Globe Wins; Allred Loses

Day 2 of the Canton Carnival resulted in this: the Boston Globe gets the 1991 Mitt Romney testimony it wanted from the Stemberg divorce, and the rest of the media will get it too, but Maureen Sullivan Stemberg is still bound by the confidentiality agreement from talking about Romney's role.

Tom Stemberg's attorney [updated to clarify], who had been vociferously opposing the release yesterday, came in today with a proposal to, in effect, give the Globe the transcript if they dropped the attempt to lift the gag order. The Globe attorney agreed. The Romney and Staples attorneys had no objection.

Gloria Allred, who had flown in from California to represent Sullivan Stemberg, had a big objection. Unfortunately for her, it's the Globe's motion, not hers. She begged and pleaded, both to the judge and to the Globe attorney, but to no avail. (She did, however, think to clarify that she has permission to give the transcripts to other media; I should be getting them later today.)

Sullivan Stemberg is free to bring her own motion to lift the gag order. She can also try to get another media partner to join that effort (as she helpfully noted in her press conference afterward). But that's going to be an uphill climb.

Stemberg's attorney gave a brief statement downplaying the contents of the transcript. The other attorneys ducked away. Allred accused the Globe of a "double-cross" and suggested that the transcripts are of lesser value without Sullivan Stemberg's elucidating comments.

Soon enough we'll see what's in the testimony -- and probably of more importance, what the Globe has that the testimony fits into. Meanwhile, it's Globe 1, Allred 0.