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XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN APRIL 07, 2002 19:38:09 ET XXXXX
MARTHA STEWART FIGHTS BACK AFTER BOOK DETAILS 'EMPIRE'; LECTURES AUTHOR: 'YOU COULD HAVE TRIED HARDER'
**Exclusive**
Someone left her cake out in the rain...
Domestic Diva Martha Stewart calls a new unauthorized book about her life "sad" -- and e-mail lectures the author on how he "could have tried a lot harder," the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
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Set for release this week by JOHN WILEY & SONS -- MARTHA INC. rolls, pounds, fries, broils, sautes and peels back the layers of a business tycoon whose net worth is estimated to be over $650 million.
Cupcakes and holiday trinkets from a catalog life are exposed as super stock plays and raw cash obsessions in a work authored by Christopher Byron.
And it all makes Martha steamed.
Although Stewart publicly announced on CNN that she would "never read that book" -- sources reveal that she's privately claimed in an e-mail to the author: I've read it "and I think you could have tried a lot harder. It's pretty sad."
Behind-the-scenes Stewart is said to be consumed.
[MARTHA INC. was at #275 on AMAZON's sales parade late Sunday.]
She is being accused of attempting to use one of her own board members, Naomi Seligman, who also sits on the board of MARTHA INC.'s publisher, to intervene and get the project moved to Stewart's publisher RANDOM HOUSE, "where she could control and dictate the book," claims a source.
Stewart's lawyers have written a threatening letter to WILEY, demanding a complete review before publication.
There are charges this weekend that Byron's upcoming appearance on NBCGE's TODAY show [planned for Wednesday] is nothing short of a rival out looking for blood. [Stewart is a CBSVIACOM star.]
Byron attends, through fly-on-the-wall sources, executive meetings with the most powerful individuals in American business to watch as they try to deal with a woman who emerged from nowhere to overpower them all.
Top insiders go on the record -- and stay on the record.
Family, friends and foes all have supporting roles in this All About Eve 2002 -- where, how much is too much?
And at what price: Fame, fortune and marshmallow meringue?
Impacting...
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Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
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