Contains spoilers for Netflix’sMarthaDocumentary
Netflix’s Martha Stewart documentary, simply titledMartha,reveals much about the American icon’s life and work. Now 83, Stewart’s rollercoaster history, which includes a spell of incarceration, is the stuff of legend.In 2005, Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and two years of supervised release after being found guilty of deceiving the stock marketover a stock sale. At the time,Martha Sewart described her jail sentenceas a “horrifying experience,” but now, in the wake ofMartha,she’s changed that view: “Iconsidered it a vacation, to tell the truth.”
Stewart’s original fame and success came from a number of entrepreneurial endeavors,which culminated in her writing numerous bestselling books, publishing her ownMarrtha Stewart Livingmagazine and hosting two syndicated television programs:Martha Stewart Living, which ran from 1993 to 2004, andThe Martha Stewart Show,which ran from 2005 to 2012, following her prison release. Stewart’s celebrity in the 1990s led toNew York Timesmagazine naming her as “the definitive American woman of our time.”
Martha Stewart’s Appearance On Comedy Central’s Justin Bieber Roast Got Her Career Back On Track
Stewart Struck Up A Friendship With Snoop Dogg
Stewart does acknowledge, however, that the road back to success was not an easy one after her incarceration. It was helped in no small measure by afriendship she’d struck up with Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber after interviewing him for her magazinein the first flush of his fame. On her release, Bieber made a point of endorsing her products and participating in her social media campaigns, leveraging his position as a pop star and his influence with millennials and Gen Z, for whom Stewart’s prison record was more badge of honor than setback, to give the Stewart brand a new lease of life.
With her recipes and lifestyle products amplified on the Bieber platform,Stewart was introduced to an entirely new demographic, culminating in her 2015 appearance, at Bieber’s insistence, at the Comedy Central Justin Bieber Roast. The event marked Martha Stewart’s public revival, but more importantly introduced her to another, even unlikelier celebrity, with whom she would strike up a lasting professional and personal bond. Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart found each other that night.
Martha Stewart’s Friendship With Snoop Dogg Started At Justin Bieber’s Roast
Snoop Dogg And Martha Stewart Gelled On Screen
The Dogg/Stewart collaboration was unique and mutually advantageous. They appeared together on various shows, on which their personal chemistry shone through.The partnership formalized into “Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party,“which premiered in 2016. Combining Snoop’s West Coast laid-back persona with Stewart’s ordered approach to cooking turned out to be a masterstroke, and fully completed Stewart’s public rehabilitation. Snoop benefited too, introducing him to an entirely new, mainstream audience that reveled in the pair’s banter and mutual respect, despite their cultural differences.
It’s clear that Martha Stewart’s career bounce-back owes much to Justin Bieber and Snoop Dogg. R.J. Cutler, who directed Netflix’sMartha,fails, in Stewart’s view, to give enough weight to such positive experiences in his documentary, according toNBC News, preferring to concentrate on her period of incarceration.Ever flirtatious, Stewart’s final words to Bieber at his roast perhaps sum up their friendship, when she tells him what he should look for in a girlfriend: “…a playa in the boardroom and a freak in the bedroom. So Justin, my final piece of advice is, call me.”
Martha
Cast
Martha is a candid documentary exploring the life of lifestyle icon Martha Stewart. It chronicles her ascent, dramatic challenges, and triumphant return, providing insight into her personal and professional journey through her own narration.
