Insiders who trade on knowledge of the sort that allows them to take their money out "in time" ARE taking money from others--those who also invested who don't have that advance knowledge. Catching the people who do it to enrich themselves seems a no-brainer--they did something wrong. The tricky part (as discussed above) is whether the fellow in the know who alledgedly told Martha to sell has implicated her in his crime--what exactly did he tell her? "Time to sell" isn't the same as "You have to sell because the bottom is going to drop out of this company the day after tomorrow." She says she had a standing order that if her shares dropped below a certain point, they should be sold. Lots of people have that kind of arrangment (or so it seems--I listen to the Motley Fools on NPR on the weekends, and what I've learned there would support this notion. And BTW--the Gardners like Martha and her company).

Appropriate that Cybill (got it this time!) should play Martha. They both started out modelling and have had quite varied careers from there. Stewart was a stockbroker for a time (hence her understanding of the market and placing orders in advance to sell, etc.), a caterer, writer, television personality, all of that stuff she does now. Cybill has added acting, singing, and writing to her resumé.

As to the anger (that I mentioned above) being a feature in the book and movie about Martha, in the blurb I saw, she was angry about lima beans not being put in place. I could never get angry if someone didn't supply me with lima beans (vile things!) but I can understand her frustration if someone opened too many bottles of wine at once. Anyone priced good French wines lately? ;-) This isn't exactly Martha Dearest.

SRS