On The Tonight Show Thursday, host Conan O’Brien offered a personal apology to the father of Sarah Palin’s grandson for “misrepresenting him in any way” in a skit that aired the previous evening. Conan and his program came under fire yesterday after featuring television legend William Shatner in a spoof spoken word segment that featured Tweets taken from Levi Johnston’s Twitter account. There’s just one problem — Levi doesn’t have a Twitter.
The move came after reps for Levi Johnston threatened legal action against The Tonight Show and the social media mecca, claiming the 19-year-old was being impersonated on the site. At the top of the show, Conan said he’d woken up to “shocking news.” “Apparently the tweets that we read were counterfeit,” he said. “They were written by a clever impostor posing as the witty Levi Johnston. And the real Levi is very angry with us now.”
He continued, “I’d like to personally apologize to Levi Johnston and his lawyer and publicist for misrepresenting him in any way.” Conan proceeded to welcome William Shatner back to recite “some real, verified quotes from Levi Johnston” as spoken-word poetry.