In this episode, we talk to OG newspaper columnist Andrea Peyser about Martha Stewart’s candid remarks about her, as revealed in a recent documentary. We explore Peyser's perspective on Stewart's sharp criticism and how Peyser felt during Stewart's legal troubles. Tune in as we analyze the complex dynamic between media figures and the power of their narratives. Click ‘Subscribe’ at the top of the Infamous show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. To connect with Infamous's creative team, plus access behind the scenes content, join the community at Campsidemedia.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What makes Martha Stewart a relevant figure today?
Alright guys, this week's episode is absolutely amazing. Because we're talking to someone from beyond the grave. At least, that's according to Martha Stewart. Vanessa called up Andrea Pizer. The New York Post columnist Martha Stewart recently said she was glad was dead. Except, as you're gonna hear, Andrea's very much alive.
It's an incredible conversation, and we'll be playing that later in the episode. But first, Martha. From Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media, this is Infamous. I'm Natalie Robled.
And I'm Vanessa Grigoriadis.
So unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably seen that Martha Stewart has been back in the news.
Ooh, yes. She tends to come back like every five or ten years. Suddenly, it's all about Martha Stewart. She's really good at staying current.
So America's beloved domestic dominatrix, as some have called her, is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, Martha, that was directed by R.J. Cutler, who also made the September issue about Vogue magazine, among other films.
Yeah, and one of the biggest moments that's coming out of that documentary that R.J. Cutler made is this longstanding feud that Martha Stewart had with a New York Post writer named Andrea Pizer, who's like a very famous OG New York Post lady. And you actually talked to Andrea Pizer, right? I talked to Andrea, and we are going to get to that. But first...
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Chapter 2: What is the feud between Martha Stewart and Andrea Peyser?
Let's just review Martha Stewart and her epic life because it really is sort of epic for those who might not remember all the details.
Yes. So I have been obsessed with Martha, and I've been wanting us to do an episode on her for ages. I just think she is one of the most fascinating figures in our culture. At this point, she's this older woman, but she's managed to stay relevant. She made so much money by commercializing a domestic life, and...
She had one of the most epic downfalls that I think is, you know, we've forgotten about a little bit.
Chapter 3: What are the key moments in Martha Stewart's early life?
Right, right, right. Related to what some would call insider trading. So, I mean, she is 83 years old now, right? So she grew up in Nutley, New Jersey, and her parents had like a million kids. They were Polish. She was the eldest daughter. They were poor. She ate like mustard sandwiches for lunch. She washed her hair in the kitchen sink.
And her father encouraged having an enormous garden so that they could eat from it cheaply, which is what they did. Right. And then she was very, very smart. She actually got a scholarship to go to Bernard, which is right over the George Washington Bridge from New Jersey. And.
Unbelievably enough, 1963 class of Barnard included not only Erica Jong, who wrote Fear of Flying, who's a famous author, Twyla Tharp, the mother of modern dance, Martha Stewart, but also my mother. Amazing. Who was part of this class, which you can just imagine was so interesting. interesting to be in uptown Manhattan in the early 60s when, you know, sort of Mad Men era, right?
Where women were still supposed to be one thing, but they're starting to become something else. Did your mom ever meet Martha? My mom not only met Martha, my mom, who was a day student, who was not allowed to sleep over there or live in the dorms, and neither was Martha. Used to take the bus from New Jersey, like the sad bus to go to college with Martha Stewart.
Over the George Washington Bridge.
Exactly. And then Martha was really pretty. She claims in this documentary that she was one of the coolest girls in Barnard.
In her Bermuda shorts.
I know, which is like, there's no question that the girls from the Upper East Side who are coming there in their Bentleys or like the Twyla Tharps who were pioneering a new way of dance, they did not look at Martha Stewart and think she was cool. But she did meet somebody very young. At 19 years old, she got married. And, you know, wasn't a great marriage, right? But he was very wealthy.
And apparently his family encouraged her to become a stockbroker. So she was a successful stockbroker in her 20s in New York City, which is something I completely forgot.
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Chapter 4: How did Martha Stewart's insider trading scandal unfold?
I mean, the New York Times wrote, In Ms. Stewart's case, the Birkin did little to promote the image of an approachable woman who has struggled up from humble roots. Instead, it cemented an image of her as a pampered fat cat seemingly willing to snatch money from average Joe stockholder.
Right, right, right, right. Which is what everybody thought she did. And I mean, look, in the end, she was convicted.
The Hamburglar was just a mascot, but Jerome Jacobson was the real deal, a McDonald's security chief who almost pulled off the ultimate inside job. On Wondery's podcast, The Big Flop, comedians join host Misha Brown to chronicle pop culture's biggest fails and try to answer the age-old question, who thought this was a good idea? At the time, the McDonald's collab with Monopoly was a genius idea.
Come get a Big Mac and you could go home with a million-dollar prize piece. The only problem? When they picked their head of security, the one guy in charge of protecting those million-dollar pieces, McDonald's drew the wrong card. Comedians Ify Wadiwe and Beth Stelling join Misha to break down what really happened with the McDonald's-Monopoly scandal.
Listen to The Big Flop wherever you get your podcasts.
So Martha Stewart gets sent to prison to a place called Alderson in West Virginia. And it's a minimum security prison for female inmates. But even though it was a minimum security prison, it wasn't a walk in the park.
It wasn't a walk in the park. By the way, at this point, Martha is as big as Beyonce at this point, right? Like, this is a colossal story. She was already a huge icon. And so there's so much information leaking out of prison. She had this roommate named Peanut, but they didn't get along. And then... She's sleeping in the bottom bunk and she actually is sleeping.
She reports that she's sleeping well. She famously got up at four o'clock in the morning her whole life, which is something very successful. People always say, I don't have time to sleep. From prison, she's still writing out all her Christmas cards to everybody because people still did paper Christmas cards and back then.
And she would go and like gather stray dandelions from the concrete cracks of the prison grounds. She would hide condiments in her bra to make little microwaved concoctions out of them. She learned how to crochet. She was showing people how to clean the prison administrator's office. The best way to clean a floor waxer is with turpentine.
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