Celebrity News

Ken you believe this DC liar?

Washington’s “Talented Mr. Ripley,” Nelson Lewis, has been posing as former Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis after setting up a fake e-mail account in his name.

Nelson — pretending to be Kenneth, who was pushed out of the bank in 2009 — called Page Six to complain after we called him a “social climber” who was arrested on Nov. 17 for wearing a congressional pin and claiming to be Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston. He also handed out business cards with the title “Minister Plenipotentiary for Artistic Endeavors of the Embassy of the Bahamas.”

Nelson sent us an e-mail from kennethD.lewis1@bankofamerica.com titled, “Page Six Correction,” and then called claiming to be Ken — boasting he was in Aspen with his wife, Donna, and insisting Nelson was a close and dear relative.

Posing as Ken Lewis, he said: “We are distant cousins, once removed. But I admire him. Nelson is talented, he won an Emmy. He is just misunderstood. He was wearing the pin as a mark of respect to the congressman. He is spending some time out of Washington and pushing reset on his life.”

But when we challenged him, he broke down and admitted he was really Nelson — who faces six months in jail and a $5,000 fine for posing as a member of Congress. He said he’s in the Menninger Clinic in Texas receiving treatment for chronic lying.

Nelson, who admitted he isn’t related to Ken Lewis, still claims his grandfather was J. Curtis Lewis, a former mayor of Savannah, Ga. He said, “I thought the real Ken Lewis wouldn’t complain. I just wanted something positive out there. I have a problem and am getting treatment.”

He then went on to blame talk show host Laura Ingraham, for whom he worked until last April. He said, “She emasculated me.”

An Ingraham rep responded, “We understood that His Excellency had left his three-month stint with the show because he had been offered the CEO position of Facebook, or was it the editorship of The Economist?

“We are relieved, however, that he is excelling in his new position as the Minister Plenipotentiary of Fictionalized Endeavors.” A rep for Ken Lewis had no comment.