Spartan cell is new home for Martha Stewart

Just a few hours ago, Martha Stewart was sipping cocktails and nibbling canapes with her socialite friends at Manhattan's exclusive Four Seasons Hotel.

But this afternoon the woman known as America's guru of good taste will arrive at Alderson prison in rural West Virginia to begin a five-month jail term.

The 63-year-old multi-millionaire, convicted of perjury over insider trading earlier this year, will inhabit a grim two-woman cell - a far cry from her mansions in the Hamptons and Connecticut.

Stewart, famed for her decorating tips and adored by millions of American women, will be able to do little with her cheap, steel prison furnishings.

On arrival, prisoner 55170-064 - as Stewart is now known - must give a supervised urine sample and strip naked for a body search, including a procedure known as "squat and

cough". Stewart could have remained free until an appeal is heard but decided to go to prison now and avoid further damaging her troubled commercial empire, which includes magazines, TV shows and a range of household products for K-mart.

She spent her last free days in the Bahamas at the wedding of her friend and publicist, Susan Magrino, who organised last night's party.

Alderson, a low-security prison with 1,000 inmates, is also known as "Camp Cupcake" and has a reputation for better-than-average food. Famous past inmates include blues singer Billie Holiday, Second World War traitor Tokyo Rose and Lynette "Squeaky" Frome, who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

Inmates have intimated that Stewart could face trouble if they see examples of favouritism. The US Bureau of Prisons said its staffing levels were: "Adequate to protect all offenders at that facility."

Stewart says she wants to put the "nightmare" of prison behind her but friends say she has left nothing to chance, reading books on jailbird etiquette and learning meditation.

She is also already using the experience to relaunch her career and has signed a contract for her memoirs about jail life.