A Kiss Is Still a Kiss

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/05/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

A Kiss Is Still a Kiss With the lengthy lip-lock that Presidential candidate Al Gore planted on his wife Tipper (following her introduction of him at the Democratic Convention last week) still causing tongues to, er, wag, this week's issue of PEOPLE actually measures the kiss -- time-wise, that is. The magazine's kissing timer was hauled out to see how the Gore smooch stacked up against some of the more famous onscreen smackers. And the results? Al Gore is a virtual kissing bandit. His and Tipper's kiss, though passionate, lasted a mere 3 seconds. Compare that to the 7-second smooch Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) gave Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) when he proposed marriage in "Gone With the Wind," the 8-second buss on the beach between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in "From Here to Eternity" and the winning 15-second face-off that kept Julia Roberts and Richard Gere cooing in "Runaway Bride." George W. and Laura Bush, pucker up.