Report: Martha Has A New Plan

Martha Stewart will seek to lighten her jail term by spending up to 20 hours a week teaching poor women how to start their own businesses, according to Newsweek magazine.

Stewart has offered to work up to 1,000 hours for Women's Venture Fund, a nonprofit organization based in New York, WVF president Maria Otero told the magazine for its June 7 edition.

After meeting privately with Stewart, Otero wrote a three-page letter to U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum about how the domestic doyenne's know-how could benefit underprivileged women, Newsweek said.

"Can you imagine if we had graduates of the Martha Stewart cleaning program bidding for contracts cleaning Hilton Hotels?" Otero told Newsweek.

Robert Morvillo, a lawyer for Stewart, would not confirm the report. "Community service is a form of alternative sentencing. But we're not going to comment beyond that," he told the Daily News for Monday editions.

Stewart and ex-stockbroker Peter Bacanovic were convicted in March of lying about why she sold shares of ImClone Systems stock just before the price plunged.

She is scheduled for sentencing June 17 and could face 10 months to 16 months in prison.