With friends like this WHO needs enemies? The sad tale of the Wasilla boy who almost had it all.

From Hollywood Life:

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston were on the verge of scoring a huge seven-figure reality TV show deal, but a major reality TV exec tells HollywoodLife.com that they completely walked away from the offer.

Our source, who has created and executive-produced several very highly-rated and well-known reality series in the last decae, reveals that a $1.5 million reality deal was on the table for Bristol and Levi. One stipulation from the producers who made the offer: The couple’s 19-month-old son, Tripp, had to be part of the show.

Once the offer was made we’re told, however, the couple “completely disappeared.”

It turns out the former couple was so close to sealing a deal that the reality TV producer sent an advnce producer to Anchorage, Alaska, in order to meet with Bristol and Levi. But as soon as the producer arrived, Bristol and Levi were nowhere to be found. Our source tells us Bristol and Levi “didn’t answer any calls” and it was “completely shocking” when the couple stopped communicating with him.

When I read that last part it was, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "Deja vu all over again."

That EXACT scenario has played out over an over again as people have attempted to make deals with Levi Johnston. Now this time it may have a much to do with the problems between Levi and Bristol, but that certainly was NOT the case during this last year when producers, potential authors, and talent agents found themselves leaving message, after message, with "Team Levi" and rarely, if ever, hearing back from them.

As hard as it may be to believe these days, there was a time when Levi Johnston was the hottest property this side of Sarah Palin.  At one point last fall it seemed that everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, wanted to take a meeting with Alaska's most famous sperm donor.

I remember sitting at meetings with Tank Jones and having our conversation interrupted repeatedly as reporters, and agents, and producers tried desperately to pitch their ideas for a chance to work with Levi.  It was an amazing thing to behold.

What I did not realize at the time was that many of these people were NEVER going to get a call back.

You see for some reason, Rex and Tank never seem to have seriously considered allowing Levi to sign a book deal, or for that matter any contract for a movie or reality show.  Why?  To be honest, I'm not sure.

But here is what I do know.  In November Dennis Zaki pitched an idea for a reality television show featuring Levi and his pals going on hunting trips all around Alaska in Rex's office the night after Sherry was sentenced.

They both expressed some interest, and Dennis went on to tell them that he had all of the film equipment that was needed, plenty of friends who would love to work as part of the crew, and enough contacts in the entertainment field to, at the very least, film and then pitch a pilot. However both of them were non-committal at that time.

Interestingly enough a few days later Tank called Dennis back into the office and suggested that instead of a show about Levi they get together and do a show based on him, called "Tank Jones PI". Dennis tried to get the conversation back to the topic of doing a show about Levi but Tank was adamant that they work on HIS show first. Dennis did do some preliminary research on the idea but Tank stopped returning his calls after awhile so consequently there was never any footage shot of a Levi Johnston hunting show OR the "Tank Jones snooping on cheating spouses" show.

Now earlier in the year I had been constantly badgering Tank about getting Levi a book deal, and I kept getting the run around.  After Sarah signed her deal Tank acted like he finally wanted to get serious but kept saying that he wanted Levi to get about the same amount as they were paying Palin for her deal.  At that time the rumor was that SHE was getting an 11 million dollar advance so I told Tank he was out of his mind thinking Levi could get anywhere near that kind of money.

However Tank kept insisting that publishers were calling and he would have a deal soon. Then he suggested that perhaps I would be willing to write a book about HIM.  I told him I did not think his life was that interesting and that nobody would want to read it, but he insisted his life was full of fascinating stories about his work as a bodyguard, a nightclub owner,  and a private investigator in Alaska. (He asked several other people I know to write his book as well, and I believe one of them was in serious talks to do just that at one time.)

Around September I realized that Tank was never going to get book deal for Levi on his own, so I suggested that maybe I could help. Tank said that if I had somebody in mind he would talk to them.

In fact I DID have somebody in mind and quickly called a friend of mine who was an author. I laid out the situation and she thought it was a great idea.  I set up a meeting by phone and she and Tank really seemed to hit it off. He liked her and thought she would be great but said that we needed to convince Rex Butler as well.

Getting Rex on the phone to discuss the possible book deal was like pulling teeth so I decided to just show up at his office and make my pitch to him directly. I sat in their lobby and refused to leave until Rex met with me.  He finally acquiesced and I sat down in his office, with Tank Jones in attendance, and laid out why THIS was the best possible book deal he would get for his client.

Rex said he was impressed with my presentation and agreed to speak with the author. I quickly set that up with their secretary and Rex spoke to the author a few times and aferward expressed his desire to proceed with her idea for the book.  So the author had her agent e-mail Rex's office to write up a proposal, and everything suddenly changed.  Rex simply ignored the e-mail and never got back to the agent.

WTF?

I called both Tank and Rex repeatedly to find out what the problem was, but kept getting the run around.  Finally Tank said that Rex was nervous about signing a deal without first meeting the author in person. Having her fly up to Alaska seemed like a lot of money to spend if there was not a firm deal in place, so they compromised and agred to conduct a video conference so that they could speak face to face.

By all accounts the meeting went Very well and Rex and Tank were thrilled to begin working on the book as soon as possible.  However they NEVER seemed to be sure when it would be a good time to have the author fly up to begin interviewing Levi.  Rex always seemed to be too busy, and getting through to him was next to impossible. When I spoke to Tank he assured me that HE was totally on board and was only waiting for Rex to give his final okay to start work on the book.

Finally the author suggested that she just fly up and spend a few days up here to get a feel for the place and surely Rex and Tank would agree to set up a time for her to meet and interview Levi.  I agreed that being aggressive seemed to be what worked with "Team Levi" so I encouraged her to come on up.

So in early December she flew up.  She stayed at my house and together we set about attempting to get this book deal off of the ground. 

We called both Rex and Tank and asked to meet with them. Nothing. 

We sat in the lobby of Rex's office and waited for him a few minutes to meet. His secretary said he was just too busy that day and we left.

We offered to take them out to dinner after the office closed for a casual meeting.  They did not return our phone calls or e-mails.

I had always had trouble getting through to Tank in the past, but eventually I could wear him down and he would answer his phone.  But not this time.

Finally, after five days of unanswered phone calls and e-mails, Rex called and agreed to meet the author right before she was to board her plane to fly home.

We agreed to meet at the bar that he and Tank had recently opened up together called, oddly enough, "The Office".  She and I arrived on time and Rex showed up about fifteen minutes later, and though Rex kept calling Tank and asking him to meet with us too, he never showed.

Rex apologized and claimed that he had not realized that the author was in town until just that morning despite our numerous phone calls and e-mails (And of course the fact that we had sat in his office lobby for twenty minutes to meet with him earlier that week.).  He listened to the author's proposal and seemed interested, but afterward simply refused to commit to the project, saying that they expected Bristol to file for sole custody of Tripp at any minute and that they needed to focus on that issue first before they could concentrate on a book deal.

I guess it was about then that I realized that Rex had no intention of EVER really getting a book for Levi, because there was simply no way he was going to get a better deal than the one being offered that night. (WHY Levi could not start dictating a book while waiting for Van Flein to file custody papers has never made any sense to me.)

The author left to catch her flight and I sat with Rex for another fifteen minutes or so. I told him that I was confused by their behavior and reiterated that I only wanted to help Levi get his book deal.  I said that I had no hidden agenda and that if my connection to the deal was an issue I would gladly stay completely out of it and let it happen with no input from me whatsoever. Rex assured me that he had no problem with me and that the reason that they were not quite ready to move forward was simply a matter of timing.

I left and have had no contact with Rex Butler since that night.  I did e-mail Tank once to let him know that I was disappointed and that I thought he had been dishonest.  I received only a partial e-mail in return, and have heard nothing since.

Now if you have read this far you are probably as baffled by what I have written as I was when it was happening. 

Rex and Tank, as Levi's managers, receive 20% of anything that he makes. The book deal that was offered that night would have brought Levi a minimum of three million dollars. That would have provided the two of them at least $400,000 dollars to split.  I know for a fact that NOTHING they have allowed Levi to do so far has been that profitable.  So why in the hell would they NOT have jumped at that book offer? (By the way, just a few days before this author flew up to meet Tank and Rex I received an e-mail from a friend with very good contacts in the publishing business who told me this about Tank's supposed attempts to get Levi a book deal: "No publisher or agent I know in New York knows anything about it.  No one I've talked to has even seen a book proposal from Levi.)

Now, as if that were not enough, I have recently learned that besides our deal, there was at least one other book deal brought right to Rex and Tank that ended in almost the exact same manner, as well as an offer from HBO that wanted to use Levi for a small part, and another offer for a reality show called "Wasilla". Yet according to my sources Tank and Rex did not pursue ANY of those projects on Levi's behalf.

And those are just the ones we know about!

So the question remains as to WHY Levi's "managers" would ignore these very legitimate and lucrative offers, and instead choose to let him "author" a Vanity Fair piece for virtually nothing, pose naked in Playgirl magazine for about a quarter of a million dollars, and make a pistachio commercial for a brand of nuts that nobody had ever heard of?

You know when Tank first mentioned having Levi pose for Playgirl I expressed my disapproval and said "Don't let Levi turn out to be Alaska's version of Kato Kaelin!"

At this point Kato Kaelin is probably sitting somewhere thinking "You know my life could always be worse, I could have ended up like Levi Johnston!"

P.S. Levi if you happen to read this, and as I suspect this is the first time you are hearing about some of these deals, contact your sister and I will gladly get you in touch with the people who told me these stories so you can hear from them yourself.  Trust me, these were NOT fly by night operators trying to take advantage of you.  These are real professionals who could have had a truly positive impact on your life and certainly your income.

I don't believe these offers will ever be available again but at least you will understand just what happened, and who was on your side and who was not.