‘Affair with Laurie David’ blamed for Al Gore split

Laurie David, the former wife of Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David, has reacted angrily to a report in a US gossip paper that she had an affair with former vice president Al Gore after working with him on his Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

A report in today's edition of the Star claims Laurie David and Al Gore had a two-year affair, which was the trigger for the recent surprise announcement that the former VP-turned-environmentalist and his wife, Tipper Gore, were breaking up after 40 years of marriage.

"Al and Laurie went from friends to lovers," the Star quotes an unnamed insider as saying. "It couldn't be avoided."

Laurie David, who co-produced An Inconvenient Truth and is a deeply committed environmentalist, told the Huffington Post that the Star story was a total fabrication. She said she's been in "a serious relationship" since her 2007 divorce from Larry David, the writer-producer famous for co-creating the Seinfeld show before reinventing himself as a sitcom star in Curb.

"I adore both Al and Tipper," said Laurie. "I look at them both as family."

Laurie David's agent, Dorian Karchmar, told People magazine the Star report was "completely, patently false."

Al and Tipper Gore announced their break-up on June 1, saying it was "a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together". The announcement took Washington completely by surprise, and has caused much speculation, despite the couple's friends telling the media there was no affair on either side.

However, the speculation over the Gores' break-up has been minor in comparison to the stories which circulated when Laurie and Larry David split up in 2007.

There were reports that Laurie had become infatuated with a 44-year-old building contractor, Bart Thorpe, who was supervising renovations on the Davids' 76-acre property on Martha's Vineyard.

Thorpe was described as "a shirtless hunk" and as "a hottie but dumb" by neighbours.

"Bart is so besotted he doesn't know which end is up," said one local at the time. "He thinks Laurie David is the greatest person in the world. He says she's single-handedly saving the planet. It's sad." ·