Friday, Baltimore, Maryland

Four years ago this weekend, CBS yanked style maven Martha Stewart’s popular television show off the air following her conviction on lying and stock market shenanigans. Her fall from grace was epic. Complicating her situation was her image as a superior, even haughty persona that made her a woman of great wealth and privilege. Stewart famously went to jail for several months and reports of her time served include offering other women inmates decorating and cooking lessons.

Since that time Martha’s image has essentially been restored. By being open and accessible to the press through media appearance talking candidly about about her experience, she earned the forgiveness of the public. Whether it was her personal sincerity or the counsel of high powered public relations experts, her approach of forthcoming humility rejuvenated Martha’s image. And in this is a lesson for so many other celebrities who go astray.

There have been Hollywood actors, professional athletes and politicians busted for all manner of illegal behavior. And it’s amazing that so few of them learn the lesson of Martha and some few others. Instead we watch the arrogant resistance of tainted celebrities like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the shallow media contrition of repeat offenders Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, and the refusal to accept responsibility by the privileged who believe they are beyond the scope of responsibility.

Why is this rocket science? How sheltered and obtuse are some of the famous, shielded behind agents, managers, attorneys and other handlers who do the dirty work of cleaning up the mess? It is a reminder that a lifestyle of isolation from peers and other truth tellers leads to skewed judgement and the demise of the personality and the soul.

Martha Stewart may still be an egotistical power freak, but she cannot separate herself from the humbling memory of her prison jump suit.