Martha Stewart builds an estate in CastleVille

Zynga is looking to bring icons to its virtual world as Martha Stewart hosts Easter egg hunt.

Celebrities are finding their way into more than just the use of social media, they are also becoming characters in the games we play too. And one of the latest additions to the gaming world  was announced today when Zynga revealed Wednesday that Martha Stewart will make a guest appearance in the social game CastleVille.

The popular renaissance-period CastleVille has built up a usership of 26 million monthly active users and this is the first celebrity integration for the game. Players will be able to interact with Stewart's avatar and get special in-game rewards for their interactions. 

Stewart already has her own neighboring kingdom, designed to closely resemble her home in Bedford, Conn, including  a Friesian horse, Araucana chickens and black sheep. The Stewart estate is also the largest building ever introduced in CastleVille -- how fitting for the Queen of DIY home design.

With Easter just around the corner, Stewart will host an Easter egg hunt and party in her kingdom. Players are able to then craft a special gazebo and work on crafts such as egg decorating. 

At first glance, this Stewart-Zynga partnership may seem a bit odd, but the designing diva is the perfect icon for the usual audience of world-building social games (women 40-65) and with all the customization and personal touches that those social games provide, it only seems right that Stewart would want more people to get in the habit of creating something that reflects their personality.

Back in May, Lady Gaga worked with Zynga to create GagaVille -- a spin off of FarmVille. And now Madonna is testing the power of Fab.com's divalicious membership base to get more buzz about her new album.

Zynga also partned with Lady Gaga to offer branded virtual goods via Rewardville across ten of its games. Players could log onto RewardVille to redeem zCoins for exclusive limited edition Gaga inspired virtual items for the Zynga game. 

The Stewart kingdom will be inviting players between now and mid-April to visit her estate and interact with her Avatar.

CastleVille is available to play on Zynga.com and Facebook in 16 languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Turkish, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Japanese and Thai.

This new celebrity addition might also help bring more players to the new Zynga Platform that the company has been trying to build buzz around.

This new platform was a move for Zynga to start asserting its independence from Facebook and offer a way for social gamers to communicate and play with other social gamers.

I just can't wait to see what a fabulous Easter Egg Hunt Martha has in store for the villagers of CastleVille -- its sure to be quite a spectacle.