Sarah Palin’s bete noir drops his Levi’s

Alaska's most famous hockey-playing high school drop-out, Levi Johnston, the 19-year-old who fathered Sarah Palin's first grandchild, Tripp, plans to pose nude for the online magazine Playgirl, popular with some women and many gay men.

Johnston (above, with US stand-up comedian Kathy Griffin), former boyfriend of Palin's daughter Bristol, and now full-time thorn-in-the-side of the former Alaskan governor and Republican VP candidate, is said to have been visiting the gym in preparation.

The teenager's enthusiasm for media exposure knows no bounds. He has recently posed in Armani for Vanity Fair and been photographed changing Tripp's nappy for GQ. In the latter, he had his shirt off but for Playgirl he's threatening to display the full Monty.

Johnston has also made the most of his reputation as Bristol's former partner by appearing in a commercial for Wonderful pistachios. He is pictured next to a hulking bodyguard, while the voiceover goes: "Now Levi Johnston does it with protection".

Palin must be wondering if he is ever going to disappear. In the meantime, she has the comfort of knowing that, however many visitors may drool over his pecs on Playgirl, they're unlikely to reach the audience figures for her memoir, Going Rogue: the book is already a number one best-seller with more than month to go before publication. ·