Bristol Palin, Ricky Hollywood, and Bill Murray

And, they tell Us Weekly, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been kept in the dark about their plans … until now.

“We got engaged two weeks ago,” Bristol, 19, tells Us Weekly. “It felt right, even though we don’t have the approval of our parents.”…

“I really thought we were over,” Levi tells Us Weekly. “So when I went [to meet her about child custody], I had no hope. I think we both just started talking — and then we took Tripp for a walk.”

Says Bristol, “When he left that night, we didn’t hug or kiss, but I was thinking how different it was. He texted me: ‘I miss you. I love you. I want to be with you again’ … I was in shock.”

The good: A child should have his father, and a mother should have a husband. Anything that offers up a hope of that is a good thing.

The bad: This guy is a complete self-absorbed asshole and will likely leave her after three or four years.

The possibly good: But that's what guys are, often, especially at that age. The pregnancy was a shock to him, I'm sure, and he reacted cowardly and selfishly, but that is, again, how guys often act. It's not necessarily a predictor that someone can't grow up and accept responsibility.

Bill Murray has a good quote about this:

The truth is, anybody that becomes famous is an ass for a year and a half. You've got to give them a year and a half, two years. They are getting so much smoke blown, and their whole world gets so turned upside down, their responses become distorted. I give everybody a year or two to pull it together because, when it first happens, I know how it is.

I realize that "Ricky Hollywood" did not do anything but have irresponsible unprotected sex with a teenage girl and then jilt her rather than accepting his responsibilities as a man, and that is hardly a conventional way to become a "celebrity," but we are now in a culture where that kind of repulsive "fame" is the same as the well-earned kind.

And so, perhaps, he had his year and a half of being an asshole.

I hope so. Certainly it would be better for everyone involved for him to accept that "Ricky Hollywood" ain't happening and that being a deadbeat dad and liar-for-hire isn't really a career.

posted by Ace at 03:05 PM

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