martha stewart
Mere hours after a damning Instagram statement from Barbra Streisand amid piling criticism from a number of figures, including the Ginsburg family, the ceremony that would have honored Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch in the late justice’s name has been canceled.
“The last thing we intended was to offend the family and friends of RBG,” said Julie Opperman, chair of the Opperman Foundation, in a statement on Monday (March 18).
Announced via a press release last week (March 13), this year’s honorees for the foundation’s 2024 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award included Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Martha Stewart, Sylvester Stallone and Michael Milken.
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Swift backlash ensued, with members of the Ginsburg family — including the late justice’s Grammy-winning son James Ginsburg — and former RBG clerk Trevor Morrison calling on the Opperman Foundation to remove her name from the award. “When you think of trying to create a more just society, which of course was Mom’s ultimate goal, those are probably about the last names that would come to mind,” Ginsburg told CNN.
Late Monday afternoon, EGOT winner Barbra Streisand took to her official Instagram page to share a message condemning the choice of this year’s honorees. In a statement reflecting on receiving the honor from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor last year, the Grammy winner wrote, “Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor stand as two of the most respected women role models, and their commitment to democratic values, especially women’s rights, is unequaled.”
She continued, “That’s why I join the Ginsburg family in condemning the choice of honorees this year. I had the privilege of meeting Justice Ginsburg on several occasions, and I strongly doubt she would approve of these awardees.”
Formerly called the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award, the honor — which has previously been bestowed upon Queen Elizabeth II and Diane von Furstenberg — expanded to include men as recipients this year. Musk and Murdoch’s names courted the most controversy due to their values starkly contrasting with RBG’s legacy. As the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court and an ardent protector of women’s rights, Justice Ginsburg symbolizes values that don’t often align with Murdoch’s conservative media empire or Musk’s frequent brushes with anti-Semitism. Ginsburg passed in 2020 at age 87.
In their statement, the foundation said, “Our purpose was only to remember her and to honor her leadership. And, while we believe each of the honorees is worthy of our respect for their leadership and their notable contributions, the Foundation has decided that the planned ceremony in April 2024 will be canceled.”
The ceremony was originally slated to take place at the Library of Congress — which stressed that they were simply a “venue” and otherwise unaffiliated with the award — on April 13.
The RBG Award rollercoaster is just the latest stop on a busy awards season for Streisand. Last month (Feb. 24), she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award from the organization’s 30th annual awards ceremony. Streisand, of course, is also one of the most successful musicians of all time, earning 11 No. 1 albums across six decades on the Billboard 200.
James Ginsburg won the 2021 Grammy Award for best chamber music/small ensemble performance for Contemporary Voices. He boasts three career nominations.
Read Barbra Streisand’s statement below:
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Martha Stewart is one of the most beloved famous figures in the world due to her many business interests as it relates to home goods, cooking, and entertainment. Also known as one of Snoop Dogg‘s best buds, fans of Martha Stewart were alarmed by an X trending topic reading “RIP Martha” but it appears that Stewart is just fine.
On Monday (December 4), the trending topic “RIP Martha” took hold on X, formerly known as Twitter, and it was immediately assumed that it was about Stewart, who turned 82 this year. As a result, fans have been online thanking their lucky stars that the Martha in question was not Ms. Stewart. That said, that hasn’t stopped the mountain of replies we’ve seen so far.
We did some digging and discovered that the Martha folks are sending off to glory is Martha Zolanski, one of the alter-egos of Nicki Minaj and the mother of the Roman Zolanski character. This “funeral” for Martha Zolanski took place in an X Spaces chat, which a portion of can be heard below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Denise Truscello / Getty
It’s been nearly 15 years since Snoop made an appearance on Martha Stewart’s cooking show in 2008 to make mashed potatoes.
The next year, the Doggfather came back to The Martha Stewart Show to make brownies, and he joked with the lifestyle maven about the “most important part” of the recipe.
The chemistry between the legendary rapper and the former fashion model turned lifestyle queen was instant, and they have been paired up in everything from television specials to commercials ever since.
As Stewart is making headlines as the eldest model to grace the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue (and looking good, too) People magazine created a timeline to celebrate our favorite besties.
2008: Snoop and Martha Meet on The Martha Stewart Show
“What an odd couple we were,” Stewart remarked years later during a 2019 NBC News interview about their first meeting. In that same interview, Snoop added that “cooking with Martha just seemed like the right space to be in.”
December 2009: Snoop Comes Back to Bake Brownies
The two joked about a missing ingredient that the audience all seemed to know about. They even made the brownies green for the “environment.”
Over the next couple of years, the rapper would regularly tweet a picture of his infamous appearance on the show including on May 8, 2013 when he added, “Ayo @marthastewart watchu bakn !!”
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