Sunday, February 01, 2004

The world of celebrity puts priorities in a new perspective.

For instance: the fuss about the bags Martha Stewart was carrying when she entered the courthouse Jan. 20, when her trial began in Manhattan.

Did you ever see so much attention paid to a tote bag or, in this case, two bags?

Not since Imelda Marcos and her shoes have we zeroed in so obsessively on a woman's accessories and her appetite for self-indulgence.

Well, maybe Jackie Kennedy and Nancy Reagan were also overscrutinized, but they weren't on trial -- at least not in criminal court.

How many people would know what those bags cost unless the media had made it a case in point and spotted the small Hermes logo?

Was it a bad move on her part to use the kind of bags she obviously uses in her everyday and privileged life as she arrived for what is undoubtedly the fight of her life?

And with average Joes and Janes watching?

Should she have played the little game of courtroom image-changing and carried something less ostentatious? Maybe even a bag from Kmart?

In other words, should she have tried to pull off the fact she is not all that well off financially and that she does indeed carry "looks-like-leather" handbags, the way many American women do?

"I'm one of you" would have been the message.

Not likely.

Robin Givhan opined in an article in The Washington Post ("Martha's Moneyed Bag Carries Too Much Baggage") that Stewart carrying a bag "surrounded by such a thick cloud of wealth and privilege" was ill-advised since appearances play too important a role in a jury trial.

That's one way to look at it. On the other hand, to pretend to carry a vinyl handbag at this stage, not Hermes leather, would, it seems to me, have qualified her as dishonest, and that could have carried over to her statement denying she sold her stock with insider information from her broker.

Givhan also wrote that the price for a Hermes Birkin bag (there is a waiting list for certain styles; I am not on it) begins at $6,000. Stewart's bag (only the one is identified) is 11 years old.

Truthfully, unless you know what a Hermes label stands for (everything with that designer name is expensive) or if you even recognize a Hermes bag as opposed to a Liz Claiborne, does it matter?

I'm guessing that Stewart's high-heeled boots weren't Keds, but we didn't pick on them. She might even have been wearing an Oscar cashmere coat or sweater, but no, it was that Hermes -- readily recognized in fashion circles -- that stirred the most comment.

On TV's "The View" the day after Stewart's appearance at federal court, her bags were the hot topic of discussion. It was even suggested that she should have somehow disguised them (she's clever that way) or, at the very least, maybe carried a bag from Kmart.

As we know, this is the store that, by selling her taste in towels, sheets and toilet bowl covers, allows average shoppers to imagine they live like Stewart.

Yes, $6,000 is a lot of money to pay for a handbag. She seemed to hold her handbags high as she exited her limo at the courthouse, either showing them off intentionally or being clueless they were going to become more important than her plea of not guilty to charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and securities fraud.

With that looming over one's head, who thinks about changing a handbag?

There aren't many female moguls like Stewart and, like it or not, she has a lot of money, some of it from you and me. High-end shopping is her way of life, except when she is picking mulberries in her garden to decorate a basket she has made from tree sprigs.

I would guess if you went through her closets, you wouldn't find a cheap handbag, or a cheap anything. Maybe nail polish. Well, maybe not.

Remember, she didn't wear little gold-toned Monet earrings for a recent interview with Barbara Walters. She wore small, tasteful earrings and yes, we were told they were diamonds.

I'm not convinced that the Hermes handbags in her closet are a mistake in judgment or even, as has been suggested, callous disregard for the little guy (or gal).

Stewart isn't alone in getting all this attention for what she is wearing far from an awards show red carpet, where we've come to expect it.

Michael Jackson's badge and the medal hung on a ribbon around his neck when he arrived for his meeting with the judge regarding child molestation charges had reporters scurrying to find out just what the jeweled items meant and, of course, how much they cost.

He has always dressed in bizarre fashion.

Did anyone seriously think he would show up wearing khakis and a button-down shirt?

When Kobe Bryant wore no tie for his first meeting with a judge, it also was scrutinized as a bad move. For some, the lack of a tie indicated disrespect for the serious rape charge against him.

We take celebrity-watching seriously, on the red carpet or at the courthouse.

Could a red carpet soon be part of spectacular courtroom cases? Would Joan and Melissa Rivers be there?

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