Levi Johnston's Fifteen Minutes

Sarah Palin is a great example of how arbitrary celebrity is--she was an obscure governor until the whim of a dotty presidential candidate turned her into a megastar, who now dominates our airwaves like Billy Mays never did. And if the fact that she is a celebrity is a noodle-scratcher, how do we justify that Levi Johnston, a sidebar in the Palin sideshow, is some kind of star?

Palin's fame was based on John McCain's choice, but Johnston had to have that, plus one other thing: knocking up Palin's daughter. Without one of these, Johnston would be continuing his uneventful life as an inarticulate laborer in Wasilla, Alaska. But because both one-in-a-million shots happened he's parlayed them into something of a career, going on talk shows and now posing for nude photos in Playgirl (sorry ladies, word is we don't see the full monty).

I find all of this amusing. For the odious Palin, I relish that this young man, who was brought on stage at the Republican National Convention in a public shotgun wedding, has turned on her, and makes vague threats about information he knows. Of course it's all a bit unseemly--if he knows something, he should tell it, and stop being coy, but this is small potatoes compared to what Republicans do all the time. I just find it funny that this woman, who certainly has images of the White House dancing in her head, is bedeviled by the hockey-playing stiff whom she can't shake. He is the father of her grandchild. Holiday meals will be a trial from now on for the Palin family.

When and if Palin's star dims (I would imagine it will right around the time she bottoms out in the Iowa caucus, if not before), so too will Johnston's. I hope he's saving his money, or really does have something juicy to say, enough to put in a book that will get pawed over by the punditry. Eventually he will probably be back in Alaska, after finding that Hollywood can be tougher even than Sarah Palin.