Vanity Fair: Left photograph by Nigel Parry/CPi Syndication. Right, photograph by Mark Seliger.For all that has happened to Sarah Palin since she was tapped by John McCain to be his presidential ticket running mate, you can be pretty sure that when her daughter Bristol started dating Levi Johnston she could not have envisioned reading his inside-the-Palin house take one day in Vanity Fair.
But that, of course, is exactly what has happened in the bizarro post-election Palin world. Palin has worked very hard to control her maverick image, especially as she left the Alaska governor's office behind before her term is up, saying it's what's best for Alaska. So you can imagine how peeved she must be to read that Johnston says she talked openly about ditching the governor gig to "write a book or do a show and make 'triple the money,' " according to Vanity Fair. "It was, to her, 'not as hard.' She would blatantly say, 'I want to just take this money and quit being governor.' "
Johnston, 19, is the father of Tripp, the baby born to Bristol Palin in December. He lived with the Palins for two months following the election, and he shares his account of life in the Palin household with VF. A few of his bombshells:
- Sarah offered on several occasions for she and Todd to adopt the baby so no one would know that Bristol was pregnant. He said he and Bristol adamantly agreed they did not want her parents to adopt the baby.
- After the election Palin talked her running mate down at home, and said people voted for the ticket because they were voting for her.
- He never saw Sarah and Todd sleep in the same room.
- Sarah never hunts or fishes. "She says she goes hunting and lives off animal meat -- I've never seen it," says Levi in Vanity Fair. "I've never seen her touch a fishing pole."
- Sarah and Todd never cooked. The kids pulled together dinners, and he sometimes grilled while he was living with the family. (Okay, maybe that's not a bombshell.)
Remember, he only lived there for two months before the baby was born and after the election, and there's plenty of bad feelings running around between him and the Palin family since Tripp was born. Still, do you think young Johnston has done damage to the image of the memoir-writing grandmother of his son? What has he to gain from participating in an article like this, apart from the Wasilla-to-Vanity-Fair makeover and a New York adventure? Is there a modeling career in his future?
