--- title: Orange Is the New Black: If Martha Stewart Joined Litchfield... description: As detailed in Piper Kerman's memoir, the lifestyle mogul almost served time in the real-life prison that inspired the Netflix series canonical: https://time.com/2826711/orange-is-the-new-black-martha-stewart/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-05T17:54:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:14:19.351Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Orange Is the New Black: The Time Martha Stewart Almost Went to Litchfield og:description: As detailed in Piper Kerman's memoir, the lifestyle mogul almost served time in the real-life prison that inspired the Netflix series og:url: https://time.com/2826711/orange-is-the-new-black-martha-stewart/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5456c07cb882ad38/6986965035ba6f4ae8c026f2/martha-stewart-orange-is-the-new-black.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Martha Stewart og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Orange Is the New Black: The Time Martha Stewart Almost Went to Litchfield twitter:description: As detailed in Piper Kerman's memoir, the lifestyle mogul almost served time in the real-life prison that inspired the Netflix series twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5456c07cb882ad38/6986965035ba6f4ae8c026f2/martha-stewart-orange-is-the-new-black.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Orange Is the New Black_: The Time Martha Stewart Almost Went to Litchfield > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 5, 2014 5:54 PM UTC  Martha Stewart Martha StewartPaul Bruinooge—AP  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 5, 2014 5:54 PM UTC Many fans of _Orange Is the New Black_, which returns Friday with its 13-episode second season, know there are a number of differences between Netflix’s breakout hit and Piper Kerman’s original memoir of the same name. One of the more interesting stories left on the cutting room floor of Jenji Kohan’s television adaptation was the time Kerman nearly crossed paths with Martha Stewart, who seemed to be headed to Danbury — the real-life prison _Orange_’s Litchfield is based on —following her insider-trader scandal in the early 2000s. It never actually happened. But what if the show _did_ add a Martha Stewart-like character to the show? The arrival of the queen of all things home living would embody so much of what makes _Orange Is the New Black_ addicting: inmate clashes, critiques of America’s prison system and a look at prisoners’ tumultuous relationship with the outside world. When Martha Stewart was sentenced in 2004 to five months in prison and five months of home confinement, she asked judges to send her to Danbury’s federal correctional institution so that Stewart’s elderly mother could visit her from her home in Connecticut. News of Stewart’s possible arrival was a major event for the women of Danbury, who were “deflated” when she was ultimately sent to a prison in West Virginia. “Everyone had been hoping that against all odds she’d be sent to live with us, either because they believed that her presence would somehow raise all our boats or just for the entertainment value,” Kerman writes in her book. They weren’t the only ones excited. Helicopters frequently flew over the camp during that time, and reporters tried to sneak their way onto the facilities. Kerman says it was no accident that Stewart ultimately didn’t serve her time at the Connecticut prison: She suggests the authorities weren’t thrilled about having such a high-profile inmate with a major media presence inside the prison, and so Danbury went out of its way to keep Stewart’s Connecticut wish from coming true. “The Camp had been ‘closed’ to new inmates since her conviction, allegedly ‘full,’ although we had more empty beds as every week passed,” Kerman writes. It’s easy to imagine the type of trouble Stewart — who told _Vanity Fair_ that her prison nickname was [“M. Diddy”](http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1079743,00.html) — would get into if a fictionalized version of her made it to Litchfield. She might butt heads with prison officers about regulations for decorating her bunk — or maybe she’d have strong feelings about the aesthetics of the holiday pageant. “I imagined Martha Stewart trying to take over Pop’s kitchen,” Kerman writes in the book. “That would be better than Godzilla vs. Mothra.” (Not that Pop’s Netflix equivalent, Galina “Red” Reznikov, played by Kate Mulgrew, needs any more enemies — the show’s second season finds her clashing with old rival and notorious drug-dealer, Yvonne “Vee” Parker, played by Lorraine Toussaint.) Although the _Orange_’s best drama happens entirely inside the prison confines, a few of the first season’s most poignant moments occurred when the outside world got involved — like when Larry (Jason Biggs) goes on a _This American Life_\-esque show to talk about his fiancée’s incarceration and horrifies Piper’s bunk mates by revealing what she really thought about them. _Orange_ was partly about how women find meaning and pride in a system that deprives them of so much freedom and dignity, and a Martha Stewart story would continue to explore the ways inmates’ self-esteems are tested. Kerman writes that some of her fellow prisoners were deeply hurt when an old PEOPLE magazine story about what Stewart could expect from prison quoted a source who called Stewart’s potential new roommates “the scum of the earth.” As for the fun part—who would play Stewart? — the current cast might spark some ideas. In an interview with TIME hitting newsstands this week, Taylor Schilling, who plays Piper, says [noted lover of crafts](http://blog.pinterest.com/post/87603832479/diane-keaton-actress-and-home-decor-enthusiast) Diane Keaton is the latest addition to her list of dream co-stars, and the resemblance [is already there](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22diane+keaton%22+%22martha+stewart%22&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=%5F3qQU-GwCMLJsQTaz4FQ&ved=0CAYQ%5FAUoAQ&biw=1582&bih=896). But there’s also a strong case _against_ creating a Stewart-like character — because _Orange Is the New Black_ already has its fish-out-of-water white lady, Piper. That’s not to say a Stewart character’s struggles would have been identical to Kerman’s or any less interesting, but as _Orange_ creator Jenji Kohan has said, the character of Piper Chapman was [“a trojan horse,”](http://www.npr.org/2013/08/13/211639989/orange-creator-jenji-kohan-piper-was-my-trojan-horse) a way to tell the stories of women of all identities who normally don’t get TV shows made about them. As the second season shifts the focus away from Piper and shares the love with the other inmates, a hypothetical Martha Stewart character, while amusing, might just distract from the real draw of the show: the women who were already there. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2826711/orange-is-the-new-black-martha-stewart/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2826711/orange-is-the-new-black-martha-stewart/"},"headline":"Orange Is the New Black: The Time Martha Stewart Almost Went to Litchfield","datePublished":"2014-06-05T17:54:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:14:19.351Z","description":"As detailed in Piper Kerman's original memoir, the lifestyle mogul almost served time in the real-life prison that inspired the Netflix series","url":"https://time.com/2826711/orange-is-the-new-black-martha-stewart/","keywords":["Television","Books","Orange Is the New Black"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5456c07cb882ad38/6986965035ba6f4ae8c026f2/martha-stewart-orange-is-the-new-black.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5456c07cb882ad38/6986965035ba6f4ae8c026f2/martha-stewart-orange-is-the-new-black.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Martha Stewart","caption":"Martha Stewart","creditText":"Paul Bruinooge—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2826711/orange-is-the-new-black-martha-stewart/","name":"Orange Is the New Black: The Time Martha Stewart Almost Went to Litchfield"}}]}] ```