Sunday evening "60 Minutes" devoted almost  30 minutes of the program to separate interviews with Patricia Dunn, the former chairman of Hewlett-Packard, and Carly Fiorina the former CEO.

It was all mildly fascinating in terms of new information. What was interesting was that "60 Minutes" took the approach that here were two very powerful women, and both had run into trouble from a very male HP board.

Ms Dunn started by saying she did not know about the illegal nature of the investigation into boardroom leaks until fairly recently, September 6, 2006.

And she said that the reason that she was indicted last week on four felony charges was the work of Tom Perkins, a former fellow board member, and one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley.

She said Mr Perkins wanted her out because she refused to keep private the source of the boardroom leaks. She said he told her he felt betrayed by her actions.

 He then took his complaint to the SEC, FTC, Justice Department, and the California Attorney General. This was verified by a representative of Mr Perkins' said "60 Minutes."

Mr Perkins was not available for an interview because he was sailing his boat, the "Maltese Falcon," which at at 289 feet is one of the world's largest. So whenever his name was mentioned "60 Minutes" would cut to one of many video clips of a lone Mr Perkins on his massive boat.

I bet he wished he was in the studio able to comment on Ms Dunn's account. That was not good timing to go off and play with his toys.

Ms Fiorina was also on the show, which was explained as a "quirk" because her book had just been published. Ms Fiorina also attested to strange boardroom behavior, and leaks.

Ms Fiorina said she was fired for no given reason. She said no one on the board spoke to her about her dismissal, there were no impropriety, no ethical issues. She said that it was personal, but she did not identify who might be behind it.

Ms Fiorina took the opportunity to claim  credit for HP's turnaround. She said her five years at the helm had transformed a "laggard" HP into one of the world's top tech leaders.

She has a very good point there, although I wonder what Mark Hurd, HP's CEO would say about that?  Wall Street has handed Mr Hurd the credit for HP's recovery.

UPDATE: Watch the interviews on Yahoo:

The Troubles at HP

Lesley Stahl's exclusive interviews with former Hewlett-Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn and Carly Fiorina, the former HP CEO.

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Learn more about Mr Perkins giant yacht and also his racy, sexy novel:

http://www.yachtingmagazine.com/yachting/boatreviews/article/0,24579,1155296,00.html

A legendary investor aims to be a racy novelist with his new book 'Sex and the Single Zillionaire.'