Martha Stewart will have to remain a domestic diva a little while longer.
The home-and-hearth marketing queen, who was due to complete five months of house arrest Aug. 10, has agreed to extend the sentence by three extra weeks, her lawyer, Walter E. Dellinger, said in a brief statement Wednesday.
It wasn’t revealed what Stewart did to earn the extra three weeks of confinement. Dellinger’s assistant, Ann Kienlen, said he would not elaborate beyond his brief announcement.
The chief U.S. probation officer in New York, Chris Stanton, would not confirm or deny the extension of Stewart’s confinement. Stewart’s company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., issued a brief statement saying it “will be so happy to have Martha working without restriction at the end of the month.”
The New York Post reported Sunday that Stewart was seen riding an off-road vehicle on her estate and attended a yoga class nearby. Stanton would not say if those were violations or if they constituted part of her employment.
According to the conditions of her sentence, Stewart must remain inside her home north of New York City except for 48 hours a week of employment, food shopping, doctor appointments and church. And Stewart must always wear a monitoring anklet, about which she has repeatedly complained, saying it irritates her skin.
“I am not allowed to take it off at any time, and I am not allowed, while in my home, to have any padding under the strap,” she once told fans during an Internet chat. “I hope none of you ever has to wear one.”
Stewart’s release from the anklet and home confinement is now set for Aug. 31. Her original five-month confinement sentence followed a five-month prison term for lying about a stock sale.