Shopping with Levi Johnston

Sarah Palin's former future son-in-law, Levi Johnston, takes The Daily Beast's Renata Espinosa on a spending spree in L.A. and talks about David Letterman's intent ("I don't think he was trying to be malicious"); caring about how Bristol and Willow reacted ("I don't like to see anybody hurt, especially if it got to the girls and their feelings were hurt"); a possible reality show about hunting; style tips he's picked up from Tank—his mammoth bodyguard/manager/Tim Gunn—and his out-of-Alaska alter-ego named "Hollywood Ricky."

Anytime I witness Andy Warhol’s most famous statement in the flesh, “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,” my interest is piqued. Problem is these days, you witness people and their 15 minutes of fame so often, it’s hard to keep up or even care after a while. That’s why Levi Johnston (of Bristol Palin-pregnancy fame) and his bodyguard/manager Tank Jones are so refreshing—as far as I’m concerned, the duo are welcome to a full-length feature film of fame. Forget The Hangover. Levi and Tank are the buddy flick of the summer.

Click Below to View our Gallery of Levi's Shopping Spree

Levi, for the record, thought the joke was in poor taste, but he gets that Letterman is just a comedian. “I don’t think he was trying to be malicious,” he told The Daily Beast. “I just think the joke maybe went too far. I don’t think that David was trying to advocate any sexual misconduct of any nature.”

Whether or not the joke was funny or ill-conceived, though, Levi was mostly concerned about how it affected Bristol and Willow. “I don’t like to see anybody hurt, especially if it got to the girls and their feelings were hurt,” he said. “[The media] has said a million things about me and my family, and sometimes you have to take things with a grain of salt. But in this instance, things went a little too far.”

“I don’t like to see anybody hurt, especially if it got to the girls. [The media] has said a million things about me and my family, and sometimes you have to take things with a grain of salt. But in this instance with Letterman, things went a little too far.”

These days, 19-year-old Levi is a free agent, no longer engaged to Bristol and thus, no longer under the jurisdiction of the Palin clan’s image police. He’s still, nonetheless, crafting an image for himself, with the help of Tank Jones, his manager from Anchorage who has been coaching him on media appearances and schooling him in entertainment-industry etiquette for the past five months. Though Levi mostly spends his days living in Wasilla, Alaska, going on frequent hunting trips—if it were up to him, that’s what he would spend the rest of his days doing, except that now he’s got a baby to support—the idea is to pursue some type of career in Hollywood, whether it be acting or appearing on a reality show. Tank has been fielding pitches, including one for a reality show about hunting.

Tank and Levi seem to be an unlikely duo—why would a self-proclaimed “redneck” like Levi Johnston be taking style cues from Tank Jones, a size-58 suit-wearing black man who works in the law offices of Rex Butler in Anchorage? I invited them to go shopping with me in downtown L.A.’s wholesale fashion district to find out, and to see Tank work his magic on Levi for myself.

Besides acting as Levi’s handler, Tank is his personal Tim Gunn and Henry Higgins all in one, instructing him on the subtleties of wearing a fedora and reminding him to be open-minded about the different types of people he might encounter. Tank is the ultimate 21st-century version of an American father: multicultural and media-savvy.