OK, so it doesn't have much to do with L.A. business, but Wal-Mart's countersuit against one of its former executives, Julie Roehm, would work well as one of those smarmy Lifetime TV movies (or maybe it could be a business-oriented reality show). In case you haven't been following this, here's a quick summary: Roehm and Sean Womack were recent arrivals in Wal-Mart's advertising and marketing department - Roehm a rising star, Womack less so - when, according to the retailer, they developed a romantic relationship, a big no-no in Bentonville. Well, Roehm strongly and publicly denied having had an affair with Womack (both were married at the time) and went on to sue Wal-Mart, claiming that the company had not given a valid reason for her firing and that it owed her money.

Wal-Mart said it had proof positive of not only the affair, but of efforts by the pair to be hired by the same ad agency they were considering for Wal-Mart work. Not great. But that's peanuts compared with the countersuit, which lays out a bunch of personal stuff that, frankly, most of us would not want to see in an open court filing. Which of course raises the question of why anyone having adulterous sex would want to communicate via e-mail - and then deny having had the affair. Here are a few passages from the suit:

As early as June 2006, it appears that Roehm and Womack had begun to alter their schedules to increase their time together. In one June email exchange, Roehm lamented "Sad that I can't have drinks with you Monday night..." In response, Womack typed "I'll try to come home early on the QT..." to which Roehm replied ":))))))"

By August 2006, the relationship had become romantic. On Saturday, August 5, Womack and Roehm spent the evening with colleagues and relatives at a bar in Fayetteville, Arkansas. By the end of the evening, everyone had left except Roehm, Womack and two of their Wal-Mart colleagues - a close friend of Womack and a close friend of Roehm. At one point, Womack and Roehm left the table to go to another part of the bar. Later, when Womack's friend was on his way to the restroom he spotted Womack and Roehm in a corridor. Womack had Roehm "pinned" against the wall in an intimate pose. Womack's friend paused awkwardly for several seconds, then announced his presence and walked past the two of them. When the friend came back, Womack and Roehm were no longer in the corridor. Womack later denied to his friend that anything inappropriate was going on.

On September 7, 2006, Womack's wife, Shelley, learned that Womack had set up a secret, personal email account that he used to communicate with Roehm. Upon reviewing the contents of the email account, Shelley discovered romantic email messages between Roehm and her husband on the Womack's home computer. She called her husband and demanded he come home immediately. When he arrived, she told him she had found emails between him and Roehm on the computer and that she had printed out, among other things, a recent email exchange between Roehm and him that proved the existence of the affair. Womack tried to grab the document from Shelley, and when Shelley went to another part of the house to hide the printed material, he went to the computer and attempted to delete all the email messages from his account.

The complete suit is over at Ad Age. The NYT reported that Roehm and Womack had been listed as speakers at a conference today in Los Angeles, but no word on whether that happened. Several morals of the story:

1)Don't have an adulterous affair.
2)Don't have an adulterous affair while working at Wal-Mart.
3)Don't deny having had the affair to the press if you've been seen in an "intimate pose" at a bar in Fayetteville.
4)Most importantly, don't do all of the above and then sue Wal-Mart for more money.