Author of 'Love Story' Disputes a Gore Story (Published 1997) (2024)

Erich Segal, author of the weeper ''Love Story,'' said today that only the emotional family baggage of the romantic hero in his novel was inspired by a young Al Gore.

Mr. Segal knocked down recent reports, based on comments by the Vice President, that Mr. Gore and his wife, Tipper, were the models for the young lovers in his 1970 book and the subsequent movie starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw.

Those reports were half-true, Mr. Segal said: The character of the preppy Harvard hockey player Oliver Barrett 4th was modeled on both Mr. Gore and his college roommate, the actor Tommy Lee Jones.

But it was Mr. Jones who inspired the half of the character that was a sensitive stud, a macho athlete with the heart of a poet, Mr. Segal said. The author attributed to Mr. Gore only the character's controlling father and feeling that his family was pressuring him to follow in Dad's footsteps.