Ian Somerhalder talks oil spill, Twitter, his 'Sexy Beast' status, 'Lost' and more

So it's a pretty typical day here at The Washington Post. Reporters are tapping away at their keyboards, Web producers and editors are busily updating our home page, Boone from "Lost" is in the building...

Okay, so that's not so typical -- and it's also not a joke. Boone Carlyle, also known as Damon from "The Vampire Diaries" and the actor Ian Somerhalder, is at Post headquarters today to participate in a Washington Post Live conference on energy policy. Somerhalder has gotten engaged in such matters as a result of his involvement in the cleanup effort following the BP oil spill in the gulf.

I spent a few minutes with Somerhalder this morning, discussing how he has galvanized his many Twitter followers, whether he would ever consider seeking political office, his status as America's sexiest beast (according to Entertainment Weekly readers) and -- in honor of yesterday's sixth anniversary of the crash of Oceanic 815 -- how he felt about the "Lost" finale.