So, what changed the mind of Stephen Hanks, the man who got in a videotaped altercation with Bristol Palin over her mother’s perceived demonic breathing powers and general whore-iness? After the video went viral, Hanks seemed to double down on his statements, but has now released a full apology. Was he persuaded to change his tune by the harsh glare of the media spotlight, the millions of hate mail and threats we can assume he received, or, simply, because actually watching footage of oneself screaming in the face of a person half your age can be a rather sobering experience.

TMZ tracked down the guy who hurled profanities at Bristol Palin in West Hollywood. Stephen Hanks was unrepentant for his tirade against Palin, in fact, he “felt good to get it off his chest.” Hanks just happened to be at the bar, and didn’t realize he was being videotaped. He denied he was an actor or a plant, just a person who was very passionate about his beliefs. He said he thought the Palins were “dangerous” and “trash from Wasilla.”

Guys, great news! For everyone watching this video and worrying that you don’t have enough reason to hate all of humanity this morning, we’ve got you covered! Here’s a video of a grown man getting in Bristol Palin’s face at a restaurant and yelling that her mother is a “whore” and “the devil.”

Whoo! It’s Everyone Sucks Friday here at Mediaite, isn’t it?

Looks like Levi Johnston‘s Deer in the Headlights will be a swinging rebuttle to Bristol Palin‘s own sort of accusatory memoir, Not Afraid Of Life. According to the AP, “Levi Johnston writes in his upcoming book that his ex-girlfriend Bristol Palin was so angry about her mother’s pregnancy with son Trig that she wanted to get pregnant, too.” And so, Bristol vengeful and Levi admittedly “too dumb” to use protection, the two decided sometime in March of 2008 to “get pregnant.” Whether or not they were decided on the “having a baby” part that follows remains undiscussed, but seems unlikely as the two split soon after Tripp‘s birth.

Today, ABC announced the line-up for the upcoming (and 13th) season. The 12 “celebrity” crew, motley as ever, includes George Clooney‘s ex-girl friend Elizabetta Canalis, Kardashian brother Rob, and Casey Anthony obsessive Nancy Grace, among others. And with the competition still several weeks away, the announcement page has already attracted hundreds and hundreds of commenters, the majority of whom seem concerned to see Chaz Bono‘s name on the list.

Squished somewhere in between images of airbrushed ladybits, the September issue of Playboy will include an interview with Mercede Johnston, sister of Bristol Palin‘s former boyfriend, Levi Johnston. Following closely in her brother’s footsteps, Mercede not only poses nude, but aslo offers a slew of salacious tidbits about her famous would-be in-laws, including rumors of drug abuse.

Bill Maher got a fairly hearty media lashing for a program riddled with crass jokes at the expense of Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann last week, so naturally he opened this week’s show with… crass jokes at the expense of Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann. While the latter got off easy for her migranes, Maher spent a good deal of his monologue mocking the Palins for welcoming a new grandchild, quipping, “I think they think abstinence is Latin for ‘no anal.’”

Louis C.K. is one of the funniest comedians working today and his FX show Louie is one of the best comedies on air. I’m not even gonna put a “Columnist” tag on this post since that’s not opinion, that’s fact (ok, fine, it’s my opinion, but it’s pretty darn close to a fact). That doesn’t mean he’s perfect though. He can make mistakes and he’ll admit them. One such mistake? Getting drunk on a plane and Tweeting graphic insults about Sarah Palin just days before going on The Tonight Show and guesting alongside Bristol Palin. In an interview with GQ, C.K. describes why he regrets saying what he did.

HLN’s Dr. Drew Pinsky interviews Bristol Palin tonight, and he presses her on the question of whether she consented to the sex that left her pregnant at 17. “It was a night that I look back on with the adult eyes that I have now,” Palin says. “And I just realize, that was so stupid. That was so stupid to lie to my Mom, to have those series of bad decisions I made all in one night.” About that night, Pinsky presses Palin on whether the sex was consensual, or, perhaps, date rape. Asking about Palin’s intoxication, he says “in California, that would be a rape. Is it the same in Alaska?”

Bristol Palin, still tirelessly promoting her new book, paid a visit to Fox News to discuss, among other things, the new reality series she has in the work. Palin says that as long as people keep commenting on the comings and goings of her family, she might as well give them positive things to talk about:

We might as well be doing good things. And, hopefully, with my book and with this new show coming up, it’ll be doing good, positive, productive things.

Bristol Palin‘s appearance on The Tonight Show started off with a bang, with Palin poking fun at host Jay Leno‘s signature feature — his chin — after he subtly asked her about her new, surgically enhanced visage. But it was Leno’s other guest, Don Rickles, who really got the party going, as Don Rickles is wont to do. A word of warning: Don’t invite this guy to your bachelorette party unless you’re prepared to do something regrettable involving an inflatable alligator.

Although it may seem like Bristol Palin has been talking about losing her virginity to Levi Johnston doing publicity for her new book forever, she isn’t quite done yet. However, after this interview with Barbara Walters and the ladies of the View, Palin might be considering heading back to Alaska because things are really starting to get awkward.

Today on Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor and professional psychiatrist Keith Ablow gave his assessment of HBO’s Bill Maher based on his recent rant about Bristol Palin. Maher, you’ll recall, went after the younger Palin for a passage in her new book, Not Afraid of Life, where she describes losing her virginity to Levi Johnston, her then-boyfriend and father of her child.

At last night’s Iowa premiere of The Undefeated, the documentary on Sarah Palin, her so-called “man in Iowa,” lawyer Peter Singleton, told a reporter for UK’s The Telegraph that it would be “unthinkable” to suggest Palin wouldn’t run for president in 2012.

Palin’s visit to Iowa has prompted a new wave of questions about her presidential aspirations, as some in the state have suggested she would be taking the opportunity to meet with certain caucus-goers.

Bristol Palin certainly knows how to get people talking. She recently told Popeater’s Rob Shuter that GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann – a woman who has often been compared to Sarah Palin – has basically been jocking her mother’s signature style, to borrow the parlance of today’s youth.

Bristol Palin is out promoting her new book chronicling her life since that fateful day that Senator John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate and thrust the Palin family into the national spotlight. Although Bristol told the Fox & Friends hosts her true thoughts about Levi Johnston (he’s a “gnat”) and Meghan McCain (she defines her whole life as being a politician’s child), what most people are interested in is whether Bristol can provide any clues to the future plans of her mother?

The release of 20-year-old Bristol Palin‘s new memoir, Not Afraid of Life, has gotten tongues wagging about everything from how exactly she conceived her child to just how much she got along with the McCain family during the 2008 campaign. During an interview with Sean Hannity tonight, the new author chatted about why she wrote a book and the experiences that have shaped her since becoming a household name.

You may be aware that there has been one persistent question surrounding a passage of Bristol Palin‘s new memoir wherein she describes her first ever sexual encounter, with then-boyfriend Levi Johnston, as being fueled by too many wine coolers. Was this young woman, people wanted to know, raped? Was she coerced into having sex? Could she have said no if she wanted to?

Palin is addressing those concerns, telling USA Today that the drunken encounter was “a dumb decision,” and sharing that she had agreed to it with the hope that she and Johnston would one day marry.

After examining President Barack Obama’s leadership capabilities earlier on tonight’s Real Time, Bill Maher went to some familiar territory at the end of the program: Palin-bashing. This time, though, it wasn’t Sarah: it was daughter Bristol, over her new memoir, Not Afraid of Life. And judging by just how far he went to bash the younger Palin, Maher didn’t feel like he had much to fear, either.

Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaska governor and current Fox News contributor Sarah Palin, is coming out with a book, Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far, in which she details the various reasons she dislikes various people. First up: Meghan McCain.

Hot off her star turn on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Bristol Palin has landed her own show. Or, as the New York Post puts it, “Bristol Palin’s assault on the reality show world continues.”

BIO has announced the deal, describing the latest Palin family TV adventure as a 10-episode half hour series (sadly, it’s still untitled) that puts single mom Bristol in Los Angeles, where she cares for son Tripp, works at a charity, and lives–seriously–with two former child stars turned singers:

Washington, DC is often referred to as “Hollywood for ugly people,” but in recent years, the town has enjoyed one night of the year when it blossoms into a Hollywood swan: The White House Correspondents Dinner, aka “Nerdprom.” As the dinner’s profile has risen, so has the demand for tickets to see, and be seen, at an event that is ostensibly a celebration of DC’s least glamorous denizens. Even as this year’s Seth Meyers-headlined fete has had to compete with the Royal Wedding, the clamor to get in has reached an all-time zenith.

When Bristol Palin was named the “teen ambassador” for the abstinence-pushing Candie’s Foundation, she said she’d be a perfect “living example” to teenagers considering having sex. As tax documents have now proven, she was completely right. Teenagers everywhere can learn from Palin that, if you get pregnant, merely become a “teen ambassador so that you can make $262,000 and figure out your baby’s college tuition just like that!

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee continued his campaign to unseat Charlie Sheen as shiny media object of the moment by slamming Best Actress winner Natalie Portman for her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Huckabee took Portman to task Thursday, in an appearance on Mike Medved‘s radio show, for “glamoriz(ing)” single motherhood, an opinion he shares with Fox News colleague Sarah Palin. Like Palin, though, Huckabee also seems unaware of the existence of Bristol Palin.

Abstinence advocate and pseudo-motivational speaker Bristol Palin received some bad news this week when Washington University in St. Louis revoked her invitation to speak at their “Sexual Responsibility Week.” Given that the university had previously welcomed personalities such as Van Jones to campus, many are arguing that the younger Palin’s exclusion from the event was political, and last night/this morning the Red Eye crew stood up for her ability to teach on the matter.