So Paul Levy, embattled chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has finally deigned to talk to the press about stashing his – we’re just guessing here, because Levy “declined to detail the exact nature of the relationship with the woman” – girlfriend on the hospital payroll.

And who did he talk to first? The Boston Globe, of course. From Saturday’s Globe piece headlined, “Levy ignored warnings to end relationship”:

Levy, in his first interview about the controversy, said he made a “big mistake’’ by believing that he could hire and employ his “close personal friend’’ for years at the Harvard teaching hospital without upsetting other employees and potentially damaging the reputation of the institution.

But wait!  From Saturday’s Boston Herald piece headlined, “Medical center chief will not step down”:

“My plan is to stay on,” Levy told the Herald yesterday in his first public comments about a scandal that’s swept the hospital in recent weeks.

So who got Levy’s “first” interview?

Everybody!

One thing the Herald did have first, though: Levy’s financial connections to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is, according to Saturday’s Herald, “probing Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s handling of the scandal surrounding CEO Paul Levy even though she’s gotten big campaign bucks from Levy and other hospital brass, the Herald has found.”

Details:

That includes $3,800 Levy himself gave to her recent unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid.

Records show that Levy also gave $200 to Coakley’s 2006 attorney general’s campaign, while he and the attorney general are friends on Facebook.

Oooh – Facebook friends.

It’s good to live in a two-newspaper town.