The Martha Phenomenon

As we all know by now -- Martha Stewart was recently released from prison after serving her punishment for her little insider trader fiasco.. Now I need to preface that I'm not a huge fan of Martha.. She represents the stereotypical snobbish-type lifestyle/attitude that I find particularly discouraging.. Regardless of her crimes, it's her attitude I don't like the most..

I watched one of the E! Hollywood Stories on her - and I'll confess that I walked away from watching that she is a bigger flake than I already had her pegged for.. She just grates on my nerves.. Granted, it's E! - and let's face it, they want to sell their show, so I fully understand how they trump up certain facts and mitigate others so that they can get better ratings..

...and papers can sell more advertising...
...and TV can sell more slots...
...radio...
...etc...


So when I wake up to check out the news of the day I see this picture.. "All is well, and this is good..." Almost like she's on some sort of parade, doting on members of the press so she can become yet another coddled product of some twisted public distortion..

She's riding a public relations high right now.. And it's very possible, if not expected/predicated/probable that she will come out of this perfectly cleaned and pressed.. As though she has been completely absolved of any wrong doing because her persona and the masses that follow her believe it's so..

But it's just not Martha - take any celebrity who has been through any portion of a public relations nightmare and spin it successfully into a PR juggernaut..... It's impressive to see it in action.. Irony: hot cocoa, handful of lemons, wearing "an ecru quilted coat and matching knit scarf...."

I don't know what in the hell ecru is - nor does it really bother me that her scarf may or may not be matching her ensemble.. What bothers me is how it was staged, anticipated, and otherwise predicted that something like this would happen once she was released.. After all, there was a count-down by the media: "Martha Stewart will be released from prison 12 hours from now, for a live report let's go to....."

Now hold on a sec.. Can't anyone else see what's going on here?? The nice spin cycle happening?? Remember not so long ago how the press portrayed her as this really evil, manipulative monger?? Now that she's been incarcerated, she's seen the error of her ways and therefore, she's given a clean slate ... to match her ecru quilted coat and matching knit scarf.. (however I don't know if it was HANDWOVEN knit, or machine processed knit.... but who cares....)

So as the Michael Jackson case looms, the Robert Blake case is in the hands of the jury, and the Phil Spector trial due to start later in the year -- we're constantly wrapped in a distorted spin of PR and reverse PR.. When it spins at full-cycle it really takes off.. Otherwise the waves will eventually crush your celebrity and send them to the bottom of the ocean.. (circa Courtney Love, Robert Downey Jr., Mike Tyson, etc.....)