Natsuki Ozawa (小沢 なつき, Ozawa Natsuki^?), born April 19, 1972 in Oizumigakuen, Nerima, Tokyo, Japan is a Japanese actress.

Filmography[link]

• Junk: Shiryō-gari (2000)
• Atashi wa juice (1996)
• Zero Woman (1995 aka "Zero Woman 2") - Rei
• Yamadamura waltz (1988) - Reika Ayakoji
• Hana no Asuka-gumi (1988 TV series) - Miko^[1]
• Bee Bop High School: Koko yotaro march (1987) - Saki

References[link]

External links[link]

• Natsuki Ozawa at the Internet Movie Database

This article about a Japanese actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Elliott Smith
Smith performing in Los Angeles, February 2003.
Background information
Birth name	Steven Paul Smith
Born	(1969-08-06)August 6, 1969 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	October 21, 2003(2003-10-21) (aged 34) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Lo-fi, indie rock, indie folk
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, piano, clarinet, bass guitar, harmonica, drums. Melodica
Years active	1991–2003
Labels	Virgin/Caroline, Cavity Search, Kill Rock Stars, Suicide Squeeze, DreamWorks, ANTI-, Domino
Associated acts	Heatmiser, Quasi, Mary Lou Lord, Pete Krebs, No. 2
Website	sweetadeline.net

Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity. His primary instrument was the guitar, but he was also proficient at piano, clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and harmonica. Smith had a distinctive vocal style characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery"^[1] and use of multi-tracking to create vocal layers, textures, and harmonies.

After playing in the rock band Heatmiser for several years, Smith began his solo career in 1994 with releases on the independent record labels Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars. In 1997 he signed a contract with DreamWorks Records, for which he recorded two albums. Smith rose to mainstream prominence when his song "Miss Misery"—included in the soundtrack for the film Good Will Hunting—was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category in 1998.

Smith suffered from depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction, and these topics often appear in his lyrics. At age 34, he died in Los Angeles, California from two stab wounds to the chest.^[2] The autopsy evidence was inconclusive as to whether the wounds were self-inflicted.^[3] At the time of his death, Smith was working on his sixth studio album, From a Basement on the Hill, which was posthumously released.

Early life[link]

Steven Paul Smith was born at the Clarkson Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, the only child to Gary Smith, a student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Bunny Kay Berryman, an elementary school music teacher. His parents divorced when he was six months old, and Smith moved with his mother to Duncanville, Texas. Much later in his life, Smith got a tattoo of a map of Texas on his upper arm and said, "I didn't get it because I like Texas, kind of the opposite. But I won't forget about it, although I'm tempted to because I don't like it there."^[4]

Smith endured a difficult childhood^[5] and a troubled relationship with his stepfather Charlie Welch.^[6] Later in life, Smith would come to believe that he had been sexually abused by Welch at a young age.^[7] He reflected the impact of this part of his life in the lyrics of "Some Song": "Charlie beat you up week after week, and when you grow up you're going to be a freak."^[6] The name "Charlie" also appeared in the lyrics for "Flowers for Charlie" and "No Confidence Man". The family was a part of the Community of Christ through much of Smith's childhood,^[8] but eventually began attending services at a local Methodist Church. Smith felt that going to church did little for him, except make him "really scared of Hell".^[9] In a 2001 interview, he stated, "I don't necessarily buy into any officially structured version of spirituality. But I have my own version of it".^[10]

At the age of nine, Smith began playing the piano, and at 10 began learning guitar on a small acoustic guitar bought for him by his father.^[11] At this age he also composed an original piano piece, "Fantasy", which won him a prize at an arts festival.^[12] Many of the people on his mother's side of the family were non-professional musicians; his grandfather was a Dixieland drummer and his grandmother sang in a glee club.^[12]

At 14, Smith moved from Texas to Portland, Oregon, to live with his father, who was then working as a psychiatrist, along with his step-mother and two half sisters. It was around this time that Smith first began using drugs, including alcohol, with friends as well as experimenting with recording for the first time, borrowing a four-track recorder.^[12] During high school, Smith played clarinet in the school band and also played guitar, piano and sang in the bands Stranger Than Fiction^[6] and A Murder of Crows,^[13] billed as either Steven Smith or "Johnny Panic".^[14] He graduated from Lincoln High School as a National Merit Scholar.^[15]

After graduation, Smith began calling himself "Elliott", saying that he thought "Steve" sounded too much like a "jock" name, and that "Steven" sounded "too bookish".^[15] According to friends, he had also used the pseudonym "Elliott Stillwater-Rotter" during his time in the band Murder of Crows.^[16] Biographer S. R. Shutt speculates that it was either inspired by Elliott Avenue, a street that Smith had lived on in Portland, or that it was suggested by his then-girlfriend. A junior high acquaintance of Smith speculates that it was so as not to be confused with Steve Smith, the drummer of Journey.^[17]

Career[link]

1991–1993: Heatmiser[link]

Smith graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1991 with a degree in philosophy and political science. "Went straight through in four years," he explained to Under the Radar in 2003. "I guess it proved to myself that I could do something I really didn't want to for four years. Except I did like what I was studying. At the time it seemed like, 'This is your one and only chance to go to college and you had just better do it because some day you might wish that you did.' Plus, the whole reason I applied in the first place was because of my girlfriend, and I had gotten accepted already even though we had broken up before the first day." After he graduated he "worked in a bakery back in Portland with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and legal theory."^[11]

While at Hampshire, Smith formed the band Heatmiser with classmate Neil Gust.^[18] After graduating from Hampshire, the band added drummer Tony Lash and bassist Brandt Peterson and began performing around Portland in 1992. The group released the albums Dead Air (1993) and Cop and Speeder (1994) as well as the Yellow No. 5 EP (1994) on Frontier Records, and were then signed to Virgin Records to release what became their final album, Mic City Sons (1996).

Around this time, Smith and Gust worked a number of odd jobs around Portland, including installing drywall, spreading gravel, transplanting bamboo trees and painting the roof of a warehouse with heat reflective paint. The pair were also on unemployment for some time, which they considered an "artist grant".^[19]

Smith had begun his solo career while still in Heatmiser, and the success of his first two releases created distance and tension with his band.^[19] Heatmiser disbanded prior to Mic City Sons' release, prompting Virgin to put the album out inauspiciously through its independent arm, Caroline Records. A clause in Heatmiser's record contract with Virgin meant that Smith was still bound to it as an individual. The contract was later bought-out by DreamWorks prior to the release of his album, XO.

[edit] 1994: Roman Candle

	"Condor Ave" noicon Sample of Elliott Smith's "Condor Ave" from Roman Candle (1994), reported to have been written when he was around 17 years old,[6] showing Smith's early songwriting style and lo-fi sound.
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His first release, Roman Candle (1994), came about when Smith's girlfriend at the time convinced him to send a tape of "the most recent eight songs that [he’d] recorded on borrowed four-tracks and borrowed guitar" to Cavity Search Records.^[19] Owner Christopher Cooper immediately requested to release the entire album of songs, which surprised Smith, as he was only expecting a deal for a seven-inch record.^[20] Regarding the record, Smith said "I thought my head would be chopped off immediately when it came out because at the time it was so opposite to the grunge thing that was popular... The thing is that album was really well-received, which was a total shock, and it immediately eclipsed [Heatmiser] unfortunately."^[19]

Smith felt his solo songs were not representative of the music Heatmiser was making: "The idea of playing [my music] for people didn't occur to me... because at the time it was the Northwest—Mudhoney and Nirvana—and going out to play an acoustic show was like crawling out on a limb and begging for it to be sawed off." ^[21]

The instrumentation of the recordings was primarily acoustic guitar, occasionally accompanied by brief electric guitar riffs or a small drum set played with brushes. Only the final track, an instrumental titled "Kiwi Maddog 20/20" (a reference to the low-end fortified wine), had full band instrumentation.

One of Smith's first solo performances was at the now-defunct Umbra Penumbra on September 17, 1994. Only three songs from Roman Candle were performed, with the majority of the ten-song set being B-sides, Heatmiser tunes, and unreleased tracks.^[22] Soon after this performance, he was asked to open for Mary Lou Lord on a week-long U.S. tour. Several more short tours followed, and Smith helped her record one of his songs "I Figured You Out", which he once called "a stupid pop song [written] in about a minute" that he discarded for sounding "like the fucking Eagles."^[23] Despite this, Smith continued to perform the song live until his death in 2003.

[edit] 1995–1996: Elliott Smith and Either/Or

	"Pictures of Me" noicon Sample of Elliott Smith's "Pictures of Me" from Either/Or (1997) showing his style of vocal harmony through multi-tracking. The track also showcases the album's expanded instrumentation, with all instruments being played by Smith.
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In 1995, Smith's self-titled album was released on Kill Rock Stars; the record featured a similar style of recording to Roman Candle, but with hints of growth and experimentation. Though the majority of the album was recorded by Smith alone, friend and The Spinanes vocalist Rebecca Gates sang harmony vocals on "St. Ides Heaven", and Heatmiser guitarist Neil Gust played guitar on "Single File". Several songs made reference to drugs, but Smith explained that he used the theme of drugs as a vehicle for conveying dependence rather than the songs being about drugs specifically.^[24] Looking back, Smith felt that the album's pervasive mood gave him "a reputation for being a really dark, depressed person," and said that he later made a conscious move toward more diverse moods in his music.^[25]

Elliott Smith performing live in New York City, 1997.

In 1996, filmmaker Jem Cohen recorded Smith playing acoustic songs for the short film Lucky Three: An Elliott Smith Portrait. Two of these songs would appear on his next album, Either/Or, which was another Kill Rock Stars release. Either/Or came out in 1997 to favorable reviews.^[26] The album found Smith venturing further into full instrumentation, with several songs containing bass guitar, drums, keyboards, and electric guitars, all played by Smith. The album title was derived from the two-volume book of the same name by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, whose works generally deal with themes such as existential despair, angst, death, and God.

By this time, Smith's already-heavy drinking was now being compounded with use of anti-depressants.^[27] At the end of the Either/Or tour, some of his close friends staged an intervention in Chicago,^[27] but it proved ineffective.^[5] Shortly after, he relocated from Portland to Brooklyn.^[28]

1997–1998: "Miss Misery" and the Oscars[link]

In 1996, Smith was tapped by director and fellow Portland resident Gus Van Sant to be a part of the soundtrack to his film, Good Will Hunting. Smith recorded an orchestral version of "Between the Bars" with composer Danny Elfman for the movie. Smith also contributed a new song, "Miss Misery," and three previously-released tracks ("No Name #3", from Roman Candle, and "Angeles" and "Say Yes", from Either/Or). The film was a commercial and critical success, and Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for "Miss Misery". Not eager to step into the limelight, he only agreed to perform the song at the ceremony after the producers informed him that his song would be played live that night—either by him or another musician of their choosing.^[19]

On March 5, 1998, Smith made his network television debut on Late Night With Conan O'Brien performing "Miss Misery" solo on acoustic guitar.^[29] A few days later, wearing a white suit, he played an abridged version of the song at the Oscars, accompanied by the house orchestra. James Horner and Will Jennings won the award that night for best song with "My Heart Will Go On" (sung by Celine Dion) from the film Titanic. Smith did not voice disappointment about not winning the award.^[30]

Smith commented on the surrealism of the Oscars experience: "That's exactly what it was, surreal... I enjoy performing almost as much as I enjoy making up songs in the first place. But the Oscars was a very strange show, where the set was only one song cut down to less than two minutes, and the audience was a lot of people who didn't come to hear me play. I wouldn't want to live in that world, but it was fun to walk around on the moon for a day."^[31]

[edit] 1998–2000: XO and Figure 8

In 1998, after the success of Either/Or and "Miss Misery", Smith signed to a bigger record label, DreamWorks Records. Around the same time, Smith fell into depression, speaking openly of considering suicide,^[27] and on at least one occasion^[5] made a serious attempt at ending his own life.^[32] While in North Carolina, he became severely intoxicated and ran off a cliff. He landed on a tree, which badly impaled him but broke his fall.^[5] When questioned about his suicide attempt, he told an interviewer, "Yeah, I jumped off a cliff, but let's talk about something else."^[28]

Christopher Cooper, head of Cavity Search Records (which released Roman Candle), said about this time in Smith's life: "I talked him out of thinking that he wanted to kill himself numerous times when he was in Portland. I kept telling him that he was a brilliant man, and that life was worth living, and that people loved him."^[27] Pete Krebs also agreed: "In Portland we got the brunt of Elliott's initial depression... Lots of people have stories of their own experiences of staying up with Elliott 'til five in the morning, holding his hand, telling him not to kill himself."^[28]

Smith's first release for DreamWorks was later that year. Titled XO, it was conceived and developed while Smith wrote it out over the winter of 1998, night after night seated at the bar in Luna Lounge, it was produced by the team of Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock. XO also contained some instrumentation from Los Angeles musicians Joey Waronker and Jon Brion. It contained a more full-sounding, baroque pop sound than any of his previous efforts, with songs featuring a horn section, Chamberlins, elaborate string arrangements, and even a drum loop on the song "Independence Day". His familiar double-tracked vocal and acoustic guitar style were still apparent while his somewhat personal lyrical style survived. The song "Waltz #2" even touches upon the abusive tendencies of his stepfather toward himself and his mother with lines like "XO, mom, it's ok, it's alright, nothing's wrong."The album went on to peak at number 104 on the Billboard 200^[33] and number 123 on the UK Album Charts,^[34] while selling 400,000 copies^[35] (more than double that of each of his two Kill Rock Stars releases), becoming the best-selling release of his career.^[36] Smith's backing band during most of this period was the Portland-based group Quasi, consisting of former bandmate Sam Coomes on bass guitar and Coomes's ex-wife Janet Weiss on drums. Quasi also performed as the opening act at many shows on the tour, with Smith sometimes contributing bass guitar, guitar, or backing vocals. On October 17, 1998, Smith appeared on Saturday Night Live and performed "Waltz #2." His backing band for this appearance was John Moen, Jon Brion, Rob Schnapf, and Sam Coomes.

In response to whether the change to a bigger record label would influence his creative control, Smith said, "[S]ometimes people look at major labels as simply money-making machines, they're actually composed of individuals who are real people, and there's a part of them that needs to feel that part of their job is to put out good music."^[37] Smith also claimed in another interview that he never read his reviews for fear that they would interfere with his songwriting.^[38]

	"Son of Sam" noicon Sample of Elliott Smith's "Son of Sam", the first single from Figure 8 (2000) showing Smith's continuing development of a "more sonically detailed"[39] and lush sound.
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Smith relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1999,^[28] taking up residence at a cabin in the Silver Lake section of town.^[40] That fall, his cover of The Beatles' "Because" was featured in the end credits of DreamWorks' Oscar-winning drama American Beauty, and also appeared on the film's soundtrack album.

The final album Smith completed in his lifetime, Figure 8, was released on April 18, 2000. It featured the return of Rothrock, Schnapf, Brion, and Waronker, and was partially recorded at Abbey Road Studios in England, with an obvious Beatles influence in the songwriting and production. The album garnered very favorable reviews,^[41] peaking at number 99 on the Billboard 200^[42] and 37 on the UK Album Charts.^[34] The album garnered praise for its power pop style and complex arrangements, described as creating a "sweeping kaleidoscope of layered instruments and sonic textures."^[39] However, some reviewers felt that Smith's trademark dark and melancholy songwriting had lost some of its subtlety, with one reviewer likening some of the lyrics to "the self-pitying complaints of an adolescent venting in his diary."^[43]

Album art and promotional pictures from the period showed Smith looking cleaned-up and put-together. An extensive tour in promotion of the record ensued, bookended by television appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman. However, Smith's condition began to deteriorate as he had become addicted to heroin either towards the end of or just after the Figure 8 tour.^[5]

2001–2002: Addiction and scrapped recordings[link]

Smith performing in New York City in 2003

Around the time he began recording his final album, Smith began to display signs of paranoia, often believing that a white van followed him wherever he went.^[44] He would have friends drop him off for recording sessions almost a mile away from the studio, and to reach the location he would trudge through hundreds of yards of brush and cliffs. He started telling people that DreamWorks was out to get him: "Not long ago my house was broken into, and songs were stolen off my computer which have wound up in the hands of certain people who work at a certain label. I've also been followed around for months at a time. I wouldn't even want to necessarily say it's the people from that label who are following me around, but it was probably them who broke into my house."^[19] During this period, Smith hardly ate, subsisting primarily on ice cream. He would go for several days without sleeping, and then sleep for an entire day.

A follow-up to Smith's 2000 album was originally planned to happen with Rob Schnapf, but their sessions were abandoned. Smith also began distancing himself from manager Margaret Mittleman, who had handled him since the Roman Candle days.^[5] He finally began recording a new album with only himself and Jon Brion as producers sometime during 2001. The pair had recorded a substantial amount of music for the album, when Brion confronted Smith about his drug and alcohol abuse.^[45] Their friendship promptly ended, and Smith scrapped all of their work up until that point. He later said: "There was even a little more than half of a record done before this new one that I just scrapped because of a blown friendship with someone that made me so depressed I didn't want to hear any of those songs. He was just helping me record the songs and stuff, and then the friendship kind of fell apart all of a sudden one day. It just made it kind of awkward being alone in the car listening to the songs."^[19]

When Brion sent a bill for the abandoned sessions to DreamWorks, executives Lenny Waronker and Luke Wood scheduled a meeting with Smith to determine what went wrong with the sessions. The singer voiced what he believed to be intrusion upon his personal life from the label, as well as poor promotion for the Figure 8 album. The talks proved to be fruitless, and soon after, Smith sent a message to the executives, stating that if they did not release him from his contract, he would take his own life.^[5] In May 2001, Smith set out to re-record the album, mostly on his own, but with some help from David McConnell of Goldenboy. McConnell told Spin that, during this time, Smith would smoke over $1,500 worth of heroin and crack per day, would often talk about suicide, and on numerous occasions tried to give himself an overdose. Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips and Scott McPherson played a few drum tracks, Sam Coomes contributed some bass guitar and backing vocals, but almost every other instrument was recorded by Smith.

One of the few highlights for Smith in 2001 was inclusion of his song "Needle in the Hay" in Wes Anderson's dark comedy The Royal Tenenbaums.^[46] The song plays during a suicide attempt. Smith was originally supposed to contribute a cover of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" for the film, but when he failed to do so in time, Anderson had to use The Mutato Muzika Orchestra's version of the track instead.^[47] Anderson would later say that Smith "was in a bad state" at the time.^[47]

Smith's live performances during 2001 and 2002 were infrequent, typically in the Pacific Northwest or Los Angeles. A review of his December 20, 2001, show at Portland's Crystal Ballroom stated concern over his appearance and performance: his hair was uncharacteristically greasy and long; his face was bearded and gaunt; and during his songs he exhibited alarming signs of "memory-loss and butterfingers".^[48] The crowd would often have to shout out the lyrics (and in some cases, guitar chords) when Smith could not think of them.^[49]

In the first of only three concerts performed in 2002, Smith co-headlined Northwestern University's A&O Ball with Wilco on May 2 in Chicago.^[50] He was onstage for nearly an hour, but failed to complete a single song.^[7] He claimed that his poor performance was due to his left hand having fallen asleep, and told the audience it felt "like having stuff on your hand and you can't get it off."^[7] Smith's performance was reviewed as "undoubtedly one of the worst performances ever by a musician"^[51] and an "excruciating...nightmare".^[52] A reporter for the online magazine Glorious Noise made the statement, "[I]t would not surprise me at all if Elliott Smith ends up dead within a year."^[53]

On November 25, 2002, Smith was involved in a brawl with the Los Angeles Police Department at a Flaming Lips/Beck concert.^[54] Smith later said he was defending a man he thought the police were harassing. Assuming that Smith was homeless, the officers allegedly beat and arrested him and his girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba. The two spent the night in jail. Smith's hand and back were injured in the incident, causing him to cancel a number of shows.^[19] Wayne Coyne, lead singer of The Flaming Lips and a friend of Smith's, stated concern over Smith's appearance and actions, saying that he "saw a guy who had lost control of himself. He was needy, he was grumpy, he was everything you wouldn't want in a person. It's not like when you think of Keith Richards being pleasantly blissed out in the corner."^[55]

[edit] 2003: Reemergence and From a Basement on the Hill

Smith had attempted to go to rehab several times, but found that he was unable to relate to the popular treatments for addicts that use a Twelve-Step Program basis for treatment. "I couldn't do the first step...I couldn't say what you were supposed to say and mean it."^[19] In 2002, Smith went to the Neurotransmitter Restoration Center in Beverly Hills to start a course of treatment for his drug addiction. In one of his final interviews, he spoke about the center, "What they do is an IV treatment where they put a needle in your arm, and you're on a drip bag, but the only thing that's in the drip bag is amino acids and saline solution. I was coming off of a lot of psych meds and other things. I was even on an antipsychotic, although I'm not psychotic."^[19]

Two sold-out solo acoustic concerts at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theater, on January 31 and February 1, 2003 saw Smith attempting to reestablish his credibility as a live performer,^[56] yielding mixed results. Before the show, Smith scrawled "Kali – The Destroyer" (the Hindu goddess associated with time and change) in large block letters with permanent ink on his left arm, which was visible to the crowd during the performance.^[57][58] On several songs he was backed by a stripped-down drum kit played by Robin Peringer (of the band 764-HERO), and on one track, members of opening band Rilo Kiley contributed backing vocals. Smith would play only one more concert in his adopted hometown, three months later at The Derby.

After his 34th birthday on August 6, 2003, he gave up alcohol, caffeine, red meat, refined sugar, and his longtime (sometimes abused) regimen of psychiatric medication.^[5] Director Mike Mills had been working with Smith during his final years and described Smith's troubles and apparent recovery: "I gave the script to him, then he dropped off the face of the earth...he went through his whole crazy time, but by the time I was done with the film, he was making From a Basement on the Hill and I was shocked that he was actually making music."^[59]

	"Shooting Star" noicon Sample of Elliott Smith's "Shooting Star" appearing on the posthumously released From a Basement on the Hill (2004) showing a dissonant passage on distorted guitar, an example of Smith's experimentation with different sounds and a "more noisy" style before he died.
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With things improving for Smith after several troubled years, he began experimenting with noise music and worked on his girlfriend Jennifer Chiba's iMac with the intent of learning how to record with computers, noting that it was the only method with which he was still unfamiliar.^[19] Smith jokingly labeled his experimental way of recording "The California Frown" (a play on the Beach Boys' "California Sound").^[60] He said of the songs, "They're kind of more noisy with the pitch all distorted. Some are more acoustic, but there aren't too many like that. Lately I've just been making up a lot of noise."^[19]

He was also in the process of recording songs for the Thumbsucker soundtrack,^[61] including Big Star's "Thirteen", and Cat Stevens' "Trouble".^[59] In August 2003, Suicide Squeeze Records put out a limited-edition vinyl single for "Pretty (Ugly Before)", a song that Smith had been playing since the Figure 8 tour. Steve Hanft described the last six months of Smith's life as being "like the light at the end of the tunnel" and was convinced that Smith was clean and recovered.^[62]

Death[link]

Smith died on October 21, 2003, at age 34 from two stab wounds to the chest.^[2] At the time of the stabbing, he was at his Lemoyne Street home in Echo Park, California,^[63] where he lived with his girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba. According to Chiba, the two were arguing,^[35] and she locked herself in the bathroom to take a shower.^[64] Chiba heard him scream, and upon opening the door, saw Smith standing with a knife in his chest. She pulled the knife out, after which he collapsed and she called 9-1-1. Smith died in the hospital with the time of death listed as 1:36 p.m. A possible suicide note, written on a Post-it, read, "I'm so sorry—love, Elliott. God forgive me."^[2] The coroner's report had the name Elliott misspelled as "Elliot," however "a coroner's official told TSG that Smith's first name was misspelled in the report," not on the Post-it note.^[2]

While Smith's death was originally reported as a suicide, the official autopsy report released in December 2003 left open the question of possible homicide.^[2]

According to Pitchfork Media, record producer Larry Crane reported on his Tape Op message board that he had planned to help Smith mix his album in mid-November. Crane wrote, "I hadn't talked to Elliott in over a year. His girlfriend, Jennifer, called me [last week] and asked if I'd like to come to L.A. and help mix and finish [Smith's album]. I said yes, of course, and chatted with Elliott for the first time in ages. It seems surreal that he would call me to finish an album and then a week later kill himself. I talked to Jennifer this morning, who was obviously shattered and in tears, and she said, 'I don't understand, he was so healthy.'"^[65]

The coroner's report revealed that no traces of illegal substances or alcohol were found in his system at the time of his death, but did find prescribed levels of antidepressant, anxiolytic and ADHD medications in his system, including Clonazepam, Mirtazapine, Atomoxetine and Amphetamine.^[66] Also, no hesitation wounds were found on Smith, a trait typical of suicide by self infliction.^[35] With his death not being officially declared a suicide, journalist Alyson Camus noted numerous discrepancies and contradictions in the case that suggest foul play.^[67][68][69] However, the authorities do not seem to be investigating the case further.^[70]

Smith's body was cremated.^[71] No public burial site or memorial was ever formally announced.

Reaction[link]

The memorial outside Solutions Audio in Los Angeles, California in August 2006.

Shortly after Smith's death, a fan memorial was initiated outside Solutions Audio (4334 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California), the site at which the cover of the Figure 8 album was shot. Farewell messages to Smith were written on the wall, and flowers, photos, candles, and empty bottles of alcohol mentioned in Smith's songs were left.^[72] Since then, the wall has been repeatedly tagged by gang signs,^[73][74] and, despite having been repainted to its original state in February 2008 and promises from Solutions' owner to maintain the site, the wall became largely covered by unrelated graffiti.^[75][76][77] In August 2011, in honor of Smith's 42nd birthday, members of the music & arts collective FMLY restored the mural, adding a black and white stencil of Smith resembling the photo on the Figure 8 album cover.^[78]

Memorial concerts were held in several cities in the United States and the United Kingdom.^[60] A petition was soon put forth with intent to make part of the Silver Lake area a memorial park in Smith's honor. It received over 10,000 signatures, but no plans to establish the park have been announced.^[60] A memorial plaque located inside Smith's former high school, Lincoln High, was hung in July 2006.^[79] The plaque has the line "I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow," from Smith's song "Waltz #2".

Since Smith's death, many musical acts have paid him tribute. Songs in tribute to, or about Smith have been released by Bright Eyes ("Reinvent The Wheel"), Beck ("Broken Drum" on "Guero"), Pearl Jam ("Can't Keep" on the Live at Benaroya Hall concert album),^[80] Rilo Kiley ("Ripchord" and "It Just Is" on More Adventurous),^[81] Sparta ("Bombs and Us"),^[60] Third Eye Blind ("There's No Hurry To Eternity," originally titled "Elliott Smith," on the Live from Nowhere, Volume 2 compilation),^[82] Ben Folds ("Late" on Songs for Silverman),^[83] Brad Mehldau ("Sky Turning Grey (for Elliott Smith)" on Highway Rider), Rhett Miller ("The Believer" on The Believer),^[84] Earlimart ("Heaven Adores You" on Treble and Tremble),^[85], Joan As Police Woman ("We Don't Own It" on Real Life),^[86] and Pete Yorn ("Bandstand in the Sky" on Nightcrawler, a song jointly dedicated to Jeff Buckley). Several tribute albums have been released since his death, including Christopher O'Riley's Home to Oblivion: An Elliott Smith Tribute.

On July 30, 2004, Jennifer Chiba filed a lawsuit against the Smith family for 15% of his earnings (over $1 million),^[87] claiming that she and Smith lived as "husband and wife",^[88] that the singer pledged to take care of her financially for the rest of her life, and that she worked as his manager and agent from around 2000 until his death.^[89] A state labor commissioner ruled her claim as manager to be invalid, as she had worked as an "unlicensed talent agent" under California's Talent Agencies Act. The case made it to the California appellate court in October 2007, but was defeated 2–1; Chiba could potentially appeal the case to the Supreme Court of California.^[90]

Posthumous releases[link]

From a Basement on the Hill, almost four years in production, was released on October 19, 2004, by ANTI- Records (a part of Epitaph Records). With Smith's family in control of his estate, they chose to bring in Rob Schnapf and Smith's ex-girlfriend Joanna Bolme to sort through the recordings and mix the album. Although Smith had voiced his desire for it to be a double album or a regular album with a bonus disc, it was not clear if it would have been possible for him to release it that way had he completed it.^[19] As completed by Schnapf and Bolme, it was released as a 15-track single album. Many songs from the sessions (later leaked onto the Internet) were not included, such as "True Love", "Abused", "Stickman", and "Suicide Machine" (a reworking of the Figure 8-era unreleased instrumental, "Tiny Time Machine").^[45] There has been unconfirmed speculation that Smith's family made the decision not to include some songs on the record.^[45][91]

Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing, a biography by Benjamin Nugent, was rushed to publication and hit stores shortly after From a Basement on the Hill, barely beyond the first anniversary of the musician's death. Smith's family, as well as Joanna Bolme, Jennifer Chiba, Neil Gust, Sam Coomes, and Janet Weiss, all declined to be interviewed. It contained interviews with Rob Schnapf, David McConnell, and Pete Krebs. The book received mixed reviews, with Publishers Weekly remarking that while "Nugent manages to patch together the major beats of Smith's life, he can offer little meaningful insight."^[92]

On May 8, 2007, a posthumous two-disc compilation album entitled New Moon was released by Kill Rock Stars. The album contained 24 songs recorded by Smith between 1994 and 1997 during his tenure with the label that were not included on albums, as well as a few early versions and previously released B-sides. In the United States, the album debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200, selling about 24,000 copies in its first week.^[93] The record received favorable reviews^[94] and was Metacritic's 15th best-reviewed album of 2007.^[95] A significant portion of the proceeds from album sales are to go to Outside In, a social service agency for low-income adults and homeless youth in Portland, Oregon.^[96]

On October 25, 2007, a book titled Elliott Smith was released by Autumn de Wilde,^[97] which consists of photographs, handwritten lyrics and "revealing talks with Smith's inner circle."^[98] De Wilde was responsible for the Figure 8 sleeve art, making a landmark and de facto Smith memorial of the Solutions Audio mural. A five-song CD featuring previously unreleased live recordings of Smith performing acoustically at Club Largo in Los Angeles was included in the release.

Following the singer's death, the Smith estate licensed his songs for use in a number of film and television projects, such as One Tree Hill, The Girl Next Door, Georgia Rule, and Paranoid Park.

In a March 2009 interview, Larry Crane said that the estate of Elliott Smith was now "defunct" and all rights previously held by the singer are now in the control of "his parents."^[99] Crane went on to say that his parents own the rights to Smith's high school recordings, some of the Heatmiser material, all solo songs recorded up until his 1998 record deal with DreamWorks Records and From a Basement on the Hill.^[99] DreamWorks Records was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2003, and Interscope Records currently "owns all studio and live recording from Jan 1998 to his passing, except for the songs on From a Basement on the Hill."^[99]

In December 2009, Kill Rock Stars announced that it had obtained the rights to re-release Roman Candle and From a Basement on the Hill, originally released by Cavity Search and Anti-, respectively.^[100] Roman Candle will be remastered by Larry Crane.^[100] Along with the press release, Kill Rock Stars posted a previously unreleased track of Smith's, titled "Cecilia/Amanda", as a free download.^[100] Roman Candle and From a Basement on the Hill were re-released on April 6, 2010 in the US.^[101]

A compilation titled An Introduction to... Elliott Smith was released by Domino Records on November 1, 2010 in the UK and Kill Rock Stars on November 2 in the US.

There remain over a hundred unreleased tracks. Many have leaked on the internet.

Musical style and influences[link]

Smith respected and was inspired by many artists and styles, including Big Star,^[102] The Clash,^[12] The Who,^[102] Led Zeppelin,^[102]The Kinks,^[103] Pink Floyd,^[102] Rush,^[102] Elvis Costello,^[104] Television,^[105] Motown and flamenco records,^[12] AC/DC,^[106] Hank Williams,^[12] Scorpions,^[107] and Modest Mouse.^[108] Smith claimed to listen exclusively to selected albums (such as The Marble Index by Nico) for months.^[106] Sean Croghan, a former roommate of Smith's, said that the singer "listened almost exclusively to slow jams" in his senior year at college.^[107] Smith was also known to gain inspiration from novels, religion and philosophy. He liked classic literature, especially Samuel Beckett, T. S. Eliot, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky (and other Russian novelists).^[106]

Smith mentioned his admiration for Bob Dylan in several interviews, citing him as an early musical influence. He once commented: "My father taught me how to play "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right". I love Dylan's words, but even more than that, I love the fact that he loves words."^[10] Smith covered Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece" several times in concert. Smith has also been compared to folk legend Nick Drake, due to his fingerpicking style and vocals. Darryl Cater of Allmusic called references to "the definitive folk loner" Drake, "inevitable",^[109] and Smith's lyrics have been compared to those in Drake's minimalist and haunting final album.^[110]

Smith was a dedicated fan of The Beatles (as well as their solo projects), once noting that he had been listening to them frequently since he was about "four years old"^[111] and also claimed that hearing The White Album was his original inspiration to become a musician.^[106] In 1998, Smith contributed a cover of the Beatles song "Because" to the closing credits and soundtrack of the film American Beauty. Although this was the only Beatles song that Smith ever officially released, he is known to have recorded at least two others ("Revolution" and "I'll Be Back"), and played many songs by both the band and the members' solo projects at live concerts.^[112]

Regarding his songwriting, Smith said:^[113]

Smith said that transitions were his favorite part of songs and that he preferred to write broader, more impressionistic music closer to pop rather than folk music.^[12] Smith compared his songs to stories or dreams, not purely confessional pieces that people could relate to.^[31] When asked about the dark nature of his songwriting and the cult following he was gaining, Smith said he felt it was merely a product of him writing songs that were strongly meaningful to him rather than anything contrived.^[31] Larry Crane, Smith's posthumous archivist, has said that he was surprised at the amount of "recycling of musical ideas" that he has encountered while cataloging the singer's private tapes:^[99] "I found songs recorded in high school reworked 15 years on. Lyrics became more important to him as he became older, and more time was spent working on them."^[99]

Selected discography[link]

References[link]

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links[link]

Find more about Elliott Smith on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote

Official sites

• SweetAdeline.net – Official Elliott Smith website
• Cavity Search Records
• Kill Rock Stars

Others

• Elliott Smith at Allmusic
• Elliott Smith discography at MusicBrainz
• Elliott Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC obituary
• Elliott Smith collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive

Martha Helen Stewart
Stewart at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair party
Born	Martha Helen Kostyra (1941-08-03) August 3, 1941 (age 70) Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Residence	Katonah, New York, Mount Desert Island, Seal Harbor, Maine
Nationality	Polish American
Education	Nutley High School
Alma mater	Barnard College
Occupation	Host of Martha Founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Publisher of Martha Stewart Living
Home town	Nutley, New Jersey
Net worth	US$2,000.000.000.00 million (2011)[1]
Spouse	Andrew Stewart (1961–1989; divorced)
Children	Alexis Stewart (b. 1965)
Relatives	Jude (b. 2011) (granddaughter)
Signature	150px
Website
Official website

Martha Stewart (née Kostyra; August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising, and electronic commerce. She has written numerous bestselling books, is the publisher of the Martha Stewart Living magazine, and her syndicated talk show, Martha, is broadcast throughout the world.

In 2004, Stewart was entangled in the ImClone insider trading affair and there was speculation^[2][3] that the incident would effectively be the end of her media empire.^[4] She began a comeback campaign in 2005^[5] and her company returned to profitability in 2006.^[6] Stewart rejoined the board of directors of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 2011^[7] and became chairman of her namesake company again in 2012.^[8]

Early life[link]

Martha Stewart was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to middle-class Polish American parents, Edward "Eddie" Kostyra (c. 1912 – 1979) and Jadwiga Martha Ruszkowski Kostyra (b. September 16, 1914, Buffalo, New York – d. November 16, 2007, Norwalk, Connecticut).^[9][10] She lived in Jersey City until the age of 3, when her family moved to Nutley.^[11][12] She was raised in Nutley along with her five siblings.^[13] She took the name "Grace" for her confirmation name before graduating from Nutley High School.^[14]

At the age of 15, Stewart was featured in a television commercial for Unilever soap.^[15] Her next brush with fame came in 1961, when she became the occasional babysitter for the children of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees. The Mantles had four boys, all under the age of ten and Merlyn Mantle was overwhelmed. Martha would organize birthday parties and babysit for all four. "They would behave for Martha", declared Martha, and her domestic career thus began.^[16]

Stewart's mother taught her how to cook and sew. Later, she learned the processes of canning and preserving when she visited her grandparents' home in Buffalo, New York. Her father had a passion for gardening, and passed on much of his knowledge and expertise to his daughter. Stewart was also active in many extracurricular activities, such as the school newspaper and the Art Club. During this time, Stewart began a modeling career. She was hired and appeared in several television commercials and magazines, including one of Tareyton's famous "Smokers would rather fight than switch!" cigarette advertisements.

Initially intending to major in chemistry, she switched to art and European History, and later architectural history. It was around this time that she met and later married Andrew Stewart, on July 1, 1961. She left Barnard but continued her moderately successful modeling career, while her husband finished his law degree at Yale Law School. She returned to Barnard a year later, to graduate with a double major^[17] in History and Architectural History. In 1965, her only child, daughter Alexis Stewart, was born.

Career[link]

At this time, Stewart began to hone and develop her business skills.

Andrew and she moved to Westport, Connecticut. They purchased and undertook a restoration of the 1805 farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road that would later become the model for the TV studio of the Martha Stewart Living show. Martha and her husband undertook the entire venture by themselves. During the project, Stewart's panache for restoring and decorating became apparent. In 1976, Stewart started a catering business in her basement with a friend from her modeling days, Norma Collier. The venture quickly became successful, but soured when Collier alleged that Stewart was difficult to work with, and was also taking catering jobs on the side. Stewart soon bought her portion of the business. Stewart was also hired as the manager of a gourmet food store, the Market Basket but after a disagreement with the owners at the mini-mall she was forced out and opened her own store.^[18]

Stewart at the 2010 Time 100 Gala

Andrew had become the president of prominent New York City publisher, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.. In 1977, he was responsible for releasing the English-language edition of The Secret Book of Gnomes series, by Dutch authors Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, which quickly became a blockbuster success and was on The New York Times Best Seller list. He contracted Stewart's company to cater the book release party, where Stewart was introduced to Alan Mirken, head of Crown Publishing Group.^[19]

Mirken was impressed by Stewart's talent and later contacted her to develop a cookbook, featuring recipes and photos from the parties that Stewart hosted. The result was her first book, Entertaining (December 13, 1982),^[20] ghostwritten by Elizabeth Hawes.^[21]

Following Entertaining's success, Stewart released many more books under the Clarkson Potter publishing imprint, including Martha Stewart's Quick Cook (1983), Martha Stewart's Hors D'oeuvres (1984), Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts (1985), Weddings (1987), The Wedding Planner (1988), Martha Stewart's Quick Cook Menus (1988), and Martha Stewart's Christmas (1989), among others. During this time, she also authored dozens of newspaper columns, magazine articles and other pieces on homemaking, and made numerous television appearances on programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live. Andrew and Martha Stewart divorced in 1989.

Later career[link]

In 1990, she also signed with Time Publishing Ventures to develop a new magazine, Martha Stewart Living, for which Stewart would serve as editor-in-chief. The first issue was released in late 1990 with an initial rate base of 250,000. Circulation would peak in 2002 at more than 2 million copies per issue. In 1993, she began a weekly half-hour service program based on her magazine, which was quickly expanded to a full hour, and later to a daily format, with half-hour episodes on weekends. Stewart also became a frequent contributor to CBS's The Early Show, and starred in several prime time holiday specials on the CBS network.

On the cover of the May 1995 issue, New York Magazine declared her "the definitive American woman of our time".

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia[link]

In September 1997, Stewart, with the assistance of business partner Sharon Patrick, was able to secure funding to purchase the various television, print, and merchandising ventures related to the Martha Stewart brand, and consolidate them into a new company, named Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Stewart served as chairwoman, president, and CEO of the new company and Patrick became Chief Operations Officer. By organizing all of the brand's assets under one roof, Stewart felt she could promote synergy and have greater control of the brand's direction through the business's activities. That same month Stewart announced in Martha Stewart Living the launch of a companion website and a catalogue business, called Martha by Mail. The company also has a direct-to-consumer floral business.

On October 19, 1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MSO. The initial public offering was set at $18 per share, and rallied to $38 by the end of trading, making Stewart a billionaire on paper. The stock price slowly went down to $16 per share by February 2002. Stewart was then and continues to be the majority shareholder, with a commanding 96% control of voting power in the company.

Stock trading case and conviction[link]

According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all 3,928 shares of her ImClone Systems stock on December 27, 2001, after receiving material, nonpublic information from Peter Bacanovic, who was Stewart's broker at Merrill Lynch. The day following her sale, the stock value fell 16%.^[22]

In the months that followed, Stewart drew heavy media scrutiny, including a Newsweek cover headlined "Martha's Mess". Notably, on June 25, 2002, CBS anchor Jane Clayson grilled Stewart on the air about ImClone during her regular segment on The Early Show. Stewart continued chopping cabbage and famously quipped, "I just want to focus on my salad".^[23] On October 3, 2002, Stewart resigned her position, held for four months, on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange, following a deal prosecutors had made with Douglas Faneuil, an assistant to Bacanovic.^[24]

On June 4, 2003, Stewart was indicted by the government on nine counts, including charges of securities fraud and obstruction of justice. Stewart voluntarily stepped down as CEO and Chairwoman of MSLO, but stayed on as chief creative officer. She went on trial in January 2004. Prosecutors showed that Bacanovic had ordered his assistant to tell Stewart that the CEO of ImClone, Samuel D. Waksal, was selling all his shares in advance of an adverse Food and Drug Administration ruling. The FDA action was expected to cause ImClone shares to decline.^[25] After a highly publicized five-week jury trial that was the most closely watched of a wave of corporate fraud trials, Stewart was found guilty in March 2004 of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators, and was sentenced in July 2004 to serve a five month term in a federal correctional facility and a two year period of supervised release (to include five months of electronic monitoring).^[25]

Bacanovic and Waksal were also convicted of federal charges and sentenced to prison terms.^[26][27] Stewart also paid a fine of $30,000.^[28]

In August 2006, the SEC announced that it had agreed to settle the related civil case against Stewart. Under the settlement, Stewart agreed to disgorge $58,062 (including interest from the losses she avoided), as well as a civil penalty of three times the loss avoided, or $137,019. She also agreed to a five-year ban from serving as a director, CEO, CFO, or any other officer role responsible for preparing, auditing, or disclosing financial results of any public company.^[29] In June 2008, the UK Border Agency refused to grant her a visa to enter the United Kingdom because of her criminal conviction for obstructing justice. She had been planning to speak at the Royal Academy on fashion and leisure industry matters.^[30]

Incarceration[link]

Federal Prison Camp, Alderson, where Martha Stewart was confined

Stewart wanted to go to prison in Connecticut or Florida. She did not want to serve at Federal Prison Camp, Alderson in West Virginia, due to its remote location; in 2004, her lawyer said that the remoteness would make it difficult for Stewart's then-90 year old mother to visit.^[31] Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum recommended to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that Stewart be given her first choice, Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, or her second choice, Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman.^[32] However, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said that the BOP would not send her to FCI Danbury because the news media could too easily access the facility. The bureau could not send Stewart to FCC Coleman because of complications from Hurricane Ivan; the Coleman complex filled because inmates from Federal Correctional Institution, Marianna were moved to Coleman. Therefore, the Federal Bureau of Prisons assigned Stewart to Alderson. The spokesperson said that he was concerned that the assignment to Alderson could be perceived as being vindictive.^[31] Alexis Stewart said that she believed that the BOP "may have made a point of sending her far away".^[33]

Cedarbaum ordered Stewart to report to her prison sentence before 2 pm on October 8, 2004.^[32] By September 27, 2004, Stewart received the BOP ID 55170-054.^[32][34] At about 6:15 am on October 8, 2004,^[35] she reported to FPC Alderson.^[36] Stewart said that her prison nickname was "M. Diddy".^[37] While in confinement, she took a job and became an informal liaison between the administration and her fellow inmates. The People special, Scandals! That Rocked America, stated "Some expected America's goddess of domestic perfection to fall into terminal despair. Instead, with the drive that would make her a billionaire, Stewart took her lemon of a sentence and made lemonade. Heck, she made a lemon soufflé."^[38] Stewart was released from FPC Alderson at 12:30 am on March 4, 2005.^[39] She was then placed in a two year term of supervised release; during five of those months, she was placed in home confinement with electronic monitoring.^[35][39] Stewart served her home confinement at her residence in Bedford, New York.^[37] She was allowed to leave her house for 48 hours per week for work-related visits.^[40] After her home confinement ended, but while her supervised release continued, she was required to remain employed and not to associate with people with criminal records. In addition, during the supervised release, she was required to receive permission from federal officials if she was going to leave the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.^[41]

Current projects[link]

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (July 2010)

Martha Stewart at the Metropolitan Opera opening in 2008

Following her release from prison in March 2005, Stewart launched a highly publicized comeback, and was once again involved in Martha Stewart Living. Offerings of her company's Martha Stewart Everyday line at Kmart were expanded to include a new line of ready-made home furnishings, and its mass market interior paint line became available at the larger Sears stores. However, the most heavily promoted aspect of her comeback was in television. Stewart returned to daytime television with The Martha Stewart Show and appeared in an adapted version of The Apprentice (called The Apprentice: Martha Stewart). Both shows premiered in September 2005, and both were produced by Mark Burnett. The Martha Stewart Show is currently in its sixth season.

However, New York Magazine reported in 2011 that Martha Stewart Living had only managed to make a profit in one of the previous eight years.^[42] Her prime time Apprentice spin-off received poor ratings, which some attribute to popular dislike for the opportunistic tone of the network's massive promotional campaign and to NBC's slotting the show up against the hit drama Lost. The Apprentice: Martha Stewart was not renewed for a second season.

In October 2005, Stewart also released a new book called The Martha Rules on starting and managing a new business, and a month later her company released Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. In October 2006, Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, a reference book about looking after your house, was published by Clarkson Potter. She also is a regular contributor of cooking, gardening, and crafts segments on NBC's Today show. Stewart's daily talk show was nominated in six categories for the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards in 2006, including Best Host and Best Show.

Stewart in 2008.

MSLO launched a line of houses that carry her name to be built by KB Home, initially in Cary, North Carolina and various other locations nationwide. The first homes, which were inspired by Stewart's homes in New York and Mount Desert Island in Maine, were completed in early 2006. Ultimately 650 homes are planned with prices from low $200,000 to mid-$400,000s. A line of paper-based crafts for EK Success is also in development. In September 2007, she launched an upscale line of homewares for Macy's, which was the largest brand launch in Macy's history. Appearing in commercials for the line, Stewart stated she has designed more than 2,000 items exclusively for Macy's. The line includes bedding, bath, cookware and dinnerware. In addition to television and merchandising, MSLO launched a 24-hour satellite radio channel with Sirius in November 2005, on which Stewart currently hosts a weekly call-in show.

Stewart also made a special appearance on the comedy-drama series, Ugly Betty, in the November 16, 2006 episode "Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral", in which she gave her friend Wilhelmina Slater (played by Vanessa Williams) tips on how to prepare a turkey. Justin Suarez (played by Mark Indelicato) is a fan of Stewart.

In July 2006, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced a multi-year agreement with FLOR, Inc., the eco-friendly manufacturer of high-style modular floor coverings, to manufacture and market a new line of Martha Stewart-branded carpet tiles. The Martha Stewart Floor Designs by FLOR^[43] line debuted in 2007 with the distinctive design and color palette associated with the Martha Stewart brand. The agreement with FLOR was part of the Martha Stewart organization's growing home furnishings program, which includes a wide range of products such as furniture with Bernhardt, wall color with Lowe's, and floor coverings with FLOR.

On September 14, 2007, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced that it inked a partnership with E & J Gallo Winery to produce a wine brand with label "Martha Stewart Vintage" (for sale in 6 cities, January, at $15). 15,000 cases to be sold include: 2006 Sonoma County Chardonnay, 2005 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Sonoma County Merlot (for Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina, Denver, Phoenix, and Portland, Oregon). Martha Stewart also signed a contract with Costco to offer frozen and fresh food (label - Kirkland Signature).^[44]

In July 2008, Craft items under the names "Martha Stewart Celebrate" and "Martha Stewart Create", two divisions of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, premiered in Wal-Mart stores. The deal came about in part due to the closing of more than 600 K-Mart stores in the U.S. In a move from broadcast television to cable, on January 26, 2010, Hallmark Channel and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced a multi-year strategic partnership. The award-winning, popular daytime series, "The Martha Stewart Show" would move to the Hallmark Channel in September 2010. Following the flagship program, Hallmark concluded it would air multi-hour blocks of exclusive MSLO developed programming.^[45] In 2011, she will have a new show titled "Martha Bakes" on the Hallmark Channel.

Stewart will begin her acting debut on the long running NBC legal drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Stewart will play a private school headmaster in an episode titled "Learning Curve," scheduled to air in April 2012.^[46]

In Fall 2012, the TV series 'Cooking School’ is expected to debut on PBS. Each weekly 30 minute episode will cover a cooking technique.^[47] It is based on her book of the same name.^[48]

Personal life[link]

Alexis Stewart(left) and Martha Stewart(right), in September 2008

At age 19, she married Andrew "Andy" Stewart, on July 1, 1961. She left Barnard College for a year after she married but later returned. Her daughter Alexis Stewart was born in 1965. In 1989, Martha and Andrew divorced. Stewart dated Sir Anthony Hopkins, but the relationship was short-lived since she decided to cut it short after seeing The Silence of the Lambs, due to her being unable to avoid associating him with the character of Hannibal Lecter.^[49]

Stewart reportedly dated billionaire Charles Simonyi, who was an early employee of Microsoft and head of their software group, on-and-off for 15 years. She featured footage of him as a space tourist aboard Soyuz on her television show in 2007. They broke up around February 2008.^[50]

Stewart is an avid animal lover. Her pets include champion show Chow Chow dogs, French Bulldogs, Himalayan cats, and Friesian horses, including her dark horse Rutger.^[51] Stewart also created a video^[52] on behalf of fur-bearing animals after being approached by PETA while in jail. Stewart stated, "I used to wear real fur, but, like many others, I had a change of heart when I learned what actually happens to the animals".^[53] Stewart filmed a public service announcement on behalf of the farm animal welfare organization Farm Sanctuary.^[54]

Martha Kostyra, Stewart's mother, died at the age of 93 on November 16, 2007.^[55] Martha Kostyra, also called "Big Martha" by her family, had appeared on Martha Stewart Living numerous times.

Stewart currently resides in Katonah, New York, a hamlet of Bedford, New York. She also maintains a 35,000 square foot residence on Mount Desert Island in Seal Harbor, Maine, known as 'Skylands', the former summer estate of automobile designer and tycoon, Edsel Ford, with gardens designed by renowned landscape architect Jens Jensen (1922).^[56][57]

In an episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it was discovered that Martha Stewart's maternal line has its roots in the Lipka Tatar people of Poland.

Recognition[link]

In 2011, Stewart was inducted the New Jersey Hall of Fame.^[58]

See also[link]

	United States portal
	Biography portal
	Food portal

• Martha (TV series)
• Martha Stewart Living
• Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart, 2003 NBC TV movie
• Martha: Behind Bars, 2005 TV movie

Further reading[link]

• "Mariana Pasternak's 'The Best of Friends'". Good Morning America. ABC News. 16 March 2010. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/mariana-pasternaks-best-friends-martha/story?id=10105063. Retrieved 29 October 2010. 
• Pasternak, Mariana (2010). The Best of Friends: Martha and Me. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-166127-3. 
• Sellers, Patricia (14 November 2005). "Remodeling Martha". Fortune (CNN). http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/11/14/8360708/index.htm. Retrieved 29 October 2010. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martha Stewart

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Martha Stewart

• Official website
• The Martha Blog - Martha Stewart's Official Blog
• Martha Stewart on Twitter

v t e Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Corporate Directors Martha Stewart (founder and majority owner) · Susan Lyne (chief executive officer) · Charles Koppelman (chairman) · Gael Towey (chief creative officer) · James Follo (chief financial officer) Personalities Jennifer Hutt · Marc Morrone · Christine Nagy · Alexis Stewart · Martha Stewart Publications Blueprint · Everyday Food · Kids · Martha Stewart Baby · Martha Stewart Living · Martha Stewart Weddings · Whole Living Television Everyday Food · Martha · Martha Stewart Living · Petkeeping with Marc Morrone Radio Martha Stewart Living Radio (Sirius Satellite Radio) · Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer Merchandising Martha Stewart Everyday · Martha Stewart Signature E-Commerce marthastewart.com · marthastewartflowers.com · marthascards.com Annual Revenue: $209 million USD (FY 2005)[dated info] · Employees: 660 · Stock Symbol: NYSE: MSO · Website: marthastewart.com

7 Year Bitch
7 Year Bitch playing at Seattle Center (1995)
Background information
Origin	Seattle, Washington, USA
Genres	Punk rock
Years active	1988–2002
Labels	C/Z Atlantic Man's Ruin
Past members
Selene Vigil Stefanie Sargent (Deceased) LeeAnn Rose Elizabeth Davis Valerie Agnew Roisin Dunne Lisa Faye Beatty

7 Year Bitch was an American punk rock band from Seattle, Washington that was active for 7 years, between 1990 and 1997. Their career yielded three albums, and was impacted by the deaths of their guitarist Stefanie Sargent and close-friend Mia Zapata of fellow Seattle punks The Gits.^[1]

Biography[link]

Career[link]

7 Year Bitch was formed in 1990 by vocalist Selene Vigil, guitarist Stefanie Sargent, bassist Elizabeth Davis and drummer Valerie Agnew. Vigil, Sargent, and Agnew had been playing together in the Seattle band Barbie's Dream Car when their bassist left for Europe. They subsequently recruited Davis and renamed their band after the movie Seven Year Itch.

At their first concert, the band opened for The Gits, who would prove to have a significant influence on their music. In 1991 the band released the single "Lorna" and signed with C/Z Records. Their first album, Sick 'Em, was released in 1992, but it was overshadowed by Sargent's death on June 27.^[2] Sargent passed out on her back after returning home from a party where she had drunk alcohol and taken a small amount of heroin. She died of asphyxiation when she failed to wake up after throwing up the contents of her stomach.^[3] After a prolonged period of uncertainty, the band decided to continue, recruiting guitarist Roisin Dunne as Sargent's replacement later that year.

In July 1993, longtime friend and Gits frontwoman Mia Zapata was brutally raped and murdered while walking home late at night.^[4] This event, coupled with Sargent's death the previous year, had a profound effect on the group. As a reaction, the band recorded and released their second album ¡Viva Zapata! (1994) in tribute to both of their fallen friends.^[5] Valerie Agnew also became the primary instigator and co-founder of the anti-violence and self-defence organisation Home Alive.^[6][7][8] On April 8, 1994, the band played a benefit show for Rock Against Domestic Violence at the Cameo Theatre on Miami Beach, alongside Babes in Toyland and Jack Off Jill.^[9]

In 1995 the band signed with Atlantic Records, and in 1996 released their third album, Gato Negro.^[10] Following the tour supporting Gato Negro, guitarist Roisin Dunne left, and was replaced by Lisa Faye Beatty, the band's live sound engineer and long-time friend.

Break-up[link]

In early 1997, the band began recording material for what was to be their fourth album. The band moved from Seattle to California, Elizabeth Davis and Valerie Agnew to San Francisco and Selene Vigil to Los Angeles. With the recent departure of their guitarist, Roisin Dunne and the geographical separation between bandmates, Seven Year Bitch's career came to a close after a final tour with San Francisco's Lost Goat.

Aftermath[link]

Following the break-up of 7 Year Bitch, bassist Elizabeth Davis joined the San Francisco-based band Clone, with whom she performed until 2003. In 2005 she helped to form the band Von Iva.^[11] Vocalist Selene Vigil formed a gothic/psychedelic-influenced band by the name of Cistine, in 2000. Roisin Dunne joined the band The Last Goodbye in 2006, and now resides in New York.

Their songs, "The Scratch" and "Icy Blue" were featured in the movie Mad Love with Drew Barrymore and Chris O'Donnell.