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American Morning
New Book Claims There's an Unknown Side to Martha Stewart
Aired April 10, 2002 - 09:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: To say Martha Stewart is her own cottage industry would be a gross understatement. She is a one-woman empire. She has built one of the nation's most successful media and marketing enterprises and is said to be worth some $650 million. But a new book claims there's an unknown side to this lifestyle Martha (ph). Here's CNN's Michael Okwu.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wake up anywhere in America and no doubt you will find her.
MARTHA STEWART: You put a little bit - just like that, right - I thought I die the fabric - two cups of chocolate chips.
OKWU: And yet author Christopher Byron believes Martha Stewart really hasn't been exposed until now.
UNIDENTIFIED: She's done a very good job of telling us what the Martha Stewart brand is. We have nothing to add anything on that front.
OKWU: What Byron adds, in a new unauthorized biography, is a side of Martha few of us have seen up close. He paints a portrait of a woman who is often ruthless and calculating.
UNIDENTIFIED: It's very hard to find people who are self-made millionaires or billionaires, as she was once at one point, who've created a brand around themselves who aren't ruthless.
STEWART: This as an amazing hand tool.
OKWU: This much we already know. America's reigning tastemaker sits atop Omnimedia, an empire of more than 30 businesses.
The road there began in the modest community of Nutley, New Jersey, where Stewart was born. After college, modeling, a stint selling stocks, a catering business in 1976 laid the seeds for the ultimate company. Martha Stewart, the brand is ...
STEWART: Every set of white garden furniture comes with a little touch-up bottle of paint.
OKWU: Well, perfect. Not so the person, says the book. UNIDENTIFIED: Definitely he relishes in the anecdotes that make Martha look like an idiot, that makes Martha look spiteful, that like makes Martha look a cold, inhumane mother, an abusive wife.
OKWU: Celebrities generally avoid this kind of publicity by requiring employees to sign confidentiality agreements.
UNIDENTIFIED: Lady Di, I believe, had them for her staff. Oprah is notorious for having confidentiality agreements for everybody from I'm sure the dog walker on up. Rosie, I believe, has them, and I'm sure Martha has them, too. It doesn't stop a book like this from coming out because, ultimately, these are public figures.
The people who really staff this book are the people who have been burned by Martha. And I don't doubt that there's not enough fodder there to make a rich tale but it's not the whole story.
OKWU: Martha Stewart declined comment on Byron's book but she's deflected criticism in the past.
STEWART: I'm sure there's envy. I'm sure there's misunderstanding.
OKWU: Fact is, she's an easy target and she knows it.
UNIDENTIFIED: When you hear jokes about Martha Stewart you know stenciling a coffin or you know decorating the turnpike or something, it rings true because she has raised domestic arts to this ridiculous level. I mean she is the first person to make jokes about herself.
STEWARTS: But don't just throw away your old credit cards, recycle them. I'm retiling my swimming pool.
OKWU: Michael Okwu, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And joining us now is the author of "Martha, Inc.", Christopher Byron. Thank you for joining us. Welcome.
CHRISTOPHER BYRON, AUTHOR, "MARTHA, INC.": My pleasure. Good to be here.
ZAHN: I think we need to make it clear that Martha Stewart did not, in any way, cooperate with this book. She asked her friends and her business associates not to talk with you. How then can you say that this is the definitive book on Martha Stewart?
BRYON: Oh, look. I haven't said this is the definitive book at all. This is the best available information on this woman from over 100 people we've interview, many on the record, many off the record and the enormous public record of relay from her own hand for over 30 years. Martha Stewart has written a version of her private life, from her own hand, in over 100 columns describing her life as she wants it known to the American people.
And that information plus the information from sources have created what we think is fully rounded portrait of this woman.
ZAHN: You just heard what the business reporters had to say that this isn't the full story. Let's talk about how you put the book together. You said you talked to some sources that - who's names you used and some who talked to you off the record. There are a number of allegations in your book ...
BRYON: There's no allegations.
ZAHN: ... that come from - well, maybe not the nicest things to say about Martha Stewart coming from anonymous sources. It's really easy to take shots at people when Martha can't defend herself. Did you make an attempt to reinforce that information from other sources that would talk to you?
BRYON: Oh, sure. And Paula, let me say something else. I don't think you're going to find in that book an allegation, as you want to put it, about ...
ZAHN: What do you think is the more appropriate word?
BRYON: Well look, I don't care.
ZAHN: (INAUDIBLE) a charge or an allegation ...
BRYON: No. This is just documented facts that we've heard from people. And if there was a fact that we've reported in this book, we have - if it's a negative fact on this woman and it asserts that she said something that was something that she wouldn't want in print, we sourced that in 50 pages of source notes in the back of the book. There's no blindsided quotes in here. There are lots of people who spoke to us off the record and on background. But a large number of people who spoke to us on the record.
And wherever it was - wherever we needed to document something to show an action that she took or state of mind that she took, it's fully sourced to a public record document or an interview. We've been very careful with that.
ZAHN: But is that the case though with all of the anonymous sources. Because basically, as we know in these books, you can say whatever you want, it's really hard when an anonymous source won't give their name out and you're trying to verify what the heck it is they decide to say.
BRYON: This isn't one of these books. This is a business biography of a woman who's probably the most extraordinary businesswoman in American life today. She's taken a business from her kitchen table to the pinnacle of American business, sold it on Wall Street for over a billion dollars and made herself the most successful self-made businesswoman in American history. We felt that it was particularly because of what she's selling in her company. She's not selling magazines. She's not selling cars. She's selling Martha Stewart. Martha Stewart is the brand and the product of Martha Stewart Omnimedia living - living Omnimedia and we felt that it was appropriate to document the product itself, her public life and her private life because that's what her business is built on.
ZAHN: She used to be friend of yours, didn't she?
BRYON: She did. Yeah, I hope she still is.
ZAHN: After read this book, you think she could be a friend of yours?
BRYON: Well sure. I invited her to my book party. I wish she would have come. It would have been a great Martha moment.
ZAHN: Do you feel any sense of guilt about writing this?
BRYON: Of course not. I'm proud of this book. Are you kidding me? This is a fine piece of work for me. I'm very happy with it. And no, no, no, I don't at all. This book evolved because of a column I wrote about her business. It was a highly flattering column. I'm a columnist for a couple of papers in town here. And the publisher read this column, called me and said would you write a book about her. They had seen this column. And I said, sure. I'd be happy to. But let me - I know this lady. She might cooperate. She might not. But let's find out. And she said sure. I've been wanting to do a book for years; I just haven't had the time. We're neighbors. I happen to live near her in Connecticut.
ZAHN: But then there was a falling out and she (INAUDIBLE) ...
BRYON: Well what happened eventually was ...
ZAHN: We only got about 10 seconds left.
BRYON: Yeah. There was a fall out. There was a falling out. And the falling out was based upon; we started asking questions and research that she didn't want answers to in this book. But what my job is to write a book not to write a public relations document for her. She's real good at that herself.
ZAHN: So you would agree this is not the most flattering portrait of Martha Stewart.
BRYON: No, but it's an accurate one.
ZAHN: Mr. Bryon thanks for dropping by.
BRYON: My pleasure.
ZAHN: Appreciate you time this morning.
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