Just listened to AdAge's audio bit about Wal-Scam featuring Jonah Bloom, one of their Senior Editors. Obviously this guy is hoping that when Julie starts "her own gig" she'll offer him a job. He describes Julie as hip, a rock star, good looking and being a "change agent" about a million times. On the other hand, he describes Wal-Mart as a dowdy, ultra conservative organization. He talks about the Nobu dinner as the kind of thing that happens all the time in the biz... No Jonah, it may happen with existing clients, but not at a consultants dinner hosted by a contending agency and you're the prospective client singing the praises of an agency while the review is on-going. That doesn't happen, 'cos it's fucking stupid on the part of both Howard and Julie. When he talks about the Julie/Sean thing he is assured by her that she never slept with Sean... OK... Bill never slept with Monica... As you say, all of that is moot and there's plenty more stuff to concentrate on. Which unfortunately, Jonah never does, ending his "in-depth" piece with the conclusion that she didn't actually do anything wrong... Which is bullshit... But even if, in your opinion, she didn't... As a journalist covering the ad biz, you should remember one of the great ad lines of all time... "Perception is Reality!" 
Not this year, Jonah!