Art mirrors life? Levi Johnston to play lover facing girl’s disapproving mom in music video

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Palin fiance Levi Johnston to film music video

LOS ANGELES — Levi Johnston will make his music video debut as a lover whose romance is thwarted by his girlfriend’s disapproving mother, according to a Universal Music Group record label and Johnston’s attorney.

Johnston, 20, who is Bristol Palin’s fiance, has agreed to appear in the video with singer-songwriter Brittani Senser next month in Los Angeles. The project is based on the song “After Love” by Senser, 26, a sultry-looking R&B and pop performer from Minneapolis.

“He’s looking forward to doing it,” Rex Butler, Johnston’s attorney in Anchorage, Alaska, said Friday. “It will give him an opportunity to act a little bit in front of a camera. He’s done a commercial before, but something like this is a little more involved.”

Johnston recently become re-engaged to Palin, 19, the daughter of former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Bristol Palin, who has a toddler son with Johnston, has said her mother doesn’t support the couple’s marriage.

According to a written description of the video’s story line, the couple share tender moments before they are driven apart by the young woman’s mother. Unaware that her mom’s interference forced her boyfriend to go, she “throws herself into her mother’s arms. She tells her mother that she was wrong about Levi.”

Asked if there might be concerns about Sarah Palin’s reaction to the project, Butler replied: “I don’t think we’re going to be concerned about what Gov. Palin would want. I think that given the script, he (Johnston) should be able to turn in a good performance.”

Johnston and Senser are scheduled to shoot the video on location in Los Angeles on Aug. 9, the day after the pair attend the Teen Choice Awards, according to Butler and Senser’s publicist, Belinda Foster. Johnston went to the ceremony last year with comedian Kathy Griffin.

Senser said she’d be glad to have Bristol Palin “come on down and hang out” with her and Johnston at the Teen Choice Awards and during the video shoot.

Senser’s producer and manager, Roy Belfrey of MN Finest Records, said he approached Johnston about the project in March, before Johnston and Bristol Palin announced they had reunited after a falling out and planned to wed.

Johnston has previously expressed interest in acting. But he’s quoted in the July 26 edition of US Weekly as saying he is “almost out of the limelight” after posing for a Playgirl photo spread and intends to get his high school equivalency degree and become an electrician.

Butler was asked Friday if Johnston still aspired to an acting career.

“Yes, he’s still interested in that. Of course, he’s got to merge his perspective with that of his prospective wife. In other words, this is not a decision he’s going to be making alone,” the attorney said.

Senser is the daughter of Joe Senser, who played tight end for the Vikings football team in the 1980s. “After Love” is off her first album of the same name (MN Finest Records/Bungalo Records/UMVD). Senser was asked if she thought Johnston was right for the role.

“Why not? Seriously, what he does, people are interested in him. They want to know who is this guy who’s involved so closely with the Palins,” she said, adding, tongue-in-cheek, “He’s not a bad-looking kid.”

She said Johnston’s personal situation and the video’s story line are a “little bit” parallel, but said the same is true for her and many other people.

Evan Winter, the video’s creator and director, said in writing it he “kind of riffed off the real-life situation” and found a kernel of universal truth in it. He said the couple’s “pure and honest love” ends as everyone tries to do the best they can.

Belfrey said the video will follow quickly on the heels of the “After Love” radio release, which he said should be in the next few weeks.

Bungalo Records executive Leo Rodgers said he considers Senser to be among “new generation of artists” coming out of Minneapolis, home to Prince and other music stars.

Universal Music Group is a subsidiary of Vivendi SA.

Online:

www.universalmusicgroup.com

www.bungalorecoreds.com

www.mnfinest.com

(This version CORRECTS spelling of she’d.)