DIY queen Martha Stewart battles Gwyneth Paltrow
Martha Stewart has taken off the oven mitts and put on the boxing gloves. The 73-year-old is turning up the heat on the new batch of celebrity lifestyle gurus as she battles to maintain her status as the hostess with the mostest, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.
Stewart runs a multimillion dollar empire. For decades, she has been the Queen Bee of do-it-yourself, but now she's defending her crown.
In the September issue of Porter Magazine, Stewart took a not-so-subtle swipe at Gwyneth Paltrow and her lifestyle site called "Goop."
Making no attempt to sugar-coat her criticism, Stewart said, "She just needs to be quiet. She's a movie star. If she were confident in her acting, she wouldn't be trying to be Martha Stewart."
The award-winning actress earned an Oscar and a Golden Globe for "Shakespeare in Love."
Looking to expand her image and become a taste-maker in her own right, Paltrow launched Goop in the fall of 2008.
Like Stewart, she sells products and accessories for the home.
Her mission: "To share all of life's positives."
Stewart's empire of magazines, shows and products towers over Paltrow's -- which is mainly online.
But the web is where "Martha Stewart Living" is looking to expand. After months of layoffs and downsizing, the company is beginning to recover.
"It's interesting timing to hear from Martha right now because her company has had its head down for the last nine months," said Michael Sebastian, reporter for "Advertising Age."
"So she needs to make sure that she can get rid of, or at least squash some of the competition in the digital space because that's where the growth is," added Sebastian.
The "lifestyle" business is booming -- actresses Blake Lively and Reese Witherspoon are also hopping on board.
But Stewart has her own plans for the next generation.
"She has this farm system of what I would call mini-Marthas that they're developing beneath her," Sebastian said. "So just because she might be nearing an age where she would be ready to step aside, it doesn't mean that she's going to cede that ground to somebody else."