NEW YORK - US tycoon Donald Trump, who will produce a television show starring Martha Stewart, said Sunday that the home trendsetter was "hotter than ever" after serving prison time for lying about a share deal.
Stewart was released Friday after spending five months in a minimum security prison and has already lined up two television shows, including a knock-off of Trump`s popular "The Apprentice" reality show.
Trump told Fox News television his fellow tycoon had been on the receiving end of a "tough punishment".
"She made a mistake," he added. "But she went in, she served her time, and she comes out hotter than ever before."
"I think she`s bigger than ever before," he said. "She`s got star power. She`s got a magic to her."
NBC television announced in February -- while Stewart was still in jail -- that she would star in "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart". Trump will be one of the executive producers.
In Trump`s show, men and women compete in a series of challenges for a job in Trump`s business empire. The tycoon eliminates the contestants one by one with his famous catch phrase: "You`re fired."
Stewart, 63, will also star in a show focusing on the cooking, entertaining, decorating and home renovation on which she has built her fortune.
In the meantime, she will serve five months home confinement at her 62-hectare (163-acre) country estate in Bedford, north of New York.
Stewart, founder of the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia empire, will have to wear an electronic bracelet on her ankle so her movements can be monitored. But she will be able to leave for 48 hours a week to shop, work or run other errands.
She was convicted 12 months ago of lying to federal agents investigating the sale of nearly 4,000 shares in biotechnology company ImClone Systems. She began serving her sentence in October.
03/06/2005 16:38 GMT