Martha Stewart documentary draws backlash from Martha Stewart herself: ‘A bit lazy’

Martha Stewart has notes about the new documentary, “Martha.” The career-spanning film shares unvarnished details about the hospitality maven’s life, including her marriage and time in prison.

In an interview with the New York Times published Oct. 30, Stewart said she “(loves)” the first half of the documentary because it “gets into things that many people don’t know anything about,” specifically calling out an incident in which she kissed another man on her honeymoon.

But she criticized the second half, calling it “a bit lazy.”

“Those last scenes with me looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden? Boy, I told him to get rid of those,” she recalled telling director R.J. Cutler. “And he refused. I hate those last scenes. Hate them.”

Stewart took issue with other aspects of the film’s execution, like the score. She said she told Cutler, “An essential part of the film is that you play rap music.” Instead, she said he played a “lousy classical score.” A song by Stewart’s close friend Snoop Dogg plays over the end credits.

She also focused on the camera angles that made the final cut.

“He had three cameras on me. And he chooses to use the ugliest angle. And I told him, ‘Don’t use that angle! That’s not the nicest angle. You had three cameras. Use the other angle.’ He would not change that,” she said.

She would have liked her two grandchildren to have been mentioned in the documentary.

“There’s not even a mention. And these grandchildren are utterly fantastic,” she said. “My daughter was very against the children being included. But I could have talked about them, and I did.”

Stewart also dwelled on how the documentary approached her five-month stint in prison. “It was not that important,” Stewart said.

In her opinion, the documentary spent “way too much time” on the trial and prison sentence.

“The trial and the actual incarceration was less than two years out of an 83-year life. I considered it a vacation, to tell you the truth,” she said.

Ultimately, though, Stewart endorsed the film, directing audiences on her X page to “be sure to watch.”

She said she understands the film’s reception with audiences might be different than her own reaction.

“So many girls have already told me — young women — that watching it gave them a strength that they didn’t know they had. And that’s the thing I like most about the documentary,” she said.