Lauren's love life
by Rush & Molly
nydailynews.com

Presidential niece Lauren Bush is doing her part for Middle East relations. The fashion-model daughter of Neil and Sharon Bush is dating a hunky Palestinian-American.

Nineteen-year-old Tammer Qaddumi and the 18-year-old Bush both grew up in Houston. Qaddumi was president of the student body at Memorial High School, co-valedictorian and a member of the varsity basketball team.

This fall, he started at Dubya's alma mater, Yale. Lauren, meanwhile, is down at Princeton. But the two were together Monday night at the March of Dimes Gourmet Gala at the Palace Hotel. Though they shied away from photographers, our spies say they couldn't keep their hands off each other.

"She was stroking his cheek," says one guest. "He was kissing her shoulders."

"She's a wonderful girl," says Tammer's father, Maher Qaddumi, an architectural engineer who grew up in the West Bank and is active in Houston's Arab community. "We love her. She and Tammer are birds of a feather. They're both very motivated."

A rep for Lauren, who just shot Tommy Hilfiger's new campaign, says Tammer was "her date," but that she's "not serious with anyone right now."

Indeed. Also said to be jockeying for her eye is David de Rothschild, London-based son of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.

Lauren's parents, for their part, are still trying to hold their marriage together. Neil, who filed for divorce last summer, continues to run his business in Austin. But a friend says that, when he's in Houston, he lives in the family's house there.