With cameras rolling...
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, June 27, 2005
High Point — With a new version of "The Apprentice" and a live-audience format for her regular television show starting this fall, Martha Stewart appears to have emerged from a difficult year as hot as ever — and with her sense of humor intact.
Speaking to retailers gathered in the Bernhardt showroom — and "Apprentice" cameras rolling — Stewart got a big laugh when she said she was told "two friends" were at the showroom entrance to see her, but found out they were probation officers checking on her whereabouts.
"I'm so happy and relieved that I'm free — well, almost free — to do this appearance," said Stewart, who served time in prison and is still on probation after she was convicted of lying to authorities about a stock trade.
Retailers can count on around 20 million viewers per week seeing products from her collection with Bernhardt this fall on national television, she said.
"We'll be having lots of our furniture on the sets," she said.
Opal Point, the fourth and most eclectic and contemporary introduction yet in the Signature line, will expand the brand's reach, she said. Clean, modernist forms, and casual, coastal-inspired form a truly transitional style that Stewart and Bernhardt are billing as "New Century."
"We're so excited about the furniture we've assembled here," she said. "Homes today are so much more eclectic and interesting, and they're being edited daily. People are redecorating instead of moving."
Stewart also introduced Robin Marino, who just joined Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in the new position of president of merchandising. Previously, she was president of Kate Spade Inc.
Stewart singled out Bernhardt Chairman and CEO Alex Bernhardt Sr. as "a great partner and friend."
Bernhardt said he appreciated Stewart's lighthearted approach to her situation.
"If there was any ice, the way she handled herself certainly broke it," he said.
