Levi Johnston Biography
Summary
"Levi Johnston" (born 1990) is an American teenager who was the subject of extensive media scrutiny during and after the 2008 United States presidential election. He was then the fiancé and the father of the child of Bristol Palin, whose mother, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, was the Republican vice-presidential nominee. A few months following the election and the birth of his son, Johnston and Palin ended their engagement, and Johnston has publicly feuded with the Palin family.
Education and career
Johnston 'dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician'.
According to Courtney Hazlett of MSNBC, there has been speculation that Johnston gave media interviews in hopes of landing an endorsement or a modeling job. However, "Vanity Fair" asked various modeling agencies if they were considering hiring Johnston, and none of them said they were. According to Tirdad Derakhshani of "The Philadelphia Inquirer", Johnston was 'shopping around a memoir' concerning his time with Bristol. The Associated Press reported that Levi is also pursuing a movie deal.
Personal life
Levi Johnston was born to Sherry and Keith Johnston in Wasilla, Alaska. He is a carpenter. He has a younger sister, Mercede. He attended Wasilla High School, where he played hockey. Johnston is an avid hunter; an AP article after the 2008 Republican convention portrayed Johnston as a tall and muscular 'heartthrob' and avid hunter, who has hunted bears, sheep, elk, and caribou, and who has 'antlers scattered about his yard.'
On December 18, 2008 Johnston's mother was arrested on six felony drug charges;
she allegedly sold OxyContin in October and November, 2008. She originally pleaded not guilty, but her lawyer later announced an agreement under which she would plead guilty to one count of possession with intent to deliver and the state would dismiss the five other charges.
Johnston and comedienne Kathy Griffin attended the 2009 Teen Choice Awards together.
Relationship with the Palin family
Johnston and Bristol Palin are the parents of Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, who was born in December 2008.
According to Johnston, he and Bristol began dating during their freshman year of high school. After losing a promise ring during a caribou hunt, Johnston had Bristol's name tattooed on his finger. On September 1, 2008, Sarah Palin announced that her daughter Bristol was pregnant by Johnston, and that the two would be married. The two broke off their engagement in March 2009. Johnston thereafter said in a nationally televised interview that he was 'pretty sure' Governor Palin had known that he and Bristol were having sex. The Palin family denounced Johnston's statements as 'lies'.
Media attention during the 2008 Presidential election
Johnston attended the 2008 Republican National Convention with the Palin family. While Palin was delivering her prime-time speech, the cameras frequently cut away to Johnston and Bristol. Johnston began appearing in the media when his girlfriend's mother became the 2008 Republican Vice Presidential candidate. At the Republican National Convention, he shook hands onstage with John McCain and was treated as a member of Palin's family.
Dick Morris, formerly the chief political strategist for President Bill Clinton, opined that McCain's decision to welcome Johnston to the stage was a good move, because it would help McCain show 'a nonjudgmental attitude and a tolerant, ecumenical side', while still sending the message that unwed teens who become pregnant should marry.
According to a September 1, 2008 article in the "New York Post", Johnston had stated on his MySpace page, which has since been taken down, 'I don't want kids.'
2009 media interviews
In April and May 2009, Johnston gave a series of interviews, appearing on the "The Tyra Banks Show", "The Early Show", and "Larry King Live". In his May 6 appearance on "The Early Show," Johnston commented that his relationship with Bristol was improving. In response to Bristol's public statements on abstinence, Johnston responded by stating his own opinion, telling "The Early Show" that 'abstinence is a great idea, but I also think you need to enforce, you know, condoms and birth control and other things like that to have safe sex. I don't just think telling young kids, you can't have sex, it's not going to work. It's not realistic.'
Johnston's reason for appearing on "The Tyra Banks Show" was 'there have been a lot of things in the newspapers and news ... saying I'd done steroids and drugs and cheated on Bristol ...'. During the interview, Banks said that Johnston was not paid to appear on the show. Johnston's mother and his sister, Mercede, also appeared on the show, and according to Rebecca Traister of Salon.com, the most revealing moment of the interview was that 'Bristol and Levi's breakup had much less to do with Bristol and Levi than it had to do with the girl-girl dynamics of the ruptured friendship between Bristol and Mercede.'
External links
(He Shall Be Levi) by John Jeremiah Sullivan, "GQ", May 2009
Video: (Levi Johnston on NBC's Today Show) July 13 2009
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Levi Johnston.
