Martha Stewart declares that she ‘started this whole category of lifestyle’

Martha Stewart, 72, said Gwyneth Paltrow, 41, with her popular GOOP website and best selling cookbook, is just walking in her footsteps. (AP)

Martha Stewart is THE domestic diva—and don’t you forget it.

Stewart, 72, took a swipe at lifestyle trend setter and actress Gwyneth Paltrow, saying the 41-year-old– with her popular GOOP website and best selling cookbook --is just walking in her footsteps.

“She's a charming, pretty person who has a feeling for lifestyle,” Stewart said on Bloomberg Television Tuesday. “She wants to be a lifestyle arbiter. Fine. Good. I think I started this whole category of lifestyle.”

Paltrow's empire includes cookbooks, the popular GOOP newletter, a proposed restaurant, and a Goop fashion line with top tier designers like Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson and Michael Kors.

Not wanting to seem too petty, Stewart does give Paltrow some credit for her success.

“Gwyneth for example, has a book on the best-seller list. She must be doing something right,” said Stewart, but warned that it must be the real deal for her to succeed.

“But, if she's authentic, all the better – and I certainly hope she is. She really wants to be part of the lifestyle business.”

Stewart doesn’t stop with Paltrow.  She rips into another sector of the lifestyle business: food and lifestyle bloggers, saying:

“Who are these bloggers? They’re not trained editors at Vogue magazine. I mean there are bloggers writing recipes that aren’t tested, that aren’t necessarily very good, or are copies of everything that really good editors have created and done,” she said.

“So bloggers create a kind of popularity, but they are not the experts. And we have to understand that.”