Martha changes her recipe

By Diane Brady

updated 1:55 p.m. ET May 4, 2005

Martha Stewart's long, dark night of legal woes, prison time, and shattered company finances seems to be nearing an end. On May 2 at the New York Public Library in Manhattan, a svelte and smiling Stewart presided over a lavish presentation to promote her new daily TV show to advertisers.

For a woman still under house arrest for lying to government officials about the circumstances of a stock sale, her mood seemed almost giddy. She showed off her "lucky" gold shoes, adding that she was "wearing something on her ankle which I will not show" -- a reference to the electronic monitor she has to sport for the next few months.

Top talent recruited
Stewart joked about her "difficulties" and living through "you-know-what," prompting further guffaws by noting that this was an "approved event" under the terms of her probation. And she regaled the lunchtime crowd with tales of meeting and entertaining style-challenged reality-show guru Mark Burnett, who is producing both her new daily daytime show, dubbed Martha, and a spin-off version of the prime-time hit The Apprentice.

A one-hour show set to launch Sept. 12, Martha certainly has a wealth of high-powered talent behind it. There's Brit Burnett, a former paratrooper and later a Beverly Hills nanny who made his mark with the Survivor franchise. The show also boasts Emmy Award winner Rob Dauber, best known as a co-producer of the Rosie O'Donnell Show and The Restaurant. A self-professed Martha fan, Dauber lives in New York City with his chocolate Labrador, Scout, and still helps his mother bake cookies "from scratch" every Christmas, he said at the press conference.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced separately on May 2 that Liz Koman, former general sales manager of AMC and WE: Women's Entertainment, would join the company as vice-president for advertising sales at the TV business.

Martha has already been sold in the top 50 U.S. TV markets. It will reach more than 90% of the country through NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution.

'I really like people'
Stewart's vision of the show? Perhaps segments featuring, say, cycling with Robin Williams or sharing a treasured family recipe with Tom Hanks, she offered. Add to that features on young mother/entrepreneurs to help women fulfill their business dreams. There will be Martha scholars -- talented but underprivileged young people whose stories tug at viewers' heartstrings. Who knows? Perhaps one of the scholars will go on to college to become the next Martha Stewart.

Dauber promises that Stewart will also reach out to help the worst cooks in America: "women who want to cook for their families but don't know how."

Stewart herself vowed to project a sunnier persona, expressing the hope that "my sense of humor will come out a bit more." Instead of her traditional pedantic lecturing to a camera, she will chat with a live studio audience -- "I really like people!" -- and take field trips into people's homes.

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