Add a falling stock price and a little corporate scandal to the list of things IBM and Martha Stewart have in common. Read on.

Both IBM and the queen of clean living saw their respective shares tumble in trading today, as various federal probes made investors jumpy.

Dear Martha felt the pains of a 15 percent drop in the price of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Stewart is expecting a federal criminal indictment to be handed down as a result of her sale of ImClone stock after allegedly receiving insider information.

Knickers

The only time we recall IBM and Stewart running into each other was at the 20th anniversary party for the IBM PC held in San Jose. It seems Stewart had just broken up with a Microsoft vice president and had done so in a messy fashion.

Gossips at the party said the Microsoft VP requested that he and Stewart be sat on opposite ends of the room for the exclusive celebration. Stewart wore white slacks with black undies in retaliation. Only a fashion icon in the midst of great despair would go to such lengths for revenge. ®