Wal-Mart couple talks in L.A.

Julie Roehm and Sean Womack actually kept a speaking engagement in Hollywood yesterday - and Roehm even addressed the brouhaha over Wal-Mart's countersuit to her suit, in which she and Womack are accused of having an adulterous affair (see earlier post). In a five-minute video interview with MediaPost's Laurie Petersen, they mostly rambled about the marketing consultancy they were forming. But finally, Petersen asked about the, er, situation and Roehm - far too talkative for her own good - took a crack at it, vaguely noting that it's all very unfortunate and no one wins in this kind of blow-up. She also says she learns from all experiences, including at Wal-Mart.

Roehm: I'm just thankful, I think we both are, that people who knows us, who have worked with us in the past, know who we are, they know our character. You just have to stay positive, stay focused and do the things you know you could do well, and thankfully have a big enough support system that you're allowed to do it.

Petersen: And you're still not going to tell us whether you're having a relationship?

Roehm: We're very good friends (Womack nervously laughs in the background), we're certainly working together, but that's the context of our relationship.

Say this about Roehm, she's sticking to her story (Alberto Gonzales, take note). From the start, she has steadfastly denied having had a romantic relationship with Womack, despite e-mails that laid out a far different picture. "I think about us together all of the time," Roehm wrote to Womack, according to an e-mail exchange Wal-Mart quoted in legal filings. "Little moments like watching your face when you kiss me." Roehm's attorney claims in a statement that the e-mails Wal-Mart included in the suit are out of context, "eliminating from its filing some of the substance of those e-mails, and then editorializing about the few actually quoted words that it left behind, putting its own spin on them to create sensationalism." I'm not sure how "watching your face when you kiss me" can possibly have any context other than the obvious, but, heck, that's the romantic in me. Anyway, sensational it has turned out to be - and guess who blew the whistle on those private e-mails? Womack's wife, of course.