Under the bus goes international

Barack Obama's under the bus tour claimed its latest victim yesterday as he coolly dismissed rumors he is good friends with actress turned dreadful singer Scarlett Johansson.

Johansson, one Obama's most outspoken supporters, has listed Obama among her "five dads." (Joining Woody Allen, Tom Waits, Bill Murray and Bob Dylan.) She made this distinction even creepier by later joking she was engaged to Obama.

While Scarlett has conceded that after their glorious first meeting at a private fundraiser she hasn't been able to spend that much time with her political daddy, she has insisted they have a very healthy back and forth email relationship and breathlessly gushed “someone like the senator who is constantly traveling and constantly ‘on’ — how can he return these personal e-mails?"

Not true, according to Obama, telling reporters he only emailed Johansson once, after an aid had forwarded him her message, and the extent of his response was "Thank you, Scarlett, for doing what you do."

Obviously somebody is mistaken. And while I don't think very highly of Barack's general truthiness, I trust a 23-year old entertainment type even less. On the off-chance Scarlett isn't exaggerating and the incriminating emails get out . . . we are going to have ourselves a bizarre and not insignificant scandal.

But yesterday Barack wasn't the only political figure to ditch a hot celebrity female with whom there has been talk of a non-biological family relation. Nelson Mandela also got in the act by dumping "adopted granddaughter" Naomi Campbell from his official 90th birthday party.

Now Mandela is far from the under the bus tossing sort -- just ask current world enemy number one but still Friend of Nelson Robert Mugabe. Meaning Naomi's transgression must have been a lot worse than claiming she had the Noble Price winner's personal email address.

In fact the supermodel was convicted of assaulting two police officers at London's Heathrow airport and calling them "crackers." But the kicker was she did so while wearing a cap which read 46664 -- Mandela's ID number during the 27 years he spent in prison for seeking racial justice.

Adopted adult granddaughters never learn, do they?