Some are born majority shareholders, some achieve majority shareholdership, and some have majority shareholdership thrust upon them.

Add Alexis Stewart to that last group. Last week, the only daughter of sequestered style maven Martha Stewart quietly was named proxy, attorney-in-fact and agent for all of her mother’s shares in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. With the press of an “enter” button somewhere deep within the Securities and Exchange Commission, Alexis went from owning 26,000 shares of her mom’s company to more than 29 million, and now has the power — temporarily, at least — to trade stock.

It seems that from the federal prison in West Virginia where she’s carrying out her five-month sentence, Martha’s not allowed to make trades herself. And in what must be an unusually excruciating aspect of her imprisonment, Martha — quite used to being in control — can’t even tell her daughter what trades to make or not make. Once she’s sprung, of course, the proxy will be revoked and Martha will re-assume her majority stake. At least, that’s what Alexis told her would happen.