Perfect Union

Photo by Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP

There she was again; orchestrating another press conference while supplying her distraught client with tissues.  Given the media frenzy surrounding the 2016 presidential election, I wondered why it had taken so long for her to join in the fray.  She is getting on (75 last July) and hasn’t seen the inside of a courtroom in years, but I didn’t think that would be enough to keep her off the front page.  Then I learned she was supporting Hillary which meant she had to lay low until they started trotting out females violated by Clinton’s opponent instead of by her husband.

Gloria Allred’s efforts on behalf of mistresses and other women wronged by the well-known and well-to-do have brought her fame and fortune but there’s more to it than that.  Despite her pronouncement “The more I know about men the more I like dogs,” she doesn’t always go after men.  She helped submarine Meg Whitman’s 2010 run for governor when Allred represented Whitman’s former domestic helper, claiming Whitman (a Republican mind you) knew she was an undocumented immigrant during her nine years of service.

Over the years Gloria has taken on the church, private clubs, politicians, government agencies, private employers and college administrations representing men and women whose civil rights were denied.  According to Gloria most of her cases end in undisclosed settlements, “more than 90% are confidential.”  The media’s coverage of her involvement with unsavory cases has spawned punch lines on late night talk shows and sleazy characters on South Park, Family Guy and The Simpsons.  Allred counters with, "It's not my fault the media and the public are more interested in Tiger Woods than in women farm workers.”  Even the Pope knows she got a mistress of Tiger’s $10 million to go away quietly but chances are his eminence knows nothing of a $1.7 million settlement Allred’s firm won for farm workers in a gender-discrimination suit.

After two bad husbands, a rape at gun point necessitating an abortion (illegal at the time), from which she barely survived, it’s no surprise Gloria became an advocate for women’s rights.  She married an upper classman in her sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania but was a single mother by the time she was a senior with an ex who refused to provide child support.

Her second husband William Allred was a self-made millionaire who went to prison for selling counterfeit airplane parts to the U.S. Government.  She was teaching at Jordan high school when they met in the early 1960s.  William ran Donallco, an aerospace company he started in 1953.  He encouraged Gloria to pursue a legal career and paid both Gloria and her daughter’s way through law school.  When the government started nosing around William’s operation he quickly consented to Gloria’s wishes to a sham separation to protect her public image and divide up their real estate holdings to shield their personal wealth against the criminal investigation brought against Donallco.

Gloria’s firm represented William against the government in a trial he agreed to have held in Texas to avoid publicity as much as possible.  They continued living together until the day her “estranged husband” was convicted, where upon Gloria informed him she wanted a divorce.  Three years later he sat in a Texas prison while community property proceedings were held that according to William overlooked the fact that things had been divided up three years earlier.  Gloria dismisses William’s claims that he was manipulated (Gloria, how could you!), and of course his credibility at this point is non-existent despite insisting he was innocent.

Gloria also claims innocence from any responsibility for the tabloid-style coverage that envelops her.  There’s no denying Gloria and her firm have helped a great many deserving causes but for Gloria to lay all the notoriety that follows her at the feet of the news desk and the public is a bit much.  After all, even though her marriages haven’t turned out well,  she and the media have formed a perfect union.

The viewing public has always been amazed by her ability to find her way in front of a camera.  Peter Hartlaub writing for SFgate a few years back suggested her access to the media was at least partly because she made things easy for journalists.  Hartlaub said you could always rely on (1) her to return your phone calls despite what you might have written about her or her client; and (2), she never failed to provide a quote for your story.  Hardlaub attributes her ongoing high profile to “a chronic laziness on behalf of the reporters and editors who keep dialing her number.”

Broadcasters often seek out while on the air why their news editors scheduled her to appear.  Although she was not a player in the case, Gloria was making the rounds during Michael Jackson’s trial.  On separate shows, Katie Couric and Paula Zahn asked her, “Why are you involved in this case?” and “ Do you have any association whatsoever?” 

Gloria hauled Robert Blake's ex-wife in front of Matt Lauer on the Today Show to say they wouldn’t be making any comment.  Lauer began by saying, "I don't mean to be rude here, but I just want to make sure I understand this."  He then proceeded to ask in a camouflaged manner – seriously, that’s it?  "Well exactly, Matt," Gloria responded. "Because she does feel that she has the right to privacy, a zone of privacy that she should be entitled to have."  To further ensure her client’s privacy, Gloria dragged her in front of national audiences on both CNBC and FOX later that same day.

Image from Today.com

In 2004 Scott Peterson was tried for the murder of his pregnant wife.  The trial had been set for Modesto but due to rampant adverse publicity was transferred to Redwood City.  As an additional measure, a gag order was imposed on those involved in the trial.  Gloria was retained by Amber Frey, a prosecution witness.  Gloria became a public buffer for Frey who in the months leading up to the trial had received nearly as much animosity in the press and on television as Peterson himself.  Other than serving as a decoy for the slings and arrows meant for her client, Gloria’s only role during the trial was to accompany Amber to and from court.  

Since the judge’s gag order did not extend to Gloria, she soon became the go-to source for news coverage throughout the trial, maintaining her client had no opinion regarding Peterson’s guilt but Gloria’s professed sympathies were clearly with the prosecution.

With Gloria’s television appearances plus endless snippets of her and Amber at the courthouse steps on the evening news, the coverage devoted to the trial was enormous.  Assured of a ripe market at the end of the trial, Amber snapped up a book deal from Harper Collins Publishing. 

Gosh, you don’t suppose Gloria and Amber had it all planned out right from the start?