Palin vs. Johnston
In February, Bristol Palin, whose teenage pregnancy shocked her mother — former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin — as well as the nation, told a Fox News anchor that she and Levi Johnston, the father of her child, planned to get married. By March, the teenage couple had broken up. A month later, Johnston was on national television, telling Tyra Banks that the elder Palin probably knew the teens were having sex and that he had lived in the Palin home leading up to his son's birth. The Palins quickly released a statement saying that Johnston and his family were "engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration, and even distortion" of his relationship with Bristol. The squabbling continued, along with Levi's star turn. His latest publicity: a photo shoot for Playgirl, which Sarah Palin dubbed "aspiring porn." On Oprah in mid-November, Palin criticized Johnston for not spending more time with his child and again said he had never lived with her daughter. Palin said the boy was still welcome to spend Thanksgiving with her family. Johnston told a reporter that it was a "nice gesture, but she didn't mean it."