Martha Stewart Bars Local Columnist

By: Brian Orloff Apparently Martha Stewart is keeping so busy while serving her prison sentence that she does not have the time -- or, perhaps, the interest -- in talking to lifestyle columnist Patricia Seremet of The Hartford Courant.

Seremet thought Stewart, now in West Virginia, would like to gab about how she's doing for a home-state audience. Seremet explains in her Jan. 3 column that her request was denied. Twice.

First, Seremet writes, she received a letter from Deborah A. Hickey, the warden at the prison camp in Alderson, W.Va., revealing that Stewart was not interested. Then, Seremet continues, she received another paper, this one signed by Stewart, which denied the request.

To add insult to injury, Stewart had misspelled Seremet's name.