Martha Stewart's assistant today testified Martha altered her phone log.

Martha Stewart altered a log of a phone message left by her stockbroker about ImClone Systems stock, then ordered her assistant to change it back, the assistant testified Tuesday.Stewart sat down at the assistant's desk and changed the message from ''Peter Bacanovic thinks ImClone is going to start trading downward'' to ''Peter Bacanovic re ImClone,'' assistant Ann Armstrong testified.

The message referred to a call placed by Bacanovic, Stewart's broker, just before Stewart sold 3,928 shares of ImClone on Dec. 27, 2001. Armstrong said Stewart altered the message on Jan. 31, 2002, just days before she was first interviewed by investigators about the ImClone trade.

But Armstrong said Stewart quickly ordered her to restore the original message. ''She instantly stood up, still standing at my desk, and told me to put it back to the way it was,'' Armstrong said.

This is old news and we think Morvillo will be able to spin this in her favor. Will he say it was a fleeting thought, corrected before she ever met with investigators? We don't know, but by focusing on the correction, rather than the alteration, he may score some points with the jury about Martha's ultimate honesty.