/usr/include/curl/curlbuild.h contains ABI-specific lines like: #define CURL_SIZEOF_LONG 8 Meaning that building curl with say a 64-bit compiler, then cross-compiling or multilib-ing with -m32 will fail. It is easily fixed by adding this line to the bottom of the src_install function: prep_ml_includes /usr/include/curl 'inherit multilib' is already present for some reason.
I should mention; currently of course on, say, amd64 'emerge curl' only installs 32-bit curl, but in the future there will be sensible multilib! I'm closing this bug to RESOLVED->LATER, as it won't make a difference to portage at this time.