Martha Stewart

Age: 66

WHAT SHE DOES
As the founding head (and face) of a food and lifestyle empire, Martha Stewart organizes spice racks, grows heirloom vegetables, transforms flea market furniture with a single coat of paint—and shows others how to do the same. Don’t be fooled by the cake baking and flower arranging, however. Stewart is a shrewd businesswoman who has built a homemaking brand that spans publishing, television, radio, and merchandising—all on the strength of her good taste and even better showmanship. Her signature phrase, “It’s a good thing,” usually delivered with hypnotic calm, is recognized by millions of Americans.

WHERE SHE’S FROM
Though Stewart appears to have spent her early years toddling around the ancestral estate, she had no such silver-spoon beginnings. Born Martha Helen Kostyra, she is the second of six children raised by Polish Catholic parents in the middle-class town of Nutley, New Jersey. She embarked on a modeling career to help pay for college at Barnard, from which she graduated in 1963 with a double major in history and architectural history. After graduating, her new husband, Andrew Stewart, established his law career, and in 1965, Martha gave birth to daughter Alexis. In 1967 she took a job as a stockbroker, excelling until she quit in 1973 and moved to a farmhouse in tony Westport, Connecticut, to focus on domestic life.

By 1975 the 34-year-old Stewart had co-founded a small catering operation in her basement with old friend Norma Collier—but apparently, it was too small for the two of them, and Collier left the partnership on poor terms. Stewart pressed on, penning increasingly popular articles about homemaking for the New York Times and other publications and authoring several best-selling books on the domestic arts. In 1990, she joined forces with Time Warner to launch a namesake magazine, Martha Stewart Living, which was complemented by a television show three years later. In 1997, Stewart bought out her division from Time Warner and launched Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which she took public in 1999.

WHAT SHE’S DONE RIGHT
Stewart didn’t rise to industry prominence with a new idea, but with clever repackaging of old ones. She recognized a dormant interest in homemaking traditions and combined it with a personal taste that resonated among the masses. Since the sensational success of her 1982 cookbook Entertaining, Stewart has steadily extended her influence to all aspects of the home.

WHAT SHE’S DONE WRONG
In 2003 the S.E.C. leveled insider-trading charges against Stewart for the suspiciously well-timed sale of some pharmaceutical stock. Nine months later, she was convicted—not for insider trading, but obstruction of justice for lying to the government about the case. Stewart was sentenced to five months of “hard time” and five months of house arrest, followed by two years of probation; she was fined a total of $225,000 and restricted to limited involvement in any public company for five years. For most people, it would have been a P.R. nightmare. But there was a whiff of Roxie Hart when Stewart emerged from the big house, penitent and clad in a simple crocheted shawl, a gift from a fellow inmate. The “freedom poncho” launched a fashion craze.

WHY SHE'S CONTROVERSIAL
It would be remiss not to mention Stewart’s supposedly, ahem, difficult management style. Her hot temper and low tolerance for error are the stuff of legend. Detractors malign her as cold, ruthless, and irrationally demanding; fans argue that her style would be praised in a successful businessman. Either way, she has become the domestic diva that some of us love to hate—and she’s taken it all the way to the bank. Current estimates place the domestic doyenne’s net worth at $638 million. And that, as Martha would say, is a good thing.

WHERE SHE’S GOING
For now, Martha is still in the penalty box for her obstruction of justice conviction, overseeing things in a strictly unofficial capacity. Come 2011, however, the bar will be lifted, and she will presumably be reinstated as chairwoman and C.E.O. of M.S.L.O. —Elizabeth Gunnison