WHILE IT’S COMMON for the glitterati to take up political causes, the reverse–a politician taking on glitterati status–is rare, at least at the level that Al Gore has achieved. The formerly stiff, un-sexy Gore has become a bona fide “Rock Star,” according to a recent Washington Post headline. The front-page article reports that, “No velvet rope can stop him. He rolls with Diddy. He is on a first-name basis, for real, with Ludacris.” Never before has a former vice president been so trendy.

The Gore craze took off with the success of his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, which since its release last May has become the third-highest-grossing documentary in movie history. His pop-cultural clout reached fever pitch this past month when, less than two weeks before An Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar, Gore announced his series of “Live Earth” benefit concerts, slated for July and featuring pop music demigods such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Akon, and Fall Out Boy, all top-10 artists on the MTV charts.