Domestic goddess Stewart must stay at home, says judge

US domestic diva Martha Stewart’s bid for an early release – or at least to be able to leave home more often for work – was dashed by a US judge who ordered her to serve the full five months of house arrest.

The multi-millionaire had told Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum that serving the rest of her sentence would hamper production of her two TV series – a daytime talk show and The Apprentice.

On her website, Stewart said the electronic monitoring bracelet she must wear during house arrest is “somewhat uncomfortable and irritating”.

The New York judge, in a tersely worded three-page order, rejected Stewart’s request and said she saw “no reason to modify the sentence”.

“Home detention is imposed as an alternative to imprisonment. It is designed to be confining,” the judge wrote.

Stewart, aged 63, was convicted last year of lying to the government about a shares sale. She served five months in prison in West Virginia, then in early March began five months of house arrest at her sprawling Westchester County estate, north of New York City.

The judge declined Stewart’s bid to be allowed to leave home 80 hours per week for business.

Under the original sentence, she is allowed 48 hours a week.

Prosecutors had mocked the bid for a shorter sentence, telling the judge in court papers that “minor inconvenience to one’s ability to star in a television show is an insufficient ground for resentencing”.