All Eyes on Gore, Schmoozing for 'Truth'

Movie-screening etiquette: How to greet the star after a film about, you know, the potential destruction of life on Earth as we know it? "Loved it, man! Gonna rock the box office!" feels a little tacky.

So it was that guests at the D.C. premiere of Al Gore 's global-warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," approached the former veep outside the National Geographic Society screening room Wednesday with furrowed brows, wincing smiles and earnest, lingering handshakes. "You're doing good work," one man murmured.

Gore seemed energized by the accolades, doling out bear hugs and schmoozing late despite a brutal PR schedule (premieres in L.A. and Atlanta earlier this week, a flight to Cannes the next day). The movie opens in theaters here June 2.

"He has a lot of stamina," said Tipper Gore . "He has a lot of passion about this." She took issue with the notion that the flick is a downer. "It ends with a message of 'we can do it.' He doesn't want people to go from denial to despair."

Musician Moby (chunky frames, nice blazer), Lynda Carter (all-black outfit, tallest woman in the room) and Queen Noor were among the celebs decorating the usual crowd of political/media/nonprofit scenesters sipping cocktails and eating shrimp from renewable bamboo-stalk plates.

Soon as the guest of honor drifted from earshot, the conversations shifted from "How can we offset our C0{+2} emissions?" to "Is he going to run?"

Euan Blair, Burning Bridges in D.C.?

Yale or Harvard? The Blair "which" question.(Jeff J Mitchell - Reuters)

Turns out Euan Blair's 2 a.m. bender at Madam's Organ last month was sort of his farewell to D.C. Around the time of that lively evening (he and pals were chastised for scorching their table with candles), the British prime minister's son cut short the second of two internships on Capitol Hill. The 22-year-old Bristol University grad completed about 11 weeks with Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) this winter before switching over to the office of Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), where he was supposed to serve a similar term. Roll Call yesterday said a "bored" Blair bailed after just a couple weeks. Maybe his mind was elsewhere? Sources told us he has lately been weighing offers from Harvard's Kennedy School vs. a Yale program in international studies. In a statement yesterday, Harman said simply: "I'm disappointed that his graduate school plans prevented him from staying on as an intern in my office, and would welcome him back."

Are We Overbooked This Weekend?

Author! Author? A glut of celebs are descending on Washington this weekend for the massive BookExpo 2006, where scribes -- and those posing as scribes -- charm booksellers into buying their tomes.

The four-day expo features plenty of actor/comedian types hawking novels or advice, parenting and lessons-learned books (assuming you need advice from Bob Newhart, Paula Poundstone, Tommy Chong, Stephen Baldwin, Harry Shearer, Jennifer O'Neill, Alan Thicke, Meg Tilly or Jim Belushi) .

There will also be lots of the usual political suspects, as well as newcomers: Ted Kennedy, Mary Cheney, Barack Obama, Doro Bush Koch, Tim Russert, Gary Hart, George McGovern, William Cohen, Pat Buchanan, Ariana Huffington and Karenna Gore Schiff -- and Cindy Sheehan. And then there's as former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey with his version of the gay political scandal that led to his resignation.

John Updike, Cynthia Ozick, James Patterson, David Baldacci, Joyce Carol Oates, R.L. Stine, Jules Feiffer , and Rita Mae Brown will also be around to keep things, well, bookish.

GET THIS . . .

· Sean Penn may have to dye his hair white and pack on a few pounds. He's set to play former White House counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke in the film version of Clarke's book, "Against All Enemies," reports ABC News. The book depicts events inside the White House leading up to the 9/11 attacks. Just speculating, but you think Clarke/Penn might be the hero?

· Laura Bush got a early peek yesterday at "The Green House," the National Building Museum's exhibit on sustainable architecture that opens tomorrow. She then dropped by another show there, "Newer Orleans," a look at rebuilding the city post-Katrina.