SALON

Friday, Jan 24, 2003 9:00 PM UTC

Gore does the white stuff

Former veep canoodles with celebs at Sundance; Jerry Springer to trade chair throwing for a Senate seat? Plus: Nicole spotted snogging amid the sushi; J.Lo to be unhitched.

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Topics: Al Gore, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears,

The race for the next Democratic presidential nomination may have kicked off without him, but please, don’t bother to shed a tear for former veep Al Gore. He’s doing just fine, thanks.

In fact, this week, as the current would-be nominees busily plot their courses toward imagined victory, Gore has been plotting only scenic paths down the slopes of Park City, Utah, where he’s enjoying a skiing vacation with his family and rubbing shoulders with Sundancing celebs.

“Things are good!” a rested-looking Gore told Salon’s returning national correspondent Jake Tapper, who is covering the Sundance Film Festival for the Sundance Channel’s nightly show, when the two crossed paths at the Grappa Italian Café in Park City on Wednesday night.

Though he was there for the skiing, Gore said he had managed to catch the premiere of “American Splendor,” about underground cartoonist Harvey Pekar, but Tapper tells us Gore attracted little notice in a town currently populated by the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Britney Spears, Sean Penn and Bob Dylan.

Then again, he did have a little trouble making it to the restroom unnoticed. Tapper says that as soon as Gore stood up in search of the little boys room, he was “besieged with handshakes from the blue-state film industry types briefly in red-state Utah for the festival.”

Just so long as no one tried to shake his hand while he was actually at the urinal …

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And while we’re talking politics …

Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

Jerry Springer is hinting yet again that he might run for U.S. Senate in Ohio next year. The former mayor of Cincinnati (before that pesky check-to-the-prostitute incident) and trash-TV talk show host, a Democrat, has hopes of unseating Republican Sen. George Voinovich.

“I have the resources,” Springer told the Associated Press this week before taking the podium to address the Ohio Democratic Party Chairs Association — presumably not the kind of chairs Jerry’s guests are famous for throwing.

As for his television infamy, Springer is unsure whether it’ll be a help or a hindrance.

“There are pluses and minuses,” he said. “The plus is that I’m known by everybody. The minus is that I’m known by everybody.”

Then again, I’m sure he’s got the “My cross-dressing dog is in love with my neighbor’s cat” vote all sewn up …

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Awwww, poor li’l bizkit boy

“Isn’t it amazing how something very simple, pure, sweet and innocent can be blown so far out of proportion? … Next time I’ll fall in love with a tree.”

– Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst marveling that his relationship with Britney Spears is big news to the world, on his band’s official Web site.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Juicy bits

Has Nicole Kidman bounced back into the world of romance? Us magazine reports that the Golden Globe winner and Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest “have been kicking it for over a month now” — since Leonardo DiCaprio set them up — and were recently spotted “making out” at New York’s Nobu restaurant. Kidman has apparently confirmed to the magazine that she and Q-Tip are, um, friends. Well, you know what they say, clean ears, warm heart …

Hopping from waxy celebrity matches to waning ones, Jennifer Lopez’s marriage to Cris Judd is finally nearing its official end. According to the BBC, the split will be final this weekend — with Judd standing to snag a $15 million divorce settlement. So much for “Love Don’t Cost a Thing.”

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Miss something? Read Tuesday’s Nothing Personal.

More Amy Reiter.

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