New York ? It probably won’t be as easy as mending a crumbling layer cake with icing, but Martha Stewart can rehabilitate her image if she is willing to own up to her mistakes, experts say.

“She has to show contrition and really apologize to the American public,” said public relations man Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman over the years for such scandal-ridden personalities as hotel magnate Leona Helmsley and boxer Mike Tyson.

Those who specialize in shaping the public personalities of their clients say Stewart needs to soften her image, expose her vulnerable side and give the public a reason to cheer the resurgence of a fallen star.

Stewart’s immediate options may be limited, given her unyielding insistence that she was innocent.

“Fessing up would be the ideal situation, but she shouldn’t do it yet,” advises Seth M. Siegel, co-founder of The Beanstalk Group, a brand licensing agency. “If she does it today, it would look fake.”

But facing a probable prison term of roughly a year, Stewart has time to ponder how to reshape her future and her image, perhaps with a glance at those who have gone before her.

One of the more successful turnaround stories is that of Michael Milken, the junk bond king who served two years in prison after pleading guilty in 1990 to securities crimes.

After learning in prison that he had advanced prostate cancer, he recovered and turned the force of his then half-billion-dollar empire toward philanthropic efforts, including education about prostate cancer.

In 2001, the Milken Foundation in Santa Monica, Calif., gave $27.3 million to charitable causes, according to the Foundation Center.

Martha Stewart exits Manhattan federal court. She met Monday with a probation officer and thanked her supporters.

Seth Taube, a former Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor who is now head of securities litigation for a Newark, N.J., law firm, said some famous felons “disappear into the woodwork and decide celebrity is not worth the cost.”

But for those who thrive more on attention than financial gain, contrition and charity usually buy them forgiveness, Taube said.

“We have a forgiving nation,” Taube said. “Like President Clinton, (Stewart) could admit to mistakes in judgment without admitting a crime. But she needs to show some contrition.”