NBC - LEVI JOHNSTON VS WILLIAM SHATNER

LEVI JOHNSTON VS WILLIAM SHATNER

Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandson, is finding himself being mocked about as mercilessly as the woman who nearly became his mother-in-law -- and he's fighting back. His lawyer, Rex Butler, has told the tabloid website TMZ that Johnston is taking on both the social-networking website Twitter and NBC -- and possibly even William Shatner and Conan O'Brien individually -- over an appearance by Shatner on Wednesday's Tonight show. On the show, Shatner performed a "reading" of Johnston's "tweets" that included such lines as, "What's the deal with the taxi drivers not speaking English, is there a law against it?" In his introduction, O'Brien remarked that the remarks were "all real ... we did not make these up." But Butler told TMZ that somebody else did -- and it wasn't his client -- and he is therefore demanding a "retraction" from NBC, which aired the program. "We are in the process of dealing with Twitter first," Butler said. "I think they have an obligation once something like this happens to make some kind of corrective measure." (TMZ's report on the incident appeared under the headline, "Levi says 'Tonight Show' Shat on Him.")

06/11/2009