Please. S'il Vous Plait. Por Favor. Per Favore. Please. Hands shot up all over for Al Gore when he came backstage. What did the international press want to know? Maybe something about how it was to star in an Oscar-winning film? Or how they can help stop global warming? Or how can they fix the wipers on their Priuses? Um, no. Two questioners addressed him as ''Mr. President,'' and it continued from there, with journalists imploring him to take on Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. For the record, Gore said: ''I do not have plans to become a candidate for office again.'' Pretty clear in any language.

Aw, How Sweet! Still, the winner of 2000's presidential popular vote was at the center of the evening's most darling backstage moment. Just as Gore and Co. were walking off the Q&A dais, Melissa Etheridge won for her Inconvenient Truth song ''I Need to Wake Up.'' Gore and Co. cheered and jumped up and down and then rushed over to watch her acceptance speech on the press room monitors. The film's director, Davis Guggenheim, stood with his arm around Gore's shoulder and patted him on the back when Melissa gave the former veep a shout-out.