It’s been a hot minute since we checked in on Martha Stewart for whom 2022 was a year of flying saplings to her farm by private jet, mourning beloved pets and batch cooking dog food with a higher nutritional value than most of what Sleb Safari eats. Martha is nothing if not extra.
Her first loss was her “beautiful and unusual cat”, Princess Peony, who was tragically “mistaken… for an interloper” by her dog siblings who “killed her defenceless little self”. Martha shared the news on Instagram and illustrated it with a picture of her staff digging a really rather large hole for a cat. It was as if they sensed more death.
And so it came to pass that Martha’s peacocks were killed by coyotes - or ran away to join the pack, we cannot be certain what happened as the bodies were never found.
She once more shared her pain on Instagram.
“RIP beautiful BlueBoy. The coyotes came in broad daylight and devoured him and five others including the magnificent White Boy. Any solutions for getting rid of six large and aggressive coyotes who have expensive tastes when it comes to poultry?
“We are no longer allowing the peafowl out of their yard, we are enclosing the top of their large yard with wire fencing etc.”
Read more: Martha Stewart hopes her Sports Illustrated cover at 81 will inspire others
2023 is a different sort of a year altogether for Martha because the 81-year-old has become the oldest person to be on the front cover of Sports Illustrated Swimwear magazine. Putting to one side the pointlessness of swimwear magazines for the male gaze, it is encouraging to see the increasing visibility of older women. TV shows like Grace & Frankie which portray the rich and nuanced lives - and sex lives - of older women are crucial. So too is appropriate casting, where the actors playing mother and daughter aren’t a handful of years apart in age while the father is 20 years their senior.
Martha took to being a swimwear model like a duck to water. Granted, she modelled as a younger woman, was already sharing thirst-trap pictures from her own pool and possesses the attitude that 81’s as good as 71 and better than 61.
In a post on - where else, but - Instagram, Martha shared some of the photos from the shoot and wrote: “My motto has always been: ‘when you’re through changing, you’re through’, so I thought, why not be up for this opportunity of a lifetime?
“I hope this cover inspires you to challenge yourself to try new things, no matter what stage of life you are in. Changing, evolving and being fearless – those are all very good things indeed.”
In one of the pictures she really does have a cracking pair of sunglasses with a white frame and Sleb Safari would dearly love to know where she got them.
Martha also read your comments underneath her post, suggesting she’s had cosmetic surgery and wants you to know “it’s not true”.
“I’ve had absolutely no plastic surgery whatsoever,” she told Vogue. I have very healthy, good hair. I drink green juice every day. I take my vitamins. I eat very healthily. I have very good skin doctors. I’m very careful in the sun. I wear hats and I wear sunblock every single day.”
Green juice? Is that her elixir of youth? If so that's one recipe Sleb Safari would really, really like.
Anne-Marie Duff and Bad Sisters win at the Baftas
Like so many of you Sleb Safari loved Bad Sisters on Apple TV and it’s been great seeing it win award after award.
The latest victory was at the Baftas and included Anne-Marie Duff being honoured as best supporting actress for her performance as Grace, a victim of domestic abuse.
She used her acceptance speech as a rallying call to other people in a controlling relationship.
Describing TV as a “political arena” where you “get to whisper in people’s homes”, she added: “If someone is watching this tonight who has in their life (a person) who is bullying them, who is telling them that who they are is wrong, that what they are isn’t enough – I am telling you now you are everything and please stand up and scream at the top of your lungs.”
- In Northern Ireland there is a 24-hour domestic and sexual abuse helpline for women and men that can be reached on 0808 802 1414
Simon Pegg enjoys 'a real Tom Cruise kind of day'
A rare second appearance in two weeks for Tom Cruise whose ears must have been burning when Simon Pegg was being interviewed by Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Happily, Simon had a brilliant story to tell about Tom and what it’s like being his friend
Simon says he teases Tom “about the things that he can access” and described how once, when they were filming in South Africa, Cruise flew him by helicopter to the coast so he could swim with sharks.
It was, Simon says, “a real Tom Cruise kind of day”.
