Anyone watching the Martha Stewart movie tonight?
05-19-03, 12:05 PM
#1
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Anyone watching the Martha Stewart movie tonight?
I'm really looking forward to this. I love Cybill Shepherd and she looks like she is really camping it up here.
The TV writer from the Detroit Press (Mike Duffy) gave it a great review:
http://www.freep.com/entertainment/t...9_20030519.htm
The TV writer from the Detroit Press (Mike Duffy) gave it a great review:
http://www.freep.com/entertainment/t...9_20030519.htm
Shepherd cooks in 'Martha Inc.'
May 19, 2003
BY MIKE DUFFY
FREE PRESS TV CRITIC
Sometimes you just know, says Cybill Shepherd.
And when it came to "Martha Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart," Shepherd instantly sensed that she had all the right stuff to portray the controversial lifestyles diva. Well, all the right stuff except an obsessively tidy, neatnik personality.
"I'm a real slob around my house. Martha Stewart would be horrified," Shepherd said, laughing. "But I do love to cook."
Shepherd is cooking, all right.
She delivers a sharp, tart and rambunctiously well-done performance as the fabled domestic dominatrix in "Martha Inc.," which arrives with a colorful satiric edge at 9 tonight on NBC. It's wicked good fun.
"I felt I was the perfect person to play her," says Shepherd, who chatted recently with reporters about Stewart during an NBC teleconference. "We're both blonds, we both started as models and we were both desperate to get out of where we were -- for me it was Memphis, for her it was Nutley, N.J., -- and transform ourselves."
There's another key similarity between Shepherd and Stewart, a powerful, self-made business empress whose reputation has been seriously besmirched by alleged involvement in an insider trading scandal. Both Stewart and Shepherd are familiar with the concept of anger mismanagement.
"There's no secret that Martha's a screamer and she's difficult to work with . . . she doesn't suffer fools gladly," says Shepherd. "I had a problem with rage, too. Especially during 'Moonlighting.' But I went through 10 years of therapy to deal with that rage."
Stewart's temper tantrums and perfectionist nature are definitely in the spotlight during "Martha Inc.," based on Christopher Byron's acclaimed, warts-and-all biography of Stewart.
Early in the film, Stewart snidely rips into one of the staffers on her "Martha Stewart Living" television show.
"Who opened three bottles of red wine? Do you know how much a good bottle of red wine costs?" snaps Shepherd's Stewart. "And for God's sake, who ordered merlot!?"
The stock trading mess, fueled by a Wall Street tabloid celebrity frenzy, has threatened Stewart's business empire -- which includes books, a monthly magazine, the daily TV show and a lucrative merchandising deal with Kmart.
"I think it's horrific the way she's been treated in the press and humiliated," says Shepherd about Stewart's media travails.
"She's a great woman, a genius but with frailties and demons to dance with as we all do," adds Shepherd. "She's a very complicated character and I have a lot of sympathy for her."
Maybe so, but "Martha Inc." sure doesn't do Stewart any favors.
The film is blessed with a fine script by Suzette Couture and the witty, live-wire direction of young Jason Ensler ("Behind the Camera: The Unofficial Story of 'Three's Company' "). It paints Stewart as an arrogant, emotionally frosty woman who never lets other people's feelings get in the way of her obsession with becoming rich and famous.
"The truth is, you will never be happy," says her estranged husband Andy (Tim Matheson) after their marriage shatters. "Because no one and nothing will ever be enough for you. The more you have, the more you need."
The root of Stewart's imperious, short-fuse personality?
"Martha Inc." suggests that her sarcastic, relentlessly domineering father, Eddie Kostyra (Jude Ciccolella, "24"), may have been the parental source of Stewart's emotional make-up.
"She had a difficult childhood and an incredibly demanding father," says Shepherd, who hopes her performance reveals "Martha's vulnerability because she doesn't show that."
There are indeed glimmers of humanity beneath the hard shell exterior of "Martha Inc."
But fortunately it never veers toward the maudlin, hokily sentimental extremes of many TV movies. True to Stewart's tough-cookie essence, "Martha Inc." plays hardball.
"She has a very regal bearing," observes Shepherd. "When I was playing her, I thought of myself as Queen Elizabeth I. 'Off with their heads!' "
So let's toast "Martha Inc." and a rich, tasty performance by Cybill Shepherd. But heavens, no merlot! A haughty, elegantly domineering cabernet should do nicely. Cheers.
May 19, 2003
BY MIKE DUFFY
FREE PRESS TV CRITIC
Sometimes you just know, says Cybill Shepherd.
And when it came to "Martha Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart," Shepherd instantly sensed that she had all the right stuff to portray the controversial lifestyles diva. Well, all the right stuff except an obsessively tidy, neatnik personality.
"I'm a real slob around my house. Martha Stewart would be horrified," Shepherd said, laughing. "But I do love to cook."
Shepherd is cooking, all right.
She delivers a sharp, tart and rambunctiously well-done performance as the fabled domestic dominatrix in "Martha Inc.," which arrives with a colorful satiric edge at 9 tonight on NBC. It's wicked good fun.
"I felt I was the perfect person to play her," says Shepherd, who chatted recently with reporters about Stewart during an NBC teleconference. "We're both blonds, we both started as models and we were both desperate to get out of where we were -- for me it was Memphis, for her it was Nutley, N.J., -- and transform ourselves."
There's another key similarity between Shepherd and Stewart, a powerful, self-made business empress whose reputation has been seriously besmirched by alleged involvement in an insider trading scandal. Both Stewart and Shepherd are familiar with the concept of anger mismanagement.
"There's no secret that Martha's a screamer and she's difficult to work with . . . she doesn't suffer fools gladly," says Shepherd. "I had a problem with rage, too. Especially during 'Moonlighting.' But I went through 10 years of therapy to deal with that rage."
Stewart's temper tantrums and perfectionist nature are definitely in the spotlight during "Martha Inc.," based on Christopher Byron's acclaimed, warts-and-all biography of Stewart.
Early in the film, Stewart snidely rips into one of the staffers on her "Martha Stewart Living" television show.
"Who opened three bottles of red wine? Do you know how much a good bottle of red wine costs?" snaps Shepherd's Stewart. "And for God's sake, who ordered merlot!?"
The stock trading mess, fueled by a Wall Street tabloid celebrity frenzy, has threatened Stewart's business empire -- which includes books, a monthly magazine, the daily TV show and a lucrative merchandising deal with Kmart.
"I think it's horrific the way she's been treated in the press and humiliated," says Shepherd about Stewart's media travails.
"She's a great woman, a genius but with frailties and demons to dance with as we all do," adds Shepherd. "She's a very complicated character and I have a lot of sympathy for her."
Maybe so, but "Martha Inc." sure doesn't do Stewart any favors.
The film is blessed with a fine script by Suzette Couture and the witty, live-wire direction of young Jason Ensler ("Behind the Camera: The Unofficial Story of 'Three's Company' "). It paints Stewart as an arrogant, emotionally frosty woman who never lets other people's feelings get in the way of her obsession with becoming rich and famous.
"The truth is, you will never be happy," says her estranged husband Andy (Tim Matheson) after their marriage shatters. "Because no one and nothing will ever be enough for you. The more you have, the more you need."
The root of Stewart's imperious, short-fuse personality?
"Martha Inc." suggests that her sarcastic, relentlessly domineering father, Eddie Kostyra (Jude Ciccolella, "24"), may have been the parental source of Stewart's emotional make-up.
"She had a difficult childhood and an incredibly demanding father," says Shepherd, who hopes her performance reveals "Martha's vulnerability because she doesn't show that."
There are indeed glimmers of humanity beneath the hard shell exterior of "Martha Inc."
But fortunately it never veers toward the maudlin, hokily sentimental extremes of many TV movies. True to Stewart's tough-cookie essence, "Martha Inc." plays hardball.
"She has a very regal bearing," observes Shepherd. "When I was playing her, I thought of myself as Queen Elizabeth I. 'Off with their heads!' "
So let's toast "Martha Inc." and a rich, tasty performance by Cybill Shepherd. But heavens, no merlot! A haughty, elegantly domineering cabernet should do nicely. Cheers.
05-19-03, 02:38 PM
#4
DVD Talk Legend
I am so glad this is on tonight... so I can stop seeing the constant ads for it. 
I'm sure the show will have a sort of 'Mommy Dearest' camp value to it, but I'm not interested.
I'm sure the show will have a sort of 'Mommy Dearest' camp value to it, but I'm not interested.
05-19-03, 04:40 PM
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Isn't Cybil Shepherd basically playing her life story as well??..
I remember reading at nauseum in the 80's how she and Bruce Willis faught all the time on Moonlighting
Ps It's nice to see her back on tv though I loved that sitcom she did with Christine Baranski it was very funny
I remember reading at nauseum in the 80's how she and Bruce Willis faught all the time on Moonlighting
Ps It's nice to see her back on tv though I loved that sitcom she did with Christine Baranski it was very funny
Last edited by shanester; 05-19-03 at 04:43 PM.
05-19-03, 09:57 PM
#10
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i actually caught the last half of this....flipping through and i just couldn't turn away....kind of like a train wreck. Shepherd was great though....man, what a bitch! 
05-20-03, 03:38 AM
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I take it that this was an unauthorized movie? I say that because I started to watch the show from the beginning because I thought it looked pretty good from the countless promos that have aired over the past month. BUt after the first ten minutes I realized that a lot of this movie was going to be fabrication and speculation. Case in point, when the film started and she pulled up outside an office building that contained the set for her show. Which wasn't accurate since her show is filmed on a specially made set in one of her homes. Plus there were some other occurances they recreated incorrectly. Like the reporter asking her about her legal troubles during a cooking segment.
05-20-03, 10:35 AM
#12
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I also saw the second half to this. Very interesting. I had read the review of it from the Chicago Tribune before I saw it, so I knew it was going to be a hatchet job.
Still though, she was very smart in how she marketed her name. I have no strong feelings one way or the other towards her, and when I am at K-Mart I associate her brand with quality (though I don't go out of my way to buy her stuff).
Still though, she was very smart in how she marketed her name. I have no strong feelings one way or the other towards her, and when I am at K-Mart I associate her brand with quality (though I don't go out of my way to buy her stuff).
05-20-03, 12:58 PM
#13
I watched it out of sheer curiostity, since I never seen any of her show, or knew much about her work outside of that I've seen her show in TV listings and seen her magazine in stores. Oh, and from jokes on late night talk shows. It was all right for viewing once, but I wouldn't compare it to Mommy Dearest. That's a better movie.
I did catch a curiosity, and wondered if anybody else noticed. I saw that Adam Cohen provided original music for the movie, and Adam Cohen is the son of Leonard Cohen. I found that rather interesting for some reason, much in the same way I found it interesting that Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, City of Lost Children, and many other movies) scored the music for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
And I also wondered why they couldn't use actual sound clips of Leno's jokes about Martha in the movie, since it was made by NBC. The impersonator they had doing the voice clips sucked.
I did catch a curiosity, and wondered if anybody else noticed. I saw that Adam Cohen provided original music for the movie, and Adam Cohen is the son of Leonard Cohen. I found that rather interesting for some reason, much in the same way I found it interesting that Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, City of Lost Children, and many other movies) scored the music for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
And I also wondered why they couldn't use actual sound clips of Leno's jokes about Martha in the movie, since it was made by NBC. The impersonator they had doing the voice clips sucked.
05-20-03, 04:42 PM
#14
DVD Talk Legend
Watched the movie earlier while waiting for 24. It was pretty cheesy, but it was okay. She definitely comes off as a bit of a control freak, but it got her to where she is today. If this story was about a man, it would have never made it to TV (probably because many powerful men are control freaks, have their wives leave them, are ruthless in business, etc).
05-20-03, 05:02 PM
#15
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
I thought it was fun. Cybill was really good. I've seen her on the talk show circuit promoting this movie, and she seems to take great pains to point out that she admires Martha and feels sorry for her somewhat. I think that came through the movie. Even though she was a diva, you do sort of admire what she accomplished.
