In 2008, on CNN, we saw Anderson Cooper jump into the ocean off the coast of Cape Town, and swim with great white sharks (below). On Sunday’s 60 Minutes, a CBS newsmagazine, you’re going to see the exact same thing (above). Except there’s one crucial difference.
Back in ’08, Coop was a pussy, diving into the great white’s South African waters in a cage. Lame! What kind of non-life-threatening stunt is that? But this time around, he’s going in without any protection. Just a wetsuit between he and these beautiful terrors. Looks like somebody has grown a pair!
(Watch the video not for the beautiful underwater footage, but to hear Anderson Cooper do a voiceover narration for Anderson Cooper.)
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David Ehrenstein
Oh Coop we know hoe Butch you are.
Now come out.
tavdy79
Hmm, so he’s got the balls to swim with sharks, but not to admit publicly he’s a great big flamer?
fredo777
will there ever be mention of Anderson Cooper here without someone insisting that he come out?
Scott
I knew he would jump the shark before coming out publicly!
BTW this is really reckless and irresponsible journalism – really WTF is the purpose of such nonsense?
Scott
@fredo777: No. You can’t sell your personal image to the public so shamelessly, revel in the response, then refuse to answer questions about your “personal life!”
scott ny'er
He’s not gay. There’s no proof.
romeo
Scott, are you serious? 😀 But, nonetheless, this has been hashed over a zillion times here. In his position, he’s done as much as he can. At least for the time being.
fredo777
@Scott: You can’t? Or you just don’t think he should be able to? Imo, he can come out when he wants to. Or not. As was already stated, Anderson is a journalist + travels all over the world (including some places where they are violently anti-gay). If that’s his reason for keeping his sexuality quiet, I don’t have a problem with it. Tbh, I don’t have a problem with it either way. I’ve made this whole point about hounding celebs to come out in the past, though.
Hyhybt
If it’s publicly known not only that he has a boyfriend, but who he is and what he does and that they’ve bought a house together, why would he even dignify the question “so, does this mean you’re gay?” with an answer?
Hyhybt
If it’s publicly known not only that he has a boyfriend, but who he is and what he does and that they’ve bought a house together, why would he even dignify the question “so, does this mean you’re gay?” with an answer? There comes a point when it no longer *needs* to be said.
Tonic
@Hyhybt:
He should dignify the question because it shows he’s not ashamed of himself, being gay, or of his boyfriend. Sorry, but acknowledging your life and boyfriend is a normal thing…especially when you’ve written an autobiography and spilled on topics like the suicide of family members etc.
C’mon…you are SOoooo giving him a free pass and you know it.
He’s a coward.
Walter Mitty
He’s truly a coward and not only that, but unpleasant if you have the misfortune of seeing him up close in public. He gives off the worst vibes – wavering between fear and swagger, but never a friendly hello. I sense he is emotionally twisted about having consciously made himself part of the news rather than merely reporting the news, despite his protests to the contrary.
fredo777
@Walter Mitty: somehow i doubt that.
adam
@Walter Mitty: Whatever response you saw was probably him reacting to the tinfoil hat you were wearing to deliver the psychic waves to your brain.
The man is gossiped about obsessively and he has at least half a dozen stalkers. No shocker if he isn’t getting friendly with every stranger who comes by. You’ll have a better chance for cheery hellos from all the gay TV news folks whose glass closets and sex lives are ignored while everyone obsesses on Anderson Cooper. Those guys have plenty to be cheery about with him absorbing all the blows.
rrr
On the environmental progam AC did a couple years ago he did a cageless dive after the cage dive. This is the second cageless dive he’s done on TV.
The idea is supposed to be that you see sharks in a more natural way and behaving normally instead of crazed up and attacking a cage. Not something I would do, but it’s his life and his decisions to make.
Walter Mitty
@adam: Aw, poor guy that Anderson. It must be tough living in a world where you can’t be friendly to the little people (whom you owe your celebrity to, at least in part) because you fear them so much.
condor
He’s a mediocre journalist , period.
adam
@Walter Mitty: He has kept a reputation for being pleasant and reasonably accommodating to fans who approach him. Under the circumstances it’s crazy to expect him to actively initiate things or reach out the hands of friendship everywhere to strangers who are at best about to run off and spill their guts all over online. You clearly already disliked him before you saw him and you aren’t part of the fanbase that got him where he is.
Walter Mitty
@adam: That’s nonsense. He cultivates a nice guy image on TV but disses the public unless the cameras are rolling. I was never in his “fan base,” true. On the other hand, I did not dislike him until I saw him every other day at a certain gym I used to go to, where he ignored everyone except his trainer. (I won’t mention the gym name lest the stalkers are listening in!)
Anne
@Walter Mitty: That’s kind of a big generalisation to make based only on your own experience. Like Adam says, I’ve heard from several fans he was nice when they met him, and read two accounts of him calling fans at a request to surprise them on their birthday. I’m not going to blame him for not having his happy-face on all the time, I don’t socialize at the gym either.
fredo777
@condor: “He’s a mediocre journalist, period.”
You’re a mediocre journalist. Bam.
Walter Mitty
@Anne: Oh yeah, I bet. Do you work for him such that you would hear from his fans about how wonderful he is to them?
@condor – he’s not mediocre, just over-rated
Anne
@Walter Mitty: No, I’m interested in the media and people who work in it. I regularly visit several sites that focus on those, which is where I read these people’s accounts. You just don’t want to believe that because you want to dislike him.
JR
@Anne: Mmm Hmm….Then post the links of these “accounts” and prove it.
Cal
Walter Mitty’s comments about Anderson’s off screen behavior is very interesting. I’ve always figured he was guarded and aloof, mainly because he can’t trust anyone, but I never thought he was a mean guy. Most people who have met him say he’s fairly nice, but I can imagine that he’s not the most friendly person outside the studio when it comes to dealing with strangers, he’d have to be pretty careful about who he talks to because there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there who can’t wait to gossip and perhaps mischaracterize him.
Anne
@JR: Ugh, crap. Do you know how hard it is to find random comments with google if you only remember “Anderson Cooper” and “Birthday”? Anyway, here’s one account, if you want more, then google is all yours!:
http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=3089092&view=findpost&p=1150402
Michael
It should say a lot about the United States and mankind when a great white seems less vicious than the American public.
TheInsider
@Anne: Wow Anne, you really must be either an Anderson groupie or you are paid by his staff. Every time there’s a piece, mostly irrelevant, on Cooper, you pop up out of nowhere to defend him. Starting to believe you are Mr. Cooper himself…
Oscar
@fredo777: Well, he is mediocre. Sorry to break the news to you bud.
Mr.Jones
And this is important why? Please remind me.
Anne
@TheInsider: That’s a lame excuse to dismiss my opinion. I’m not a groupie, but as I said, I like him. I’m not the only person defending him either, yet somehow I’m the one who gets all this groupie/CNN employee/Cooper sockpuppet shit. People who dislike him comment several times on these threads too, which I would say is much more of a waste of one’s time than reading stuff about people you actually like. I don’t pop up out of nowhere, I hang around this site, visit almost daily, and read what interests me, and I occasionally comment on other topics too, only as they’re not as controversial as those about Cooper there’s not much need to make big or multiple posts so you might have missed that. Enough with the personal attacks, already.
jeffree
The secret behind comments on any blog is that people are here 2 express their opinions, not 2 change their opinions. I think most just want to have their opinions confirmed !!
So speak loud & proud if it makes u feel good, but dont be so deluded into thinking youre likely to change minds.
sorry to burst anyones balloon!
rrr
@ Walter Mitty
“On the other hand, I did not dislike him until I saw him every other day at a certain gym I used to go to, where he ignored everyone except his trainer.”
A lot of busy people don’t go to the gym to socialize. It’s not something to get judgmental about.
Plus you aren’t naive enough to have missed that if AC approaches a guy at the gym to start a chat everyone there including the guy he starts talking to is going to assume AC has the hots for him, right? That sets things up for hassle with the guy and with gossip. Gossip columns and blogs report on AC in the gym on top of the website commenters who dish about sighting him there. He’s like a bug in a jar.
“(I won’t mention the gym name lest the stalkers are listening in!)”
It’s already well known online what gyms he goes to because people do so many gym sightings on him and are so nosey about him.
adam
@Walter Mitty: You are making lots of crazy leaps for someone who has done nothing but see the man across a gym.
Unless you saw fans approaching him in the gym and getting turned away I don’t see how he was dissing his public by being shy at the gym and sticking with his trainer.
jeffree
See, all this trying to convince other people they are wrong and we are right DOES NOT WORK!
If anyone has changed his/her mind based on other commenters, please state so, or 4ever hold your peace!!
p.s. Unlike Mister Cooper Anderson (g), I dont need 2 swim with sharks, ‘cuz I work with republican fundamentallists. Aint I braver? 😀
afrolito
Why should Anderson Cooper be expected to engage with “fans” while he’s working out at the gym? The last thing anyone wants to do while having a serious workout in the gym, is to have mindless chats with looney strangers excited to see him in the flesh. As long as he’s not being obnoxious, and needlessly hostile, then I don’t see what the problem is. He deserves his space and privacy like all the rest of us, without having to engage with some random idiot.
I’m sure Anderson will publicly come out when he’s good and ready. He’s not hiding his boyfriend, faux dating some beard, or harming gay rights, so what’s the problem? The only person he has to be true too, is himself. Not the “gay community”.
Whatever that is.
Hyhybt
If anyone has changed his/her mind based on other commenters, please state so, or 4ever hold your peace!!
Occasionally, yes.
Walter Mitty
@afrolito: It was more than that. He gave off the distinct impression of rudeness without saying a thing. For example, if you unexpectedly met him in a tight corner and one person had to yield, he immediately would look away and rush in front of you first. If you went near him (i.e., on a machine next to the one he was using in a crowded gym), he puffed up his chest and gave off a distinct air of anxiety. He gave off the unmistakable impression: Do not approach me. Yet, on the other hand, he was extremely curious, and would not hesitate to look at people without making any eye contact. It was toxic body language that made me uncomfortable being near him. If he just wanted to get a workout, fine, he could have gone to the gym at CNN. Instead, he goes to the gayest gym in town, and yet simultaneously sends the message that he is not really part of our community. Same thing about him on a larger scale: It’s all well and good to interview Chaz Bono about her transition (and occasionally report on such topics), but by not publicly acknowledging his sexuality, he succumbs to the forces or homophobia on a larger scale. Yes, this is my opinion. If he wants to refute it, we’re all waiting.
Mickey
That’s just weird. No wonder Anderson has trouble coming out, it sounds like he’s one big, uptight mess.
jeffree
@Hyhybt: Thanks! Me 2, I will change my mind sometimes but usually on issues where I needed some information. Or issues that i had not thought about enough.
I so hope u r the rule & not the exception, but i see on every blog i read that the same people just go back & forth saying the same things over & over again. It either shuts down the thread or polarizes people into 2 camps, names get called & feellings get bruised. Alcohol gets consumed !!
Anyone else change their mind on a topic after reading a blog discussion?? Please answer. Thanks.
scott ny'er
@Walter Mitty: I have to say. I get a little huffy sometimes at the gym. But only if there are empty machines and someone has to pick the machine next to mine. And/or if that person next to me reeks (perfume or body odor). If it’s crowded, well, I suck it up. Or I just abdicate the machine.
I’m not a big chatty person at the gym either. For ex., some dude apologized for his crap on the bench and said he’d be done soon. I was all, “it’s cool. whatever.” and that was that. Meanwhile, he was conversing with his mate about being gay, etc. I just wanted him to be done and leave so I could be done and leave.
I’m not doubting you. I find your post interesting in an Enquirer type of way. I know it’s sad on my part. But I do kind of dig him.
reason
What Anderson is doing in his bedroom is nobodies business, unless he chooses to make it your business. On the other hand, this man will do anything to try to bolster his abysmal ratings. CNN needs to cut the dead weight and bring back Ted Turner to salvage the disaster that calls itself a news network.
rrr
@ Walter Mitty
He did use to go to the gym at the Time Warner complex where CNN is. It’s a regular Equinox that’s open to people who aren’t TW employees. He switched gyms after a gossip blog made up an embarrassing fake story that he showers in his underwear to foil cameras in the communal showers. The gym doesn’t have communal showers and the gossip got debunked but the underwear story was popular and really made the rounds.
He wasn’t known as an outgoing social butterfly before CNN back when everyone thought of him as out. Now the gossip interest is WAY heavier and he has to worry more about his professional image as a major news anchor. There aren’t Tales From the Gym being published all the time about other anchors straight or gay so it has to be kind of an embarrassment at work.
Half Face Smiling Boy
Anderson’s wealthy enough to have a home gym, then he wouldn’t have to be forced to associate with the unwashed masses and lower classes. He IS a Vanderbilt after all.
adam
@Walter Mitty: I think you are reading in way too much. That just sounds like shyness.
Cooper has always described himself on air as being basically shy and socially awkward around strangers, so he’s given people a heads up on that. He has people at gyms he goes to ready to tattle on every little thing he says or does or to make up stories about him. He has people like you producing big psychoanalysis reports for the public based on the way he moves and breathes. He’s had a paparazzi pic snapped while he was working out at the gym. That sort of thing will make a shy person even shyer. I used to be a shy kid, and I know from my own experience it gets misinterpreted sometimes as rudeness or snobbery (especially when you have some kind of privilege or success that can make less fortunate people paranoid you might consider yourself better than them).
Lucius vorenus
All you guys are just jealous. Because he is beautiful, smart, famous, and rich.
JEALOUS!
Cooper is absolutely gorgeous and I would like to make love to him.