's difficult to be a mother you know for her it's difficult to be warm and kind and show love and she wasn't really given any direction on like the warmth of motherhood or anything because the family that she grew up in it was pragmatic you know you did what you had to do and you were surviving every day and you did your chores and you went to school and you just survived together and so it was very difficult for her um to show her daughter that warmth and Lexi speaks on this a little bit as well how like you know Martha just wasn't a warm person like she never like built up those empathy skills right and so you know Martha doesn't have much inspiration you know to be a just a mother she wants more for herself so so what does she do like get a hobby or something well like she is a stock broker so she goes into the men's World of stock brokering in the 70s which is unheard of for a lady it's like a a a tale that there wasn't even a lady's room you know at the New York St Stock Exchange but that's where she goes because she is inspired by her grandfather who apparently worked as a stock broker so that's what she decides to do everyone who works there says that Martha is excellent she's excellent at dealing with clients she's a pretty lady remember it's the 70s so you know people are just pleased to be around a pretty lady who's smart can handle conversations with you and she's just Charming she's good with people and she does excellent and so in the 70s she ends up making a quarter of a million dollars which is a hell of a lot for even today's time and she gets really burnt out because she says an ex it's an extremely stressful job and she actually leaves after she made a bad investment choice and some investors lost money it was a lot of stress and pressure for her so she ended up leaving because she wanted to build a home and who wouldn't because you're like a millionaire so she has a buttload of money her husband's already rich they so what are you going to do you're going to play Animal Crossing in real life so basically she buys this fix her uper home in Connecticut in this town that like no one really lives so she has like a bunch of land and a home that doesn't even have a working shower it's just this dilapidated horrible Charming right fixer uper for her to just play around with so she he goes into the home and they take a shower by using buckets of water Martha Stewart is painting everything all the ceilings she builds a little farm in the back she has like 20 chickens she actually builds like this gorgeous gorgeous garden with flowers grows her own food and it's just Animal Crossing in real life guys like who wouldn't do that if you had all the money and the time in the world I just totally Vibe with that and that's kind of like the introduction of Martha Stewart finding herself as the Martha Stewart brand right so Andy her husband he's actually the CEO of a book and magazine publishing company and so Andy's company he has to host authors and clients right and Martha is like oh hell yeah bring them over like I built this amazing beautiful home and she loves hosting she makes these lavish dinners like covering turkey and puff pastry she's really inspired by the things she saw in Europe like the really elaborate you know like cornicopia with fruit falling out in like you know the classic paintings of like a feast that's basically what she recreates she's very inspired by that she wants grandiosity and everything and she just kills it with her amazing dinner spreads and everything and what she actually ends up doing is is doing this even even on a bigger scale because that's what Martha Stewart does and then she starts her own catering company she caters parties at the MoMA for 600 700 guests that at Seth's huge parties where waitresses are dressed as fairies right it's just the spectacle and she makes millions of dollars doing this catering company and at that party where the waitresses were dressed as fairies and such a publisher who was a part of Andy's company tells her like why don't you write a book about this why don't why don't you and she's all like yeah like of course I should and so she goes into publishing a book on entertaining from model to stock broker to entrepreneur we just love it and at this point is when Martha and Andy's relationship starts to get Rocky right so at this this point Martha apparently has an affair okay and this kind of shakes Andy to to his core right he already feels alone at home she's always busy she has this huge career and stuff and now she she's Unfaithful she has a fling with a Irishman that she says means nothing and he's all like well fine and then while she's gone he apparently has girlfriends and girlfriends and girlfriends and and just like Revenge cheats on her basically and blames her for his decision so they're both toxic okay like no one's in the right here and Martha recounts this and she even says like you know if someone cheats on you just leave them which is interesting because she cheated first but she said it meant nothing but anyway um that happens that happens and she's releasing her cookbook her debut cookbook All In Color beautiful print and everything is named entertaining so like she's at the Forefront of this okay she got to publish a book that was just called entertaining which is a flex in itself so she does that and it's basically a massive success like overnight and so this is kind of Martha's foray into being like the very first influencer basically so she goes to book signings she inspires people to be beautiful Homemakers to do DIY at your home uh she encourages any woman no matter how much you make you can make a spectacle at home you know and encourages them to be perfect right and you know like that bothers some people like a lot of news outlets even Oprah was saying like isn't this unhealthy to like expect women to be perfect but Martha said like o Contra like sure strive for Perfection why not and so we kind of have like this discourse of like women feeling like too much is expected of them like why would I make an entire gingerbread house from scratch I don't even have time to make gingerbread cookies themselves and now like you're saying that women should strive for this like Perfection but I think that's kind of where like media literacy comes in a little bit like you can appreciate Martha's extreme grandiose displays and then you can also live your life the way you want to and and I think you know from the 60s until now people are kind of getting that right like stuff you see on TV and stuff like that's not real life obviously and you know I think we've kind of come far along with that but let me know what you guys think about that in the comments and so she's on this book tour right and ironically she's on her tour for her new book about weddings like you know how to make the best wedding for your elf and she's amidst this divorce with Andy so not only is this a really emotional time for her but she is terrified what this will do for her business you know here she is saying that you should be perfect and she's getting a divorce while telling people how to have the perfect wedding and it was just like what is going to happen and the answer is absolutely nothing people didn't really care that she was getting divorced they just wanted to sorry my cat just jumped into the washer they didn't really care that she was getting a divorce they wanted to learn how to make grandiose spreads at their home and so Martha recovers she just moves on from that but of course she's very angry writes Andy these scathing letters Watch the documentary Martha on Netflix if you want to hear dramatic readings of those they're very very fun so Martha goes on in her influencer era you know uh but right now in magazines um so at this time like she wasn't the first and only woman to do it you know because there was Betty Crocker I didn't know Betty Crocker was an actual person but she was she was basically just like Martha Stewart except she was the quick and easy gal you know like her box mixes quick mixes throw a can of Campbell's mushroom soup on vegetables and call it a day that was hers and Martha was the polar o opposite right she was aspirational you can be perfect you can do anything make five different turkeys for Thanksgiving make your own wreaths for Christmas make your own ornaments that was that was Martha and we love the drama right so she did very very well um in magazines and such and so now we're in the '90s with the rise of Martha Stewart Living which is a new magazine and it was bought by time right like so they bought into her idea of this living mag magazine because that will never go out of style right everybody lives duh and then we just update it with new things that people can strive to Perfection to be and not only with this new magazine thing she starts going into TV in the 9s which is wild right to mix those two worlds but she did it people were kind of telling her not to because it's like spreading yourself so thin right but actually she pivoted at a very very very very excellent time um to move to TV so based off of her magazine she had Martha Stewart Living TV which was on PBS and did extremely well it was like a DIY type of like you know like Barefoot Contessa like Rachel Ray you know like it's um demonstrative demonstrative like it like they demonstrate like how to cook how to present and all of that like very ASMR like this is what we're doing and this show did amazing and it ran for 17 Seasons so this made her a household name and then a little T tidbit here she started dating again and so she started dating a guy named Charles who actually made Microsoft Word so and they seem to get along because they both weren't super emotional people like she recounts like talking to Charles and they just like go on these lavish vacations together and they wouldn't really talk about how they felt and how they feel about things but things that they're going to do and Charles was extremely accomplished and he wanted to do even more and so did she and so they fed off of that uh from each other like they were both so aspirational that they didn't have the want to to be emotional and so they worked really well together for seven years she builds up this omn media Empire her magazines popping off books she's selling at Kmart household name TV shows just doing amazing just up up up up up but as soon you know the media will build you up but it will tear you down faster so this is kind of where the fall of Martha Stewart comes and it all starts with a phone call she gets a phone call from her friend Sam wael who is a CEO of a company called I'm clone so they were making Pharmaceuticals and they had this one pharmaceutical that they really really believed in and believed could cure a lot of things and you know Martha of course she's in that Circle and invested in that company and she gives him a call on her way to Cabo on vacation and they're kind of chatting and he mentions that the stock is getting lower she calls her stock broker and she's like hey I heard from Sam that the stock is getting low why don't you sell and then he's all like all right so that is what happened and then 6 months later Sam gets arrested by the FBI because you know what Sam did he called his family and told them that his drug was not going to get approved by the FDA and basically the stock was going to plummet so that's called insider trading when you give um you know close family or friends or yourself you have this information before it is fed to the public and then you act on it to beat out the losses but everybody else doesn't they still take the losses so you know they got to save their Millions while other people lost millions and so he was called in by the FBI and unfortunately at this time Martha Stewart claims that you know she didn't know that the FDA wasn't going to approve this she just heard that the stock was going lower so she decided to sell but she sold on the same day as Sam's family Sam from mclone the CEO he attests that he did not give Martha insider trading like he did not tell her to sell she sold off of her own valtion like that that's the CEO coming up for them and you know what the FBI guy said cuz the FBI was just a young guy trying to make a name for himself and he took on this case and he was basically pressuring Sam like if you give us Martha if you just say you told Martha to do that you're scot-free right he wouldn't do it he wouldn't do it he wouldn't say that to the FBI guy the case gets dropped actually so obviously there's entier trading happening but Martha did not get charged and this made the the young hungry FBI guy he was like damn it really no I Martha lied she knew she got that call she knew so there's a bunch of pressure going around and there's character Witnesses called to the stand and now we all know Martha is cold she is Stone Cold and she's not nice she's not nice to people who work for her because she sees them as below her so the FBI guy he just brings in people who worked for her who will roast her so there's this guy who is all like she would scream at it she yelled at us she treated us like nothing and remember that girl who was on the trip going to Cabo with Martha Stewart the day she got that phone call they put her under so much pressure and she testified that Martha said on this trip I'm so glad that I have stock Brokers to call me and let me know what's going on that's all she said and this implied that Martha was given insider trading information and so that's what put the nail in the coffin unfortunately ruin their friendship but Martha doesn't you know say that she hates her or anything which was really really interesting it was just like she was under a lot of pressure which I think is a very empathetic thing to say when she's not very empathetic so I was like hm all right that's really interesting but yeah that's how Martha Stewart goes to jail so she goes to jail for 5 months the news called this the jail that she was going to the news called it Camp cupcake it was just a regular prison though people got jumped people got stabbed and then when in jail Martha Stewart is going to Martha Stewart on her sixth day in jail she got thrown in solitary confinement because she brushed up against an officer's pants while complimenting her top and it was a guard right and so she got called into the office said never ever touch a guard got thrown into solitary right and so she was like great um yeah so she gets out of solitary hates the food there totally unimpressed with everything of course as you will be in prison but of course there's this little greenhouse and so she helps cultivate the garden there and that's kind of where she finds you know her Solace a way to pass the time and she also teaches a course there on um business and she hears all of these women's stories and actually like bonds with them quite a bit there was this one woman who was a Craftsman she said she came across wonderful Crafts People in the prison because you know that's what you're going to do to pass the time you're going to do some crafts and she even leaves prison in a poncho um that was gifted to her by one of the women she was in prison with which is pretty cool so Martha Stewart does her Martha Stewart thing in prison she writes two books apparently and she spends her time um talking with these women cultivating this greenhouse and she has all these big plans and tells the women oh we're going to have cucumber sandwiches we're going to have a feast and they're just like all right so she ALS she comes across as a crazy lady even in prison um but obviously she Charmed her way into like getting gifted a poncho and she makes it out she makes it out of prison and when she gets out of prison it's 2005 and you're like well I mean 5 months isn't that long right and it's not but this her conviction it takes almost three years and this whole entire time the media is beating her down and Martha Stewart Living who's the product Martha Stewart and if everybody hates Martha Stewart people are like oh no we shouldn't invest in Martha Stewart so her stock price just lowers and lowers and lowers she goes to prison and of course can't be CEO anymore because of her conviction she doesn't even have control over her brand anymore once she gets out of prison instead of like the classic like DIY ASMR calm type of feel for her brand she's forced into like the daytime television format like cooking with celebrities and such and it is very opposite of her brand like it's kitschy right like it's it's not what people wanted from Martha Stewart or expected from Martha Stewart but it's a kind of easy way to sell entertaining daytime live television but it wasn't Martha Stewart so her name and relevancy and money it shrinks and shrinks and drinks gets lower and lower and lower until she basically has to sell the company so in Michaels the Martha Stewart products that I saw they might not have any connection to Martha Stewart herself and so you think like oh wow this fall from grace like that's how the cookie crumbles right like that's it but actually no because Martha Stewart doesn't stay down Martha Stewart is going to Martha Stewart okay so she decides well what am I going to do and she obviously had an excellent publicist who was like well you know what you know who's also on their Road to Redemption right now Martha Justin Bieber so Martha story you know what you're going to do you're going to go to Justin Bieber's roast and this is the beginning of her catapult into being a sweetheart for for the young people right so she goes on this roast she's absolutely hilarious because people don't expect this sweet old lady to say such monstrous things she calls someone a dirty hoe she gives Justin Bieber advice onto how to survive prison it's hilarious she actually does excellent right and so she was sitting next to Snoop Dogg as well and they Vibe right they both love creating creation education they both love that and so they actually become business partners and out of this roast comes a beautiful friendship and then the Martha Stewart show with Snoop Dog she starts selling products with CBD she starts educating again and her brand is there again so that is just an amazing end to like what is a tragic and then boom and then tragic story again cuz honestly like I think she got sent to prison unfairly too like that's just classic like people in power just being people in power and pressuring other people around them with Horrible character Witnesses like you don't go to prison just because like you know you're not a nice person obviously Martha Stewart needed to be a nicer person and a better boss but did she do insider trading I'm inclined to believe that there isn't enough evidence for in the court of law for the FBI to send Martha Stewart to jail that is crazy but let me know what do you guys think in the comments should Martha Stewart have gone to jail and then in 2020 we know that she's just thriving she's doing really really well on Instagram as well so she went from Matt modeling stock broking her catering business into this amazing DIY TV show gets sent to prison and then redeems herself and in her 70s takes over Instagram and starts selling CBD products with Snoop Dog like that's incredible honestly and I am just in love with her story and I just think it's an incredible story and I just wanted another light-hearted thing to share with you guys and I really hope that you guys enjoyed this and this puts you in the holiday spirit to go create stuff just like Martha Stewart check out Martha on Netflix amazing and Martha Stewart won't watch this but I love you I think she's awesome I love the documentary she just I loved how it showed her imperfections and you know a lot of that lack of empathy and stuff is what allowed her to be a billionaire and that's crazy so let me know what you guys think in the comments and and you know what also I love you guys okay love you bye