Can you feel bad for someone who has been handed — by fate and opportunism — fame and a little fortune? Last night I did - a little.

On the eve of his Playgirl shoot and right in the midst of an East Coast media blitz, Levi Johnston had the seat of honor at the Fleshbot Awards (link NSFW) at NYC's The Box last night. And in a room where nearly everyone wore a healthy sense of irony - socialite Tinsley Mortimer, being a good sport; party-weary media types; spangled, scantily clad downtown personalities on every point of the gender spectrum - Levi offered none.

To wit:

[Jezebel is] a site for women. Tell me why women should find you sexy.

I don't know.

What's sexy about you? You're going to be in this sexy shoot, right? So you must think you've got something going…

(Pause) I actually got talked into this shoot. But I worked hard to get a good body for the shoot, so…

So you feel good about that?

Yeah.

You got talked to into it – do you regret it?

No. It'll be fun.

Did you think it'd be such a big deal?

I didn't think it'd be that bad. I said as a joke that I'd do it and then it just blew up and everyone was pumped about it. So I was like, Oh, I can't let them down now so I just hit the gym and got ready for it.

Levi also clarified his stance on opinionated women - apparently, he meant women who spend a lot of money on shoes. "I don't want someone that's all up in the high end of fashion, basically. With celebrity girls, like, it's all about the high end clothing, they just think more about themselves than other people. I just kinda want a down to earth girl who can have fun. And I live in Alaska so she's gotta be able to deal with the cold.... She can be classy and spend some money on some shit but I mean there are some women out there that go crazy and spend thousands of dollars on shoes and whatever."

This is all theoretical right now, of course, at least according to Levi. Asked if there were a lot of women throwing themselves at him, he calmly conceded that there were. "Yeah, it's uh - I've learned how to say no quick. Trust me, it was hard. I mean, I was just like—there are some good looking women just throwing themselves at you, and you just have to say no." Why do you have to say no? "I'm not looking for any trouble. I'm just trying to keep my head straight now. I just don't need that right now."

Levi hasn't often been credited with sage judgment, but I think this counts. And if it's possible to keep your head screwed on straight while plunging nakedly into the media circus, he seems to be doing it. He says he doesn't read a lot of the press about him, and that it doesn't bother him when it's negative. "You got good and bad with everything you do. You can't let it get to you. You know who you are and be yourself, and you know, you can't let something get to you."

If he knows he's a plaything for tabloids and a novelty object for media liberals who are amused by his crossover from "fucking redneck" to East Coast media darling, from shotgun-marriage, red state values Republican convention prop to grinning thorn in the side of the queen of values voters - well, Levi is keeping stoic. As Justin Bond and John Cameron Mitchell — living exemplars of everything the Sarah Palins of the world find abhorrent - introduced Levi for his award for mainstream to porn crossover, they cheerfully mocked his very existence. They did give him props "for the bravery to be himself despite the pictures other people want to paint of him, and for taking control of his image and letting us all enjoy in it." I watched Levi from my table. His facial expression never changed.

Live, From The Box, It's The Fleshbot Awards! [Fleshbot - NSFW]

Earlier: Levi Johnston Wants a Woman Who's Smart, Funny, and Not Opinionated

Send an email to Irin Carmon, the author of this post, at irin@jezebel.com.