MARTHA 'LIVING' AT LAST

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By Keith Naughton

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Martha Stewart is finally getting sprung from her own big house. About Aug. 11, Stewart will end what she calls her "hideous" house arrest at her Bedford, N.Y., estate. On her to-do list: finding a signature version of "You're fired!" for "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart," which debuts in September. One rejected try: "Your ass is grass." She's already filming "The Apprentice" and segments for her daily how-to show, "Martha." And to help boost her magazine, she invited advertisers to visit her in home confinement. Since her house arrest began in March, ad revenues are up 42 percent at Martha Stewart Living, though they're still off by more than half compared with before the ImClone insider-trading scandal. She'll also begin appearing in ads for her new Opal Point line of beds, sofas and dining sets. "It's been a roller-coaster ride," says Alex Bernhardt, whose company makes Stewart's furniture, "but we're on the good part of the ride now."

She's on probation until March 2007, which includes surprise home inspections and requires her to write a "monthly supervision report" detailing, among other things, all expenditures over $500. With all that on her plate, she may not have time to watch Cybill Shepherd's new CBS biopic, "Martha Behind Bars."

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