SOUNDBITES — “First off, I just think Anderson Cooper is the hottest thing. It doesn’t matter who he is standing next to. What’s funny is I got a lot of ink about the F-bomb and yet my favorite joke of the night was when I asked Anderson if, because he was so handsome, does he ever stand in front of a mirror naked pleasuring himself. CNN had no problem with that, which I thought may have been too far, but you know. Anderson has this great line where he says, “I don’t want to be the news, I want to report the news.” And so that’s why, even though I’m the biggest mouth in the world, I actually don’t talk about his personal life, because you have to keep in mind he goes into third world countries where it’s a very different culture, so, you know.” —Kathy Griffin, in an interview where she denies being banned from CNN, on why she doesn’t talk about BFF Anderson Cooper’s personal life
Rhydderch
I can respect what Kathy is saying, it’s not her job to out her friend.
No
Does he really need to be outed. He watches The Real Housewives of Atlanta and loves Nene, who’s name I even had to look up cause that’s how much I care about that show.
His being gay is less surprising than Clay Aiken. Get over it already.
Rhydderch
@No: I suggest the next time you’re stuck at home sick, that you lie on the couch and take in all of RH-Atlanta. It’s like heroine
No
I do watch it, but purely just to laugh at. 😉
It’s one of the most unintentionally funny shows on television in my opinion.
AJ
Kathy’s right to keep the secret if Cooper asked her. But Anderson Cooper saying “I don’t want to be the news, I want to report the news” is pure hypocrisy: How many magazine covers has he been on? (see: http://bit.ly/4JyghT) My issue with Cooper is he indulges the public’s interest, but plays coy with the details. There are serious journalists who maintain private lives: they’re the ones who don’t ask for the glory and attention and do their jobs (most of them are print journalists). Cooper, like Rachel Maddow, represents the journalist-as-personality, but unlike Maddow, he doesn’t actually reveal any of his personality but still wants the fame. Even classic news anchors like Brokaw and Cronkite and now Sawyer and Couric at least divulge the basics of their private lives: we know they are married/single and that they love women/men. What makes Cooper the exception? That’s what irritates me, the arrogance and hypocrisy of it all.
Erick
Why does she have to talk about it? It is his life to talk about, he will do it if and when he wants to.
What is funny is that in that quote, by explaining why she doesnt talk about it, she probably said more that she intended to.
Cal
you have to keep in mind he goes into third world countries where it’s a very different culture, so, you know.”
Most people are probably aware he’s gay, but isn’t she basically outing him by making a statement like this? She wouldn’t need to say it if he were straight.
A Gay Christian Liberal
Anderson Came out in 92 while on the The Today Show. Other than that he is right, he is there to report the news, and if he came out. It would be the news, it would alter his role as a moderator for political debates and like KAthy said put him at risk abroad. I can respect that. I still want to be his Boy Toy though.
Cam
What a bunch of B.S. Anderson Cooper claims to not want to be the news….well than Andy, perhaps you shouldn’t write books all about growing up as gloria Vanderbuilt’s son, about your brother’s suicide, and pretty much every other personal thing thats ever happened to you EXCEPT the fact that you are gay. How convienient for you that being gay seems to be the only thing in your life that is deemed not fit for you to write/interview about.
The reason Kathy Griffin doesn’t talk about him is because she has completly folded and sold out…..she never let up off Clay Aiken being gay, and yet Anderson Cooper gets nothing from her, apparently she only goes after C-listers.
Cal
like Rachel Maddow, represents the journalist-as-personality, but unlike Maddow, he doesn’t actually reveal any of his personality but still wants the fame.
Are there rules to how someone in the public eye should behave? Is he really required to reveal his “personality” simply because others have done the same? It’s his life, he can do what he chooses. He has the fame already and on his terms, why would he want to do things differently and why should he?
Cam
No. 8 · A Gay Christian Liberal said…
Anderson Came out in 92 while on the The Today Show.
….No he didn’t
No. 8 · A Gay Christian Liberal said…
Other than that he is right, he is there to report the news, and if he came out. It would be the news, it would alter his role as a moderator for political debates….
_________________
Really? And are Tom Brokaw and Gwen Eifle unable to moderate a political debate due to their marriage or dating status? Basically what you are trying to say is that he would be unable to moderate a political debate because bigoted politicians wouldn’t talk to him. So if that is your basis for somebody being a political moderator then you must also think that women or minorities shouldn’t be political moderators, because their sex or race will alter their role for political debates.
Cam
No. 10 · Cal said…
Are there rules to how someone in the public eye should behave? Is he really required to reveal his “personality” simply because others have done the same? It’s his life, he can do what he chooses. He has the fame already and on his terms, why would he want to do things differently and why should he?
_____________________________–
the only reason not to come out is because he is ashamed or thinks it is a dirty shameful secret. News personalities talk about children and family all the time. Watch any broadcast on his network “CNN” and you will know pretty much everything about the children and spouses of the newscasters and reporters just from their comments day after day, Cooper is the only one that stays silent. Oh, and it isn’t his “Personality”, it’s a major part of his life that he is being hypocritical about hiding when he reveals everything else.
Jaroslaw
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but my .02 he is nice looking but he is far from my idea of THE HANDSOMEST THING. Give me an olive skinned hairy chested Italian or Greek or hard muscled African guy ANY DAY. 🙂
AJ
@Cal: I just think there’s a cost to being famous, and I don’t like when celebs, millionaires, demand to be the exception. Every straight celebrity is asked about their sexuality. Take Oprah: intensely private, never talks about Stedman, but at least we know he exists. Nobody asked him to be famous. He could “report the news” at the Washington Post and no one would care. But no, he wanted to be on TV: more money, more fame. Well, with fame comes responsibility. BTW, is there a link to this Today show interview? I’ve never heard it referenced. If he’s already done it once, I take back everything I said.
Anon
“So if that is your basis for somebody being a political moderator then you must also think that women or minorities shouldn’t be political moderators, because their sex or race will alter their role for political debates.”
—
These are things you see immediately, but actually, yes, if people are prejudiced against those things it will alter their ability to moderate, not because of their skills, but because of the participants. Not saying they should stop doing it, but it could definitely be more difficult. Still, being gay is the only one of those legally and religiously OK to discriminate against, so that probably makes it more of an issue also.
Anon
@AJ: I don’t agree fame should come at the cost of a personal life, even though it will. We should demand that these people, actors, newscasters, etc. do their jobs well, I don’t think they owe us more than that.
AJ
@Anon: I agree. But “personal life” is relative, right? Every actor, no matter how private, does interviews, and in those interviews, they consent to be asked at least some personal questions: they’re diets and exercise routines, where they grew up, their inspirations, their fears, their politics, whether they want children, etc. What bothers me is, for some reason, sexuality — not relationships or sex but “sexuality” — is the one thing that’s okay not to discuss. Somehow, that’s too “personal.” I don’t buy it. Yes, sexuality’s inconvenient and may hurt their careers, but what makes it any more personal than, say, talking about your family, as Cooper has done? As someone else noted, women and people of color don’t get to wiggle their way out of their “inconvenient” identities, why do gay men like Cooper get a pass?
Anon
“the only reason not to come out is because he is ashamed or thinks it is a dirty shameful secret.”
Or because of backlash from others. Or because he’s private. You’re just eager to assume the worst.
And once again, he doesn’t talk about everything else. He doesn’t discuss his brothers, his nieces, his nephews, doesn’t name his non-famous friends, doesn’t discuss his religious views, doesn’t discuss his party affiliations, doesn’t give his opinion on anything controversial, and doesn’t mention his involvement in anything controversial (like being gay, FOR EXAMPLE, is controversial, sadly). All he shares are snippets.
Anon
@AJ: I guess people don’t feel like they should be the one to expose them to the bias and negativity. That should be the persons own choice. Saying women and black people don’t get a pass is kind of like saying ‘I suffer from this, so so should you’, while it’s actually none of those people’s faults, it’s the bigots.
mk
My issue with Cooper is he indulges the public’s interest, but plays coy with the details.
That’s what public personalities do. The public wants to know everything about them and make judgments about whatever they learn. Public personalities make strategic career decisions about where and when to draw the line.
Cooper, like Rachel Maddow, represents the journalist-as-personality, but unlike Maddow, he doesn’t actually reveal any of his personality but still wants the fame.
Rachel Maddow is a commentator on TV. She has no news background and only went from TV from talk radio to further her career and goals in activism for liberal and gay causes. That makes her situation and mindset very different from journalists who have spent long years building a career in news and whose goals are on news not activism.
Rachel Maddows is also a lesbian in a monogamous relationship of ten years that everyone finds cute, respectable, and too dull to rate any gossip. Anderson Cooper is a gay man with a busy sex life who has the gay blogs and gay run gossip blogs cranking out gossip and people drooling over the prospect lurid embarrassing details. It’s a lot easier to open up about your private life when it is incredibly public relations friendly like Maddow’s is, and as a commentator she needs the dull private life less than a news anchor.
Even classic news anchors like Brokaw and Cronkite and now Sawyer and Couric at least divulge the basics of their private lives: we know they are married/single and that they love women/men.
News anchors want to show a traditional old fashioned image, it’s important for their career. Those straight anchors divulge little and what they do divulge is carefully chosen for respectability (like anchors talk about a spouse and kids but normally do not discuss people they may be merely dating).
What makes Cooper the exception? That’s what irritates me, the arrogance and hypocrisy of it all.
That cuts both ways. He’s the only closeted gay in news who gets shit on for this stuff all the time. Why is he the only exception to gay news people getting a pass?
Shep Smith for years has anchored the flagship news show on FOX and maintained much higher ratings than Anderson Cooper. He does interviews where he discusses personal things but when it gets to the question of who he’s seeing suddenly he doesn’t talk about his personal life (of course that’s only AFTER he mentions a beard woman he once married and divorced).
GMA’s Robin Roberts has done a lot of chat show appearances to talk about her personal breast cancer experience, but she doesn’t talk about being a lesbian or whether she had a partner at her side during treatment. She’s a host of a major network morning news show, and morning news is the place where news people are really expected to share more about their personal side like her straight co-hosts do.
The black CNN gays like Donna Brazile and Don Lemon talk about their personal perspective as black Americans but not as gay Americans.
AJ Hammer over on HLN is constantly reporting on and discussing celebrity scandals and love lives but keeps his own sexuality to himself.
I’d like to see all the closet cases in news come out. At present, though, being glass closeted is a standard thing in the new industry and the networks tend to prefer it that way. There’s no point in discussing Cooper like he’s an isolated phenomenon.
Cal
Well, with fame comes responsibility.
And that “responsibility” is to reveal parts of his life that he wants kept private? He’s obligated to discuss who he’s dating simply because he has spoken about his brother’s suicide publicly? That doesn’t make sense to me, but everyone has their own opinion on this.
the only reason not to come out is because he is ashamed or thinks it is a dirty shameful secret.
Actually, I don’t think he’s ashamed at all, he just doesn’t feel it’s anyone’s business who he’s dating. Wouldn’t he be trying to beard instead of being seen out so much with his bar owner bf? He’s never out with women as far as I know.
AJ
@mk: Great points, and I largely agree. What makes Anderson so singularly frustrating, for me, is that it’s much more obvious than with all the other examples you cite. So why do we care if it’s so obvious? Because it’s a gaping open secret (especially in NYC/Atlanta) and it’s offensive he ignores it. It makes it look like he’s ashamed (and that it’s something shameful), which is the reason why David Hyde Pierce came out: he thought everyone who wanted to know already knew, but wanted to make it clear so as not to imply that being gay was something to be ashamed of.
I’ve heard rumors about all those newspeople you mentioned but am a lot less certain than you seem to be. Perhaps you’ve read more on them than I have. What distinguishes Cooper from those, even Robin Roberts and Shep Smith, is he exposes himself much more (like I said, magazine covers) and plays up his sexuality (how many times have we seen him in a tight t-shirt?). I’m sure CNN loves it, but no one in the news is a sexualized as Cooper.
rrr
@ AJ
In general for celebrity interviews I can see what you are saying about sexuality being the one no-go place, but that doesn’t really apply to Cooper.
He does get asked about sexuality. He won’t discuss it directly, but he does get asked directly. Also in his case there are a lot of other areas he refuses to discuss even when asked directly. He won’t give policy opinions, tell who he votes for, say his religious philosophies or if he has any, or any of those kind of things.
Even with his family he talks about the famous members but others like his two very private non-famous halfbrothers are invisible men who he leaves out even when he’s describing things like family funerals where they must have been involved.
Rodrigo
I have no problem with Anderson, he’s smart and pretty brave to go to the places he goes to. If he doesn’t want people that don’t know him personally to know he’s gay thats ok with me. I mean it would help a bunch for people to look at him and think “Hey, look a gay person and the world is not ending. Maybe those gays are ok!” but at the end of the day each person should be able to do what they want with their lives. I hope he does come out one day but if he doesn’t oh well.
AJ
@rrr: Great point, RRR, thanks for bringing in some detail. Just to reiterate my first point: I simply find Cooper’s defense — “I don’t want to be the news, I want to report the news” — hypocritical. It just is. If he didn’t want to “be” the news, he would not do any personal interviews at all. As a former print reporter, I find TV journalists want to have their cake and eat it too: they want the credibility of being reporters but not the baggage of being personalities. If all Cooper cared about was “the news” he would just do print. Trust me, TV journalists want fame and attention, at least a little bit. At least someone like Michael Urie was (before last week) honest about it: he blatantly said, look, if I come out it’ll hurt my career. Cooper’s hiding behind some high-minded notion of “the news,” when really he’s just afraid his ratings will drop and people won’t like him anymore.
jason
I can’t stand Kathy Griffin. She looks as if she’s trying to channel Sarah Jessica Parker’s look. Kathy is a hanger-on whom we really don’t need. Go away, Kathy.
Cam
No. 18 · Anon said..
“the only reason not to come out is because he is ashamed or thinks it is a dirty shameful secret.”
Or because of backlash from others. Or because he’s private. You’re just eager to assume the worst.
And once again, he doesn’t talk about everything else. He doesn’t discuss his brothers, his nieces, his nephews,
_______________________________
Actually that is a lie. He has written a book interweaving his own personal tragedies into his experiences as a newsman. It was such a self-involved book that Publishers weekly attacked it for that in their review…here is a snippet.
“From Publishers Weekly
HarperCollins touts the handsome, prematurely gray host of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360°as the “prototype for a twenty-first century newsman.” Sadly, that statement is all too true. This brief, self-involved narrative reaffirms a troubling cultural shift in news coverage: journalists used to cover the story; now, more than ever, they are the story. Cooper is an intrepid reporter: Here, however, the plights of the people and places he visits take a backseat to the fact that Cooper is, well, there. The Yale-educated son of heiress and designer Gloria Vanderbilt weaves personal tragedies (at 10, he lost his father to heart disease and later his older brother to suicide)….
So he claims he doesn’t want to be part of the story, yet he interweaves stories about his family, his brothers suicide, his fathers death into a book that is supposedly about news. So once again, he whores out every single part of his life for fame, and then claims to want privacy. It is hypocricy at it’s most nausiating.
Anon
@AJ: I do think he honestly cares about the news. He’s been doing this for a long time, starting out by sneaking himself into Burma to cover the student riots with only a handheld camera and no backup or employment.
A big part of the tv news circus is ratings, so anchors have to give interviews and promote themselves in other venues to get people to tune in, Brian Williams going on SNL, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was actually in his contract.
Cam
No. 28 · Anon
A big part of the tv news circus is ratings, so anchors have to give interviews and promote themselves in other venues to get people to tune in, Brian Williams going on SNL, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was actually in his contract.
________________________
But you don’t know for sure, you’re just trying to find anything that justifies his behavior. But what I notice is that you aren’t saying anything about him being forced by his contract to talk about family member’s suicides, death’s, his famous mother etc…in a self agrandizing book.
Anon
“every single part of his life” Again, this is simply not true, see the list I made. That’s much more than was in the book, which were like, two things that happened when he was young and not famous.
The books wasn’t about the news, as publishers weekly assumes and bases their criticism on, it says on the cover it’s a “memoir about war, disasters and survival.” He’s relating what he’s experienced covering those subjects.
As for the personal things that are included in the book, his fathers death, his brothers suicide. Those are two things, and they are written about quite superficially. As Cooper himself has stated, they were already widely discussed by the press, by his mother, before he included them, and they fit the topic and influence how he sees these things: war, disasters and survival. Nothing else noteworthy of his personal life is discussed in there.
mk
What makes Anderson so singularly frustrating, for me, is that it’s much more obvious than with all the other examples you cite.
Isn’t that mostly because he gets treated so radically differently by the gay media, though?
It seems to me what’s happened is we’ve singled him out pretty unfairly for different treatment by making him the only guy outed and criticized constantly, and now that as a result of that long campaign everyone is hyperaware of his sexuality we say “you have a bigger reponsibility to come out because our picking on you for so long has drawn attention”. That doesn’t seem like a recipe for making a guy feel cooperative.
David Hyde Pierce took the “I live my life as an open book. I’m not going to read it to you” approach to answering gay questions until he his highly rated sitcom was over, so I’d say there was some career strategy going on there rather than a pure ethical debate.
What distinguishes Cooper from those, even Robin Roberts and Shep Smith, is he exposes himself much more (like I said, magazine covers) and plays up his sexuality (how many times have we seen him in a tight t-shirt?).
Shep Smith doesn’t have a body to show off but he does plenty to draw attention to himself in other ways. He causes sensations shouting opinions about issues, but never gay issues. He’s done interviews with publications like Playboy Magazine, Esquire and the New York Times where they bathe him with praise about what a straight talking, says what he’s thinking, doesn’t hold back guy he is.
Robin Roberts is working in a forum where personal sharing is a lot more expected than prime time news. She and glass closeted Sam Champion are totally silent about their orientation, attractions and love lives while their two straight co-hosts chat away on those topics.
I’m sure CNN loves it, but no one in the news is a sexualized as Cooper.
You are probably right about that at least in regard to men. Careerwise he’s going to have people encouraging him to maintain some ambiguity for precisely that reason, however. It’s the sex symbol guys whose bosses like everyone to have some dream they might stand a chance, like the music stars who’ve tried to keep the fact their marriages quiet so as not to turn off infatuated fans.
At this point I think most women who take an interest in him will figure out fast he’s gay. All they have to do is google his name. I don’t know if taking away fantasies should realistically be a practical career concern anymore for him. He’s a stubborn guy, though, so I’m not sure how much practicalities matter. He won’t even do any dancing on camera when clearly giving into peer pressure early on to do a little foot shuffle or hip swing would have meant getting a lot less grief.
I think if the gay media had focused their outing energy on a different closeted news person or spread their net out on a number of closeted news people they would have had way more success. Vanderbilts have been the subject of society columns and gossip sheets since before the civil war, and they’ve always said what they want to when they want to. News people new to fame and fortune would have been more malleable and much easier to intimidate.
Anon
@Cam: You’re just trying to find anything to villify him. Whether it’s in his contract or not, it’s common for tv news people to advertise themselves.
Cam
No. 32 · Anon said..
@Cam: You’re just trying to find anything to villify him. Whether it’s in his contract or not, it’s common for tv news people to advertise themselves.
________________________________
So which is it? Is he supposed to advertise himself or is he a private person who thinks that he shouldn’t be the story? Make up your mind which one you are trying to use to back up your excuses for him chatter on and on about every other area of his life except the fact of being gay. Once again, every other news anchor, during an interview or a story relating to children, dating, marriage etc… will add in a snippet of how their children had trouble adjusting to a move, how their spouse has to put up with their waking up so early to get to the news desk etc… Cooper is the only one that never mentions that area of his life…yet once again, he will whore out every other area of his life, his family, his past etc… when it suits him.
rrr
@ CAM
He talked about the famous members of his family in connection to already widely publicized events in the book. His full brother’s suicide was a big media event and his mother had already written a book about it. His non-famous half-brothers were left out of his book. Cooper himself and his full brother had been heavily featured in his parents’ writings and selfpromotion since he was a little kid, so turn about is fair play.
He left out lots in his book not only about his personal life but even in connection to his career. He said nothing about working in studio even though he spent years anchoring at ABC and CNN. He didn’t make any mention of anchors he’s worked with.
His parents did the same thing about just blatantly omitting some parts of their lives when they wrote about themselves and regally offering no explanation.
Anon
“every other area of his life except the fact of being gay”
Can you read? He doesn’t do that. I summed it up quite clearly.
I don’t need to make up my mind about anything. It’s common for news anchors to give interviews. What they share in those interviews is their business. If they are private, fine.
Cam
No. 35 · Anon
“every other area of his life except the fact of being gay”
Can you read? He doesn’t do that. I summed it up quite clearly.
____________________________
No, you are lying to try to defend his actions. Somebody talking about their brothers suicide, their fathers death, their relationship with their mother are in depth highly personal stories. Not only has he spoken about them, but he’s put them in a book that critics complained was self-agrandizing. So in your defense of him you cannot say that he doesn’t do that. He has and continues to do that. Ascribe any motive you want to it, but when you get right down to it he’s just another boring cowardly closet case.
Anon
I apologize for my rudeness. Anyway, Cooper doesn’t want to be the story in his reporting, so he leaves his opinions out of it. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to advertise his show by giving interviews, as is common in the TV news industry. He can be as personal as he wants doing that, though. And he is quite private, in his interviews.
mk
Once again, every other news anchor, during an interview or a story relating to children, dating, marriage etc… will add in a snippet of how their children had trouble adjusting to a move, how their spouse has to put up with their waking up so early to get to the news desk etc…
They talk about spouses and kids if they have them. They don’t normally talk about people they are only dating because it would be to risky to make someone part of their public persona who might just be passing through and because it is a bad idea professionally for news anchors to let their audience get the impression they are sluts or fickle playboys/playgirls.
Spouses and kids are convenient conversation pieces and props for a news anchor. Personal things that do not fit the traditional image they are trying to present are not discussed.
Anderson Cooper doesn’t have a spouse and he’s not in a spouse-like relationship so I don’t see the relevance.
Cooper is the only one that never mentions that area of his life…yet once again, he will whore out every other area of his life, his family, his past etc… when it suits him.
That is plainly untrue. He’s not alone in that. There are lots of glass closeted news people who also don’t mention their love life at all.
As mentioned above, there are also other personal things he doesn’t discuss. And the major personal things he does discuss aren’t revelations because he’s in the weird situation of being from a famous well documented family and both his parents being autobiographers.
Anon
@Cam: I am not lying, you are being hypercritical.
He doesn’t discuss his two half-brothers, his nieces, his nephew, doesn’t name his non-famous friends, doesn’t discuss his religious views, doesn’t discuss his party affiliations, doesn’t give his opinion on anything controversial, and doesn’t mention his involvement in anything controversial (like being gay, FOR EXAMPLE, is controversial, sadly). All he shares are snippets.
(Ergo, no, he doesn’t do that.)
These snippets include bits of two what I would say are personal subjects, but not private, his father’s death, and his brother’s suicide. He does not go very in depth on either of those, and they were already public knowledge.
One critic complained. To counter, I’ve also read reviews that said he skimmed over the parts of his personal life he described, and they were disappointed in that.
Cam
No. 39 · Anon said…
@Cam: I am not lying, you are being hypercritical.
He doesn’t discuss his two half-brothers, his nieces, his nephew, doesn’t name his non-famous friends, doesn’t discuss his religious views, doesn’t discuss his party affiliations, doesn’t give his opinion on anything controversial, and doesn’t mention his involvement in anything controversial (like being gay, FOR EXAMPLE, is controversial, sadly). All he shares are snippets.
____________________________
Yes, you’re right, he only shares stories that will get attention or ones about famous relatives that will get more attention. In otherwords, he makes portions of his life…PART OF THE STORY. He has discussed having dyslexia, his desire to have children and the fact that he has had a bout with skin cancer in addition to a number of other personal issues. Once again, he will discuss anything, but uses a phony excuse to avoid talking about the one thing he wants to keep hidden.
craig
He got mainly positive reviews for his book actually. There was certainly no kind of critical consensus that he was being self-aggrandizing.
Cam, you are failing to acknowledge that events that would be highly personal to a regular person are not the same for a child of a famous family that has always had media and historians crawling all over it. Those events were already entirely part of the public record.
You are also failing to note that coming out publicly as gay carries political overtones and baggage that are totally absent from coming out as a brother of a suicide.
mk
Yes, you’re right, he only shares stories that will get attention or ones about famous relatives that will get more attention.
That’s what public personalities usually do whether they are straight or gay. They pick and choose what to share strategically and with regard to what they are comfortable with. Anderson’s parents picked and chose too.
I don’t really see the “get attention” thing you’re claiming. Saying he’s gay and giving out details about his sex life would get LOTS of attention. Saying he’s dyslexic will draw little attention. He doesn’t name drop much considering he could do. His parents had masses of famous friends and his school attracted lots of kids of New York’s rich and famous.
Once again, he will discuss anything, but uses a phony excuse to avoid talking about the one thing he wants to keep hidden.
It has been pointed out to you repeatedly and correctly that he will NOT talk about everything and there is more than one thing he wants to keep to himself.
You listed some more things that he does talk about but that doesn’t change the fact that there is a number of things he avoids talking about.
Cam
No. 41 · craig
He got mainly positive reviews for his book actually. There was certainly no kind of critical consensus that he was being self-aggrandizing.
Cam, you are failing to acknowledge that events that would be highly personal to a regular person are not the same for a child of a famous family that has always had media and historians crawling all over it. Those events were already entirely part of the public record.
You are also failing to note that coming out publicly as gay carries political overtones and baggage that are totally absent from coming out as a brother of a suicide.
________________________________
Once again, he is saying that he doesn’t want to be part of the story. Well if that is true, fine, be like people that keep their lives private, HOWEVER, when he is going on Leno and Oprah and discussing his family, his dyslexia, his desire for children etc… this line of excuses goes out the window. If he doesn’t want to be part of the story then go on Leno and just talk about the news. He doesn’t do that. And you are trying to parse words. The Publishers Weekly review clearly stated that his book was self agrandizing. ….Here is a snippet of the review from USA Today.
…
“”His beloved father, Wyatt Cooper, died during heart bypass surgery when Anderson was 10.
A decade later, his older brother, Carter, threw himself off their mother’s penthouse balcony as Vanderbilt watched in horror.
The most powerful parts of Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters and Survival deal with these two deaths and their impact on the future CNN anchorman. Passages about his father’s premature death at 50 and the guilt Anderson experienced over his brother’s suicide pack a visceral punch, even if Cooper sometimes seems at a loss to understand what he’s feeling — or not feeling. “For years I tried to swaddle the pain, encase the feelings,” he writes. “All I managed to do was deaden myself to feelings, detach myself from life. That only works for so long.”
…….
Interesting, they specifically pointed out how parts of the book focus specifically on his personal life. Look, I get it, you are either some creepy fangirl of this guy, or you are some poor agents assistant who is told to go around posting positive things. But you are missing the point. I don’t dislike the guy, and I don’t have a problem with people who keep their personal life private. What I have a problem with is somebody who whores out every area of their personal life for fame or money and yet stays closeted by trying to use the excuse that they want to keep their lives private. It’s the same hypocricy I see in people like John McCain who talk about the sanctity of marrige even though he’s cheated on his wife and abandoned her for a younger women with money. Again, it’s just hypocricy.
Anon
You’re picking and choosing reviews. Like Craig said, the majority doesn’t think so. Like I said, the opposite criticism has also been offered.
I don’t dislike the guy
HA!
somebody who whores out every area of their personal life
OK. You know what? I give up. Many people have pointed out multiple times that this is Not. True. I can’t discuss things with you just wilfully ignoring arguments.
rrr
Once again, he is saying that he doesn’t want to be part of the story.
Kathy Griffin said that. I guess maybe that’s something he said to her sometime or something she thinks she heard him say sometime.
It is not anything he’s said publicly in reply to questions about his sexuality so I don’t know why it is becoming some centerpiece in discussion for some people.
He said years ago that he didn’t want to come out because it would make it harder for him to blend in to get stories and more recently he said in vague but clear language that if he declared his sexuality the media would move in harder on his sex life and he’d never get any peace.
mk
What I have a problem with is somebody who whores out every area of their personal life for fame or money and yet stays closeted by trying to use the excuse that they want to keep their lives private.
He doesn’t do that. You have done nothing to refute the basic facts that there are multiple personal areas he will not make public.
If you simply had a problem with people sharing a lot of personal information and stories about themselves while leaving out sexuality you would be raging about a number of glass closeted news people not just Anderson Cooper.
Interesting, they specifically pointed out how parts of the book focus specifically on his personal life.
What does that have to do with anything? Anderson has no control on what reviewers choose to write.
He wrote a book that covered some very limited parts of his private life and only limited parts of his news career. Reviewers can talk about either or both areas.
Anon is right, this is not a useful discussion. You are being irrational, refusing to accept clear facts, and I’m getting the feeling you probably aren’t even reading other people’s comments.
Reporter
Let me add a bit of industry perspective here, as a print journalist for over 20 years and who’s had the opportunity to interview many closet cases.
Having worked in newspapers, magazines and in TV as well, as a scriptwriter, I will tell you this: the people in front of the camera, by and large, are obsessed about image and ratings. They all claim they don’t want to be the news, but they all retain publicists, and yes, they love to be on covers and TV programs, etc. Most are not really true journalists in the tradition of some of our best print reporters. They are not pawns of evil media conglomerates. No. They know what they’re doing, and usually the producers adopt a laissez-faire attitude with them. They want to be on the red carpet, they want to attend galas in NYC, they want to go to parties with the high and mighty. Very different from most people at a daily or a magazine.
Whenever I’ve interviewed a straight TV journalist who’s come out with a book, almost never has a publicist said to me “Don’t ask him or her about this or that.” They no that’s a big no no, and in the end, we ask whatever we want. However… when Anderson Cooper was doing publicity rounds for his, I had the opportunity to interview him if I wanted. Yet, I was explicitly told by the publicist in charge of the media tour that I could not “ask him about his private life.” But, “this is a memoir!” I replied. The exchange, of course, went nowhere, and I decided not to interview him. I also decided to do the same with other celebrities, such as Ricky Martin, who want to have their cake and eat it too. No, I will not play the game, I vowed to myself.
Obviously, in the media tour for his book, Cooper wanted the exposure, he wanted to sell books, but he wanted to dictate the terms of the interview and keep under wraps the gay aspect of his life.
This was so frustrating, coming from someone who is supposed to uphold the sacred job of a journalist: to ask questions, uncomfortable as they may be.
Is he a private person? Not at all. He is a celebrity because he courts fame. So the rules should apply equally to all those who seek to be in the limelight, whether they are a Vanderbilt or not.
Other TV journalists, as mentioned in this thread, may be in the closet, or may also be playing coy. Yet, they don’t parade constantly in different news outlets in a sexualized manner like Mr. Cooper does. And that’s why he was hired at CNN, even though his claim to fame then was basically hosting a TV show called “The Mole”.
Should he be commended for going to Burma or Haiti? Umm, that IS his job. Any TV anchor who aspires to be taken seriously has to do this, yet, Cooper, strangely enough, undermines his own efforts by appearing with Kathy Griffin, or talking about Lindsay Lohan or discussing The Real Housewives of Atlanta with Kelly Ripa. There’s quite a dissonance in what he really is and what he is trying to project on “360”. Would coming out hurt him? His ratings are the lowest they have ever been, so no, probably not. If anything, they would help. They would create interest, and show he has guts. So far, Diane Sawyer has more guts: the woman is 63, and just came back from Afghanistan, and rushed immediately to Haiti. IF his argument not to come out were “oh well, I can’t come out in public because that would undermine my credibility and I could not cover, say, gay issues”, it is a moot point. Because, under that tenet, then Sawyer could never cover any issue or newsstory related to women or senior citizens just like Peter Jennings could’ve never covered a story about the smoke industry. And Sawyer and Jennings did.
I can respect those of you here who defend Cooper’s right to privacy, and who say he does not owe us anything, but believe me… When someone is in such a high-profile position, and wants the approval of his peers, yet dictates certain conditions to us, bends the reality to accommodate him, and in the end, does not acknowledge who he is once and for all, there’s an erosion of respect that will only continue to grow.
Nobody should ask Mr. Cooper to be an advocate. But we should ask him to be honest about who he really is. A half-truth is as good as a full-lie.
Thanks for your time reading this.
A reporter.
Marcus
@Reporter:
Whoa. Love it.
Kyle412
@Reporter:
Thank you Reporter. You rock.
It sickens me to see Anderson working out at David Barton Gym (a REALLY gay gym) with his bf and then not willing to be open publically about who he is. I can’t trust a “journalist” who is such a hypocrite. If he can’t be honest about who he is I don’t trust him to be honest with a story.
Kieran
All this talk about CNN’s Anderson Cooper failing to come out, but nary a peep about Fox New’s Shephard Smith staying in the closet. Why?
Tylertime
@Kieran:
Because the story is about Anderson and not Shepard, Robin, Sam, Troy, Sue, etc.
rrr
@ Tylertime
The story is *always* about Anderson. If we only talk about closet gay newsies who get featured in gay blog articles every one but Anderson will always get a pass.
There isn’t even articles on the others when it would be appropriate like when closeted Don Lemon had on the makers of Outrage and moderated a discussion on whether famous gays should be outed.
mk
@ Reporter
Thank you for giving your perspective.
So the rules should apply equally to all those who seek to be in the limelight, whether they are a Vanderbilt or not.
The rule is that the press should be able to do pieces reporting on facts they find, though, no? There’s no rule that celebrities can’t seek to avoid inconvenient personal questions or that they have to announce inconvenient personal information. Straight celebrities make requests about the range of interview questions too, and some of them have even insisted to do interviews in character. If the press wants to do pieces on the things the aren’t eager to talk about they are free to do so except for law suit concerns.
As you said, TV news personalities are all courting fame, so it seems to me that things are not being evenly applied. I can see why Anderson Cooper could rate a greater degree of attention than many others but I do not see any justification for him getting 99.999% of the outing and criticism.
Yet, they don’t parade constantly in different news outlets in a sexualized manner like Mr. Cooper does.
Anderson Cooper wears flattering clothes and makes himself available for looking wistful in photos. That’s not a huge deal or that out of the way for a TV news personality. I think people mostly have just responded to him in a sexual way and put him in that category. I don’t see how that puts him in separate class where he deserves to scrutinized obsessively and heaped with scorn while no one else gets any.
Nobody is inviting Shep to do a centerfold or Robin to appear in Maxim. They certainly don’t avoid other kinds of attention when it’s offered. Does not being sexy really somehow completely absolve them of responsibilites to the gay community that are put on Anderson?
Why is sexualization the only factor that matters? Sure, that makes talking about someone’s love life and getting them to talk about it juicier, but how is being viewed as sexy the only thing that should legitimately matter? What about the things like public affiliations and willingness to speak out on other controversial issues?
FOX News gays like Shep implicitly support an anti-gay agenda by being personalities on right wing FOX. Shep also pops off with opinions frequently and gets major kudos from interviwers and the press precisely for being outspoken and forthright. The same Esquire interviewer who did the buzz starting Kevin Spacey interview outing him between the lines did nothing but fawn on Shep without asking him anything about widespread the gay rumors. Maybe now that Shep’s been outed in Outrage somone will bring it up in one of these fawning interviews, but I doubt it since there is no pressure being put out there for that to happen.
craig
“His ratings are the lowest they have ever been, so no, probably not.”
Actually his ratings have been good lately and he’s been drawing a lot of public approval with his work. He’s been sort of reborn at the moment with the Haiti coverage. Breaking news and location work is what he’s really best at, that and charming chit chat.
“They would create interest, and show he has guts. So far, Diane Sawyer has more guts: the woman is 63, and just came back from Afghanistan, and rushed immediately to Haiti.”
Hmm…you’ll have more luck with that argument when Diane Sawyer starts doing cage-less diving with great whites and rushing into violent melees to save kids instead of just showing up at some location for a few days after being at a different location.
It’s pretty obvious Anderson Cooper has guts. The not coming out seems like a matter of priorities, preferences and an attitude that he doesn’t have to do what he’s being told to do over and over.
JonathanHasHadIt
@no. 54, Craig
Overall Craig, his ratings have been low, they have just had an increase with the Haiti coverage, but over the last eight months, they have been dismal. Reporter’s analysis is quite accurate, and he presents a solid case. What I read from you is snarky attitude, especially when referring to Sawyer.
You say Cooper has guts? It takes guts to come out. Where are his?
JonathanHasHadIt
@no. 53,
MK, are you a journalist as well? What is your background? Because Reporter guy seems to really nail it.
Caleb
@craig:
Craig, it’s obvious you are a fan of Anderson’s and not objective on the subject. Reporter wrote a well thought out piece and it is credible. Thanks Reporter. I definitely see Anderson in a different light and it isn’t a flattering one.
Lazycrockett
If he was fat and unattractive no one here would give a crap bout who he’s in bed with.
MuscleBoy
No one gives a fuck about fat and unattractive men. They suck.
craig
“Overall Craig, his ratings have been low, they have just had an increase with the Haiti coverage, but over the last eight months, they have been dismal.”
I know. I was referring directly to the Haiti coverage and said ‘at the moment’ in my comment.
He fits this kind of coverage well and these kind of circumstances are the only times when news anchors have a decent chance to equal or outdraw commentators in the ratings.
“Reporter’s analysis is quite accurate, and he presents a solid case.”
Reporter’s analysis and conclusion involves some facts but it is fundamentally a subjective opinion. It can’t be called objectively accurate or inaccurate.
“What I read from you is snarky attitude, especially when referring to Sawyer.”
Not really. I was a little flip maybe. Sawyer is fine, but arguing one TV anchor has more guts than another TV anchor whose done lots of dangerous location work purely because she was working in Afghanistan then showed in Haiti does not make much sense and deserves a little goofing. Anderson Cooper has rushed around between combat and disaster zones a lot in his time, and he’s spent more time in Haiti than Sawyer and put himself in more physical danger in his time there.
“You say Cooper has guts? It takes guts to come out. Where are his?”
It takes guts to do lots of things. He’s done many things that take guts.
Not everything is determined by guts. Reporter himself said the career decisions of TV news reporters are motivated mostly image and ratings. A priority on career can make someone decide not to come out publicly about something if it seems like a bad career move even if they have enough guts to be capable of going public about it. A lot of people who are out now like david hyde pierce waited until it was career convenient.
mk
You know, guys, just because Reporter’s personal assessment of the situation appeals to you doesn’t change that it’s just his personal feelings, perspective and professional approach.
This is an area that doesn’t have a lot of hard and fast yes or no answers. This isn’t math or science. Any conclusions are going to be personal and life decisions are by their nature personal. That goes for everyone. Reporter has made personal decisions to work in print journalism and to not interview glass closeted celebrities, many of his colleagues have chosen differently.
Why should sexiness be the determining factor in whether it’s important for someone to come out and get pressured to come out? It’s clear why it helps determine who we want to see come out on an instinctive level, but why should it trump everything else? Why don’t other factors even rate a mention from Reporter or deserve some pressure at least if less than the amount sexiness deserves?
Aside from all that, wouldn’t a broader approach of outing and criticizing many news closet cases instead of one be logical anyway to increase the visibility of gays and increase the likelihood of TV news people coming out?
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
Won’t – will not, can’t – not gonna, Won’t. Uh-Oh (Head Rickety objecting) No, she di’int! Won’t! Oh, snap! Who snitched my 1970s Bumble-bee Sunglasses? (I Am Fi-erce!) Finger down the throat (Bleeeech!) Do you think I’m fat (This is Frontal!! Bi-aaaatch!)
W______O_________N________’________T_______!
(Queerty Grammar. LOL)
(A Good Education: PRICELESS!)
JonathanHasHadIt
Craig and MK, you just don’t give in, do you? LOL.
Of course Reporter’s assessment is subjective, just like yours are or mine as well! Craig, you don’t concede any of the arguments against Cooper, and yes, the guy is lacking in guts! Sawyer has been a reporter since the late 1970s, and has been in many more dangerous situations, covering events when Cooper was only a kid at the Vanderbilt mansion. Come on dude, don’t be so fawning about someone you don’t even know! Or do you? Hummm…
And MK, where do you get this about sexiness being the reason we should out the Coop? I don’t think anyone, and neither is Reporter, is stating that. It’s just a fact that Cooper does play the sex card. Can you imagine if Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite or any of those established guys had been courting audiences like this guy?
There are lots of journalists doing what Cooper does in the field. And obviously, something is happening that people have not been tuning in to his show, at least not until very recently! He went into a cage with a shark? Oh please, tune into Animal Planet any day and you’ll see that. He jumped into a melee in Haiti? No, he was caught in one, just like other reporters covering the devastation. And he did something any decent human being would’ve done, take a child out of harm’s way.
Regarding one more thing about the sexiness… So, just because he is gay and good-looking, like Matt Bomer, does he get a free pass? Of course not. Because as another poster said, if he were unattractive or old, we would not be having this discussion.
Velvet
I agree with whoever said Anderson’s being unfairly singled out. Why is that? Is it because he steadfastly refuses to give in to those who ‘demand’ that he comes out and offer up the parts of his life that he wants for himself? He’s never budged from his stance of keeping quiet and I think that pisses a lot of people off, the fact that they can’t get him to do what they want. He said something about how Tiger Woods was a ‘public’ person when he needed to be, but that he basically kept his private life to himself, now we know why, but Anderson seemed to agree with that idea and he said “more power to him” for doing it. No one has adequately explained why Anderson is CONSTANTLY singled out for being “in the closet” when there are PLENTY of other people doing the same thing and no one says a word about it. It’s not fair and it could be one of the reasons why he won’t talk and I don’t blame him.
A lot of people who are out now like david hyde pierce waited until it was career convenient.
Everyone loves Neil Patrick Harris, but he wasn’t going to come out until he was forced to do it, everyone convieniently forgets that while they’re getting on Anderson’s case non-stop.
Jones
@no. 64,
Yeah Velvet, life is not fair. Surprised? And since the thread is about Anderson, well, we’re discussing him. Or did you want to discuss someone else? Let’s see, who was with Jodie Foster on the Out cover about the cloest? Hummm…
Velvet
But Anderson is the ONLY one that gets picked for criticism for keeping their lives private. THAT’S what’s not fair. I want Sam Champion, Robin Roberts, Shep Smith, AJ Hammer, Suzanne Malveaux, Jason Carroll, Jessica Yellin to get the same treatment.
Jones
@no. 66 Velvet,
Ok Velvet, then write Queerty and demand that, or start ur own blog, or picket their news stations, I don’t know, whatever. The point is, Anderson and not these other guys play star…
Velvet
Whatever is right. Regardless of what he does publicly, it still doesn’t hold that he has to reveal to the world something he doesn’t care to.
I’m going to bed now…
craig
I pointed out is was subjective opinion because posters were talking about it as though it wasn’t.
Reporter wasn’t presenting tallies of dangerous situations to establish who had more guts, he specifically said she had more guts for going right from one location to another. Either comparison is goofy but the second is more goofy. They’ve both been in dangerous situations. They both have guts.
We’ll never know whether Sawyer would have come out if she were gay. She chanced into the good career fortune of not having to make that choice.
Like I said, not everything is about guts. There are celebrities who came out because they were scared out, they were too flaming to have ever in their life be taken for anything else, it was a way to grab attention, or because it had become convenient. That’s not all about guts.
You can say it’s a brave decision for a celebrity to come out to the public, but that doesn’t automatically make a celebrity not brave if he or she hasn’t come out to the public yet. An individual is a generous person if they sell their house and give the money to charity but that does not automatically make another individual not a generous person because they volunteer at a soup kitchen instead.
AlwaysGay
Anderson is a great reporter. He was an anchor on ABC NEW Now before he was asked to do “The Mole”. As far as coming out is concerned gay people need to be supportive of gay people when they reveal their homosexuality. All too often gay people have been unsupportive of openly gay people in the public eye. Then you wonder why famous gay people don’t want to come out. Besides the prejudice of heterosexuals and career hit famous gay people also have to deal with lack of support from gay people.
mk
And MK, where do you get this about sexiness being the reason we should out the Coop?
The repeated argument by Reporter and others that his sexualization is the reason they think he should be pressured when others aren’t.
It’s just a fact that Cooper does play the sex card.
He dresses flatteringly and throws some wistful looks at the camera. He’s not sucking a banana in a g-string (not on camera anyway, who knows what he gets up to at home).
Why is effective use of the sex card the only thing that makes a person worthy of outing and pressure? It’s arbitrary.
Can you imagine if Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite or any of those established guys had been courting audiences like this guy?
Rather isn’t cute but he was sure conscious of appearance as an anchor. There’s a leaked Dan Rather footage on youtube where he spends a literal twenty minutes gravely debating with behind the scenes guys over whether he’d look better in a trenchcoat and whether the collar it’s better for the collar to be flipped up or down.
So, just because he is gay and good-looking, like Matt Bomer, does he get a free pass? Of course not.
I agree. He should be asked to come out and when he wanders around town with a boyfriend it should be reported on as much as a straight anchor was walking around town with a girlfriend.
On the other hand, news people shouldn’t get a free pass because they fail to turn our cranks, and that is what is happening presently. People in high profile news positions who could be valuable voices have no one asking them to come out of the closet because nobody is interested to jacking off to images of them.
as another poster said, if he were unattractive or old, we would not be having this discussion.
Exactly. This article wouldn’t even exist if he were fugly. That’s natural but I don’t think it’s any way to run a social movement successfully or any way to pick who’ll be the most valuable voices for us.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
Also: P Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Ricky Martin, Will and Jada-Pinkett-Smith, Queen Latifah, Jake Gylenhall, Zac Efron, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick, Christina Milian, Aaliyah, Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Jason Statham, Keanu Reeves, Tom Selleck, Wentworth Miller, Lil Bow Wow, Fefe Dobson, Whitney Houston, Clive Davis, L. A Reid, Chris Stokes, Eddie Murphy and Mel B (of Spice Girls), Little Richard, Tyler Perry, Matthew Broderick, Dr Dre, Avril Lavigne, Wilmer Valderamma, Jodi Foster, Camryn Manheim, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jason Derulo, Missy Elliot, Kiefer Sutherland, Andre 3000, Marques Houston, Barry Manilow, Paul Winfield, Hugh Jackman, Lil Wayne, Prince Charles, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, President Barack Obama and the black weather guy on Fox! Despite being married and with children in some cases, women are often beards to closeted men, and some are also gay which has worked well in Hollywood since the Golden Age. Unfortunately, there are less gay role models than we need.
All thanks to Google, YouTube and Cell phones and the DL Paparazzi and Bitter Straight and Gay Ex-employees of studios! There are WAY too many older actors from Clark Gable to Doris Day to go back in time and I tried not to include the dead but Aaliyah was a surprise!
Anne
@reporter You’re making huge, negative generalisations about TV journalists based on your own experience, and apply them to Coopers character. You don’t know him personally, you’re assuming he’s like that. You don’t know if this is actually the case with him. There are definitely exceptions, people who are actually in this because they like news.
Cooper has been to Afghanistan as well. Also Iraq. He’s covered the Rwanda genocide, Burma student revolts, the war in Somalia, the Bosnian civil war, hurricanes, now an earthquake and much, much more. He’s not at all lacking in guts.
Cooper has given interviews to people who didn’t agree to the “no personal questions” request. He’s been asked about it repeatedly by interviewers, and gave a polite response, he did not stop the interview or anything like that.
Being a woman, or a senior citizen, is nowhere near as much of an issue in the US as being gay. Being gay in the US means you’re actually, lawfully with less rights than if you were straight, treated like a second class citizen. None of those things you mentioned are anywhere near as unequal or nearly as hotly debated in the news and in politics.
You have no idea why CNN hired him. You have no idea if coming out would hurt his career, and neither do I, but it certainly didn’t help Thomas Roberts, a now former CNN anchor.
rrr
So what do other gay TV newsies do when they are getting interviewed? Reporter said most of the straight ones don’t ask for question limitations. What do the rest of the gay ones do?
I’ve never seen one TV newsie except AC who wasn’t officially out get asked about his/her sexuality. I’ve never seen an interviewer start talking about a not officially out newsie’s long time partner like one would to a straight interview subject. There’s no way that’s just coincidence. The closest I’ve seen to a sexuality question coming up is Sam Champion getting asked if he’d ever thought about whether an openly gay news anchor could work out OK, and at the time that looked more like the interviewer was trying to talk about AC since Sam is a weatherman. Sam said he’d never thought about it which has to be a lie.
So do the other gays set limitations? Or do they just trust interviewers not to go there and the interviewers obey out of some gentleman’s understanding? I guess AC is a bigger scoop to try to get, but trying to get folks like Sam or Robin to state they are gay/lesbian directly or indirectly would be way better than nothing.
terrwill
AC has never denied being Gay. He has never been photographed with a beard, yet not having facial hair in the same photo. He if fairly open in his relationships and makes no effort to cover who he hangs out with nor vacations with. He has discussed comming out with his handlers, and has been advised against it because he is one of the top choices to replace Larry the fossil King if he decides to retire in the next one or two centuries. Reasoning is that if AC is out prior to getting the gig he may not get the gig.
Give the guy a break, he is as out as he can be and is simply looking out for his career, which is the exact same thing every single person posting on this thread would do……….
Kree
R.I.P. Grammar
benlayvey
@dontblamemeivotedforhillary: You will do better not to finger point almost 99% of the entertainment elite as Gay without proof! If Hollywood is one big closet case as you seem to infer, then why do they turnout gay films and roles each year? This is pure fantasy on your part. Such allegations are pointless and may warrant a law suit. Most actors on your list have played gay roles freely without hesitation and some are even straight allies. Surely one wouldn’t hide his sexuality when he so openly supports the gay community, would he?
And don’t give me that “Rock Hudson played a gay role as well” shit! He played a straight man pretending to be gay to get the girl!
Jones
@ to all you apologists for AC:
get real, get a life. Anne? who are you? You speak with SUCH authority. Are you a journalist? if not, then you have no basis to refute what teh reporter says.
MK,what is it with this annoying method of yours of dissecting other people’s comments like u were some analyst, pundit or academic?
And Terrwill, and all you others, when they are gay people dying at the hands of hate crimes all across our country and in the world – or did you not see the story here about the man murdered by his father in Turkey? – people who are brave and courageous enough to live their lives openly and proudly as gay folk, why, WHY should I give AC a break?
Jones
@no.73 Anne
Oh, and Anne? One more thing: what did not help Thomas Roberts was that there were nude pics of him in Manhunt and in other sites floating around. If Brian Williams had been caught like that, he would’ve been let go. And as far as I know, Mr. Roberts is in California and not doing too shabbily.
Anne
@Jones: Great job upping the personal attacks yet not directly responding to anyone’s arguments. You seem like a nice person.
terrwill
@Jones: I tend to have a somewhat “unmuted” voice here in these threads in things that are negative for the community. And I 100% agree with you that there is a lot of bad shit being thrown at the Gay community. However, someone like AC is not a hyprocrite. He does not live the bullshit life of a hyprocrite and have pretend barbie doll girlfriends, walk the red carpet with a manaquin on his arm live a lie. He has a legitimate reason for not uttering the words “I am Gay”. You would do the exact same thing in his place. And sources say that once he has a solid contract in place he will most likely address the issue. He is not playing the hide and seek game thousands of other visable persons play and he is one of the few I give a pass to………….
Jones
@Anne,
Yeah, I am. You’re not. Thank you Anne.
Jones
@no.81 Terrwill
Not buying it, sorry. It’s all about the monedy for him then, like he neede more, right?
TheProfessor
If it is true that Anderson Cooper is going to replace Larry King, forget it. Then he will NEVER come out.
Anne
@Jones: Your behaviour belies what you’re saying. Telling people to get a life? Not so nice. Calling people annoying? Not so nice either.
Anne
@Jones: Yet there are still no male openly gay anchors in the national news, and no gay news anchors of either gender with the same philosophy Cooper has (no commentary, objectivity, neutrality), since Rachel Maddow is a female and a commentator who takes sides. And yet there plenty of people in news who are gay. If it was so positive for one’s career to come out, then why is it that no one in that actual situation seems to think so?
Jones
no.86 Anne,
Oh Annie Annie, don’t you realize that it is the gays who keep the closet alive? IF all the news gay people came out, just like the actors in Hollywood, America would be in for a shock. Why don’t they do it? They may have all different reasons, but… if they ALL came out and said “enough with the homophobia, with the closet”, and if the gay producers also grew some balls, things would be so much different in this country. Good day ma’am.
Anne
@Jones: It’s Anne. And the argument was that coming out was good for Cooper’s career, which I doubt is certain. I gave no opinion about any of what you’re going on about.
BelVivDevoe
Admit it AC defenders, you have been crushed! You have no argument! That queen needs to come out NOW!
Anne
@BelVivDevoe: Plenty of arguments here, thanks.
BelVivDevoe
no.90
Pffft.
Anne
@BelVivDevoe: Very convincing.
The Artist
There is just way too many people invested in this man’s personal life. Why the hell do you people care that much? If your looking for role models, then create them yourself. Move on. YAWN!
MissTransSylvaniaTV
no. 93 The Artist
Well said dahling! Oh, that reminds me, I need to get new boobs!
Kyle24
@terrwill:
I’ve been out my entire career and I work in entertainment. I put mental health and happiness before a pay check.
Cam
No. 46 · mk said…
What I have a problem with is somebody who whores out every area of their personal life for fame or money and yet stays closeted by trying to use the excuse that they want to keep their lives private.
He doesn’t do that. You have done nothing to refute the basic facts that there are multiple personal areas he will not make public.
_____________________________
You know, you can’t make something untrue just because you say it is so. I have pointed out to the several people on here who keep claiming that eh never talks about his personal life…
1. He wrote about his fathers death
2. He wrote about growing up as the son of Gloria Vanderbuilt
3. He wrote about his brothers suicide
4. He has discussed on Leno and Oprah his dyslexia
5. He has discussed on TV interviews his desire for children
6. He has discussed a bout with skin cancer
All of these are personal stories, and looks into his personal life. What I am saying is that if he doesn’t want to talk about his personal life, then don’t talk about it, don’t write about your brothers suicide, don’t go on Oprah and talk about your family issues etc… But you cannot avoid the label of hypocrite when you go out, talk about various areas of of your personal life while at the same time claiming you don’t want to talk about your personal life. THAT is the part that is hypocritical. It is just an excuse to remain closeted from another cowardly closeted celeb.
—–
No. 86 · Anne said..
If it was so positive for one’s career to come out, then why is it that no one in that actual situation seems to think so?
Actually this year Rachel Maddow has been beating #^) with Anderson Cooper and MSNBC has pulled ahead of CNN in the ratings. So it would seem that her being out was either good for her or didn’t hurt her.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/msnbc_touts_yearly_demo_win_over_cnn_146264.asp
Anne
@Cam You’re naming things he does discuss, you’re not refuting all things mentioned that he doesn’t discuss, which are quite a lot. He keeps all those other things private too. Just because you discuss one aspect of your life, doesn’t mean you’re obligated to then share anything and everything about yourself. It’s not an all or nothing situation.
Rachel Maddow has a completely different audience. She’s a female lesbian news commentator on a left-leaning network. Cooper is a male gay news reporter, who makes a point of not giving his opinion on the news, on a network that makes a point of wanting to be the one with no viewpoint, just news.
Cam
No. 97 · Anne said…
@Cam You’re naming things he does discuss, you’re not refuting all things mentioned that he doesn’t discuss, which are quite a lot. He keeps all those other things private too. Just because you discuss one aspect of your life, doesn’t mean you’re obligated to then share anything and everything about yourself. It’s not an all or nothing situation.
________________________
He said he doesn’t want to be the story, and that he doesn’t discuss his personal life. He doesn’t say “I don’t discuss my personal life except for my family, diseases, my wants, etc…”
If he doesn’t want to discuss his personal life, then don’t do it.
Marcus
@benlayvey:
Ben, that list is more true than you’ll ever know–at least for now. I live out here–and uh…never mind.
I’m still not on that Obama is gay train, though.
Anne
@Cam: The ‘not wanting to be the story’ thing refers to his reporting. I see what you mean, but it’s kind of semantics, though, I think, to keep coming back to an response he once gave that I agree might not be that well-worded. His actions in general make it clear he shares stuff about some part of his life, and keeps other parts, like those mentioned, private, which he’s allowed to do.
BradSA
Cam said;
I have pointed out to the several people on here who keep claiming that eh never talks about his personal life…
1. He wrote about his fathers death
2. He wrote about growing up as the son of Gloria Vanderbuilt
3. He wrote about his brothers suicide
4. He has discussed on Leno and Oprah his dyslexia
5. He has discussed on TV interviews his desire for children
6. He has discussed a bout with skin cancer
————————————————-
None of these things jeopardize his safety when traveling to those third world countries where you can be put to death for being gay. There is a whole world outside of the US that he needs to take into consideration. Kathy Griffen said she won’t out him out of consideration for his safety yet she didn’t hesitate to out Clay Aiken who also travels through places that would kill you for being gay as a UNICEF Ambassador. Diane Sawyer isn’t in danger in the same way.
rrr
@ Cam
Like I said already, he hasn’t said on record that “he doesn’t want to be the story”. Kathy Griffin said that. Maybe it’s something she heard him say off the record or maybe it’s nothing he’s ever said and she only thinks he did. Kathy Griffin is not a real reliable source.
That’s not the reasons he’s given for not coming out when he’s been asked in interviews so it’s a red herring.
He said years ago that he didn’t want to come out because it would make it harder for him to blend into various crowds and environments to get stories and more recently he implied if he declared his sexuality the media would move in harder on his sex life and he’d have more trouble and no privacy.
mk
You know, you can’t make something untrue just because you say it is so. I have pointed out to the several people on here who keep claiming that eh never talks about his personal life…
NOBODY has said he NEVER talks about his personal life. What people have said is that he is SELECTIVE about talking about his personal life and avoids discussing many significant parts of his life and of his inner workings. You keep ignoring that true fact and insisting that he talks about everything personal but for his sexuality which is totally false.
Cam
No. 103 · mk said..
You know, you can’t make something untrue just because you say it is so. I have pointed out to the several people on here who keep claiming that eh never talks about his personal life…
NOBODY has said he NEVER talks about his personal life. What people have said is that he is SELECTIVE about talking about his personal life and avoids discussing many significant parts of his life and of his inner workings. You keep ignoring that true fact and insisting that he talks about everything personal but for his sexuality which is totally false.
_________________________
Yes, and the fact is that he will talk about every other area, from illness, death, family, parents, children etc… and the only major area he leaves out is dating. You aren’t being selective when you only leave out one thing…then you are just being a closet case.
Anne
@Cam: But that’s the whole point that people here have made over and over again; It’s not the only thing he leaves out. You’ve gotten examples and everything.
BradSA
I won’t rest until I know if he picks his nose or not. He talks about every bit of his private life but that and who he likes to sleep with. How dare he not tell us all!
mk
These are some really major areas of a person’s life by any normal standard:
– Religious beliefs
– Opinions about controversial social policy issues
– Political affiliations
– The family members and friends in a celebrity’s circle who are not themselves famous
He avoids talking about them, ergo you are demonstrably incorrect when you keep claiming sexuality is the only major area of his life he avoids discussing.
What is more, the few major things he has discussed were completely apolitical and already out on the public record in a big way. His mother had talked about them and written about them, and if you’ve read biographies a famous New Yorkers you know you run into her famous friends talking about them.
TheAwfulTruth
You people are still discussing this shit? Man, you have a lot of spare time on your hands!
rrr
@ Jones
This statement is crazy “Are you a journalist? if not, then you have no basis to refute what teh reporter says”.
If we followed that as a rule when in came to politicians we’d all have to bow and scrape before Barney Frank’s principle that only closet cases who are working against gay rights should be outed. We’d have to say “Barney’s a politician and anyone who isn’t a politician has no basis to refute what he says or have any thoughts or observations of their own!”.
Velvet
Hard to understand why most people haven’t figured out that he’s gay by now. There aren’t too many attractive, successful, intelligent famous men who haven’t been rumored to be dating some woman. There are no rumors like that about Anderson and never have been. Clooney doesn’t discuss his personal life much either, but he’s seen dating women. Not Anderson. Maybe he thinks people should be able to figure it out themselves.
Bayonet
He looks like such a flamer in that photo with Kathy Loser Griffin.
alicia banks
i do not blame kg for cooper’s cowardice
no one should
alicia banks
eloquent fury
jason
If Anderson Cooper were heterosexual, I bet he’d be talking about his wife and kids.
mk
If he were a gay man with a husband and kids he might very well be talking about them. He’s not that.
He’s an unmarried gay man who dates and fucks a lot. Hetrosexual unmarried national news anchors who date and fuck a lot don’t talk about it.
AxelDC
@Rhydderch: But she had no problem outing everyone else in her comedy routines.
AxelDC
Rachel Maddow is out and proud and kicking butt in the ratings.
Cooper has no self-respect if he thinks staying in the closet is good for his career.
AxelDC
@Cam: If Cooper doesn’t want to be the story, then why is he the story?
If he came out, the story would told, discussed and history. Instead, he just lets it sit and fester.
It’s as if he is ashamed of being gay, and that’s an insult to us all.
Caleb
@AxelDC:
Exactly AxelDC! Once TR Knigt, Rosie, Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen, etc. came out the rumors and innuendo stopped. They then moved on with their careers.
scott ny'er
@Caleb: Some moved on and some didn’t. Some were already established and others weren’t. Guess who did ok. The ones who were already established. The ones who weren’t who came out. Well, they don’t fare as well.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
No. 77 · benlayvey
At least 2 on the alleged gay list ARE subjective. Can you guess which two? What’s the point of a gay ally who is gay but in the closet enjoying privilege or actively homophobic while we suffer with second-class rights? I’m not bursting down the door but the photos don’t lie in well over half of these rumored names and any dumb-ass can search engine this stuff. You can’t hide anymore in this age of technology…but TMZ and the Gossip Media machine are still afraid of that one word: GAY!
mk
Exactly AxelDC! Once TR Knigt, Rosie, Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen, etc. came out the rumors and innuendo stopped.
Being gay or lesbian is a major defining characteristic for those people to the public and something of a focus in articles about them, so I don’t know how coming out really “stops someone from being the story”. We don’t know Anderson ever told anyone he doesn’t want to be the story, though. He hasn’t said that himself, it’s just something Kathy Griffin was blabbing about.
If a celebrity is a good looking gay guy coming out doesn’t necessarily solve rumors and innuendo. The gay blogs hunt for gossip and embarrassing, career damaging sexual dirt on hot out gay celebrities as hard as possible to publish it, which makes for plenty of rumors and innuendo if they find something. Since they are out, when the gay blogs publish the stories they are more likely to get picked up by the mainstream media. Out Thomas Roberts already wasn’t able to find work in news and was resorting to the tabloid Insider when a gay blog found and published his naked Manhunt pics. It was a gay run blog that ran the barebacking Dustin Lance Black pics.
It’s stupid. The gay media demands guys come out because there aren’t enough gay role models for kids and gay celebrity representatives for straights with good images then it tries to wreck their good images and destroy their capacity to fill those roles.
Coming out would probably stop left wing sources from making gay jokes about Anderson, but you have to be kidding if you think blogs and tabloids will stop trafficking in rumor and innuendo about his sex life. I’m not even confident announcing his orientation would even stop the criticism and demands from the the gay peanut gallery. We’re mostly rough on gay celebrities and unsatisfied with them not reaching community expectations that they’ll be ass kicking perfect saviors.
Nonetheless, I’d like to see him come out and I think he could still manage to sustain a decent career. I’m just saying I don’t believe his being gay wouldn’t be a continuous story, I don’t believe the rumor mongering would stop and I’m not persuaded he’d really be supported by the gay community or the gay media. As I’ve said before, I also do not agree with all the other closeted news people getting off scott free. I think the way Anderson Cooper is singled out and villified for not coming out isn’t justifiable or smart.
craig
@AxelDC: Kathy doesn’t out her friends, and she’s been public about that being something she won’t do. She didn’t out Lance Bass either and they were friends long before he came out.
jason
MK,
That’s not strictly true. There are lots of hetero media people who aren’t married yet still let us know they are dating the opposite sex.
Why can’t Anderson Cooper do it?
jason
I think this whole closet case mentality in the media is contributing to our oppression.
mk
There are lots of hetero media people who aren’t married yet still let us know they are dating the opposite sex.
I’m talking about national news anchors. News anchoring is a really conservative profession.
Straight anchors may let it be known that they date the opposite sex, but you were saying actually talking about specific individuals they are with. You do not normally see straight national news anchors talking about individuals they are with, especially not on air, unless they are married.
It’s a really bad career idea for them to usher the audience and press into their relationship if it’s not an official, long term, stable, convincingly monogamous thing. The public is really judgmental about celebrity couples and break ups to begin with and anchors need to be perceived as trustworthy and highly respectable. According to Queerty and other gay blogs I’ve seen comment on the topic, Anderson dates and fucks around a lot and is known for being fickle. Identifying your orientation in general is one things, but if you are a straight or gay news anchor with a personal life like that it would not be wise to open the gates to the public about individuals passing through. A slutty or inconstant image doesn’t work, and the public already have negative stereotypes about gay men being slutty that they’d only see as confirmed.
Even a plenty of regular celebrities avoid talking about who all they are dating and giving descriptions of the people to the press.
Marc
He was on an overnight news show ABC years ago and I specifically remember him being out. Early on when he did other news segments for ABC these would typically be gay related. Then, he did “The Mole” and then he showed up on CNN.
If you google his name for boyfriends, I hope most of that info is not true. Cooper is in his forties and there is a lot of stuff linking him to guys at least 20 years younger and barely legal.
That is not cool. If it is true, Cooper does not impress me that much. And, it might be a reason for him not to call too much attention to his sexuality.
rrr
He used to be reported as out in gay publications sometimes. He lived openly and on TV he showed a lot of gay interests and humor. He attended gay conferences and had been a member of a gay professional organization. The ‘glass closet’ hadn’t even been invented as a term yet.
Which guys are you talkings about? Online he’s only been publicly linked in a definite way with a few known guys and then there’s been a few uncertain rumors about a couple of other guys. The dominican ex-boyfriend he thanked in his book is less than ten years younger than him. The french gay bar owner he’s really clearly dating now is in his mid 30s.
I don’t know if he has flings with legal younger guys. You are right that wouldn’t be great stuff for a news anchor to call attention to. Otherwise I don’t see how it would be all that terrible.
CooperComeOUt
He is a major coward, end of story.
Marc
@rrr:
Yeah the bar owner is an adult.
Stuff like this seems creepy
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z168/Santosuke/boyfriend/anderson-cooper-boyfriend-santosuke.jpg
This dude is 22. Twenty-two is grown, true enough. But, what is Cooper supposed to have in common with this guy.
cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gawker/2008/04/Picture 32-1.jpg
In fairness to him, most big news media types do not disclose their personal lives AT ALL. These people discuss other other people’s business but not their own. I recall Chris Mathews saying “his kid is like him, hes no rocket scientist”
rrr
@ Marc
I don’t know where you found that first pic but weirdly there is someone else’s face faked into place where the real face was. The guy was latin and the new face looks white. The guy was widely identified as a trainer from AC’s gym. Here’s the orginal pic: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/resources/2006/11/coop_and_friend.jpg
I don’t know whether he had the alleged fling with the 22 year old dolphin guy. Wouldn’t be a be shock if he did. I don’t think you really need a lot in common for a fling.
AxelDC
@craig: Oh, I see. If you are friends with Griffith, she feels obligated to protect your secret shame of being gay. If you are not, such as Clay Aiken, she can publicly mock you and travel the country calling you “The Gayken” to make lots of money.
I guess Cooper was wise to kiss her ass, or else she would think of some clever moniker for him and further advance her career at his expense.
In either case, she has no respect for gays because she thinks being closeted is either something to mock or shelter, depending upon her personal affections.
AxelDC
@jason: You are right. Cooper and Griffith pretend to be our “allies”, but the underlying motif of this is shame. It is shameful to be gay and that must be protected if you like someone or mocked if you don’t.
craig
Clay made himself a joke by being flaming but denying he’s gay. Deniers get treated differently and they get mocked heavily if near every fool can see it’s a lie. Clay is also unattractive and a sort of goofy freak, and that doesn’t help.
mk
What Kathy Griffin does, like the other liberal straight comedians, is ridicule the gay people who either (a) publicly claim they are not gay when they obviously are and/or (b) present themselves in a weird or ridiculous way. Those are the Tom Cruises and Clays who are ridiculous in many ways and practically begging to be mocked. They do not make the same jokes about attractive, respectable, professional, likeable, classy, scandal-free glass closeted gays who are not denying their sexuality or doing anything that would invite ridicule, those are the Anderson Coopers and Jodie Fosters. If they ridiculed those people sexually it would be clear they were singling them out and publicly mocking them simply for being gay, which to them and most people would be bigoted behavior. Only rightwing homophobe asshole straight “comedians” like Don Imus engage in that.
AxelDC
@mk: I don’t see any difference between Tom Cruise, Clay Aiken, Anderson Cooper and Jodie Foster. They are all making fools of us by claiming that being gay is shameful.
I take that back, Clay Aiken finally had the courage to come out.
mk
AxelDC, maybe you do not see any difference but straights and straight comedians do see one. Even most gays draw some distiction between gay liars and gays who do not lie, regardless of how tolerant they are of the second group.
Anderson and Jodie have not claimed being gay is shameful. You have projected that onto them. They have both said talking about their sexuality in interview would be inconvenient for them for various reasons, which is not the same thing. They have put a priority on their own desires not ours.
TheInsider
no. 136 MK,
Excuse me??? Talking about their sexuality, these two millionaires, would be “inconvenient”? Well, u sure sound like their PR flack man! Maybe you could work for them? And along the way, kiss Griffin’s skanky ass.
romeo
As far as I’m concerned, being “in the closet” means denying you’re gay. Cooper never does that. In fact, he does just about everything to not deny it except say the “g” word. It would be nice if he came out fully, but is there anyone who doesn’t know? Plenty of gays feel the need to walk that tightrope career-wise. It’s just a matter of how they do it.
But you’re right about Griffin. There’s a hostility in her that I never trusted. You just know she could turn on you. LOL
MissLaWanda
This is all so racist.
Caleb
@mk:
MK, the gay blogs didn’t wreck Dustin Lance Black or Thomas Robert’s careers. Nobody forced them to take naked photos/video of themselves and post it online. If you take it then you run the risks just like any celeb (i.e. Paris Hilton, Colin Ferrell, Kim Kardashian, Tommy Lee, etc.) of it being found.
I tell my friends all the time not to post naked pics. I never have and never will.
Tonyboy
@Marc:
As a New Yorker for 18 years and having mets guys that have dated Anderson you could say he is a Chicken Hawk. He tends to go for guys at least 10 years, if not more younger, than him.
mk
Talking about their sexuality, these two millionaires, would be “inconvenient”?
That’s what their reasons boil down to basically. I didn’t say I thought it’s a terrific reason, but facts are facts.
You can say most of the out American stars made their choices according to convenience. TR Knight and Neil Patrick Harris were not going to come out and only finally did it when other people forced them into a corner where they felt coming out was their best alternative. Lance Bass waited until his career was dead. Clay waited until he’d been dropped by his record company and tabloid scandal had lost him a lot of his fanbase. David Hyde Pierce waited until Frasier was over even though he was really safe as a mere supporting character on a very popular sitcom and as a guy in a really long term relationship who was already type cast as a fussy, prissy intellectual.
I think Jodie Foster has being quite unreasonable and I don’t see why she isn’t criticized for it more than she is and hasn’t been outed more over the years. She is virtually retired but still at the top of her industry. When she does do the odd movie she plays strong single women, so she really doesn’t have worry about the public finding her convincing in a straight romance. She’s had a very long career already and received the industry’s top prizes. She was partnered to a woman for 15 years and they raised kids together, and she talked about her kids in interview but not her partner who’s their other mother and was part of the family unit. She has a career behind the camera as well as in front of it. Being a hot lesbian makes straight guys want to see more of a woman.
I’ve already said I’d like Anderson Cooper to come out, I just don’t agree with him being singled out from among many and villified for being glass closeted in news or for taking some years making his probable eventual way out of the glass closet. I think it is completely ridiculous that Jodie Foster hasn’t come out.
mk
MK, the gay blogs didn’t wreck Dustin Lance Black or Thomas Robert’s careers. Nobody forced them to take naked photos/video of themselves and post it online.
Dustin Lance Black didn’t post anything. He and a boyfriend took some photos while they were having sex back when he was a new wet behind the ears Mormon kid in LA. The boyfriend turned out to be a sleaze. Perez Hilton bought the pics and published them then other gay blogs picked them up from there.
Thomas Roberts posted the pics on Manhunt, but only gays would be searching around manhunt. He was also only a known recognizable figure to the gay community really and that was for drawing attention to himself by coming out.
These are stories the mainstream media would have been reluctant to approach out of worry about accusations of anti-gay agenda and targeting gay professionals and reinforcing negative gay stereotypes, but since gay blogs broke the stories and published the pics the MSM was sheltered from anti-gay accusations.
The gay blogs did not create the pics, but they sure weren’t being supportive by publishing them and they would know they were damaging those guys’ public images. In Thomas Roberts’ case it was also kicking a guy when he was down. They were thinking about traffick on their site and a juicy item, they were not thinking about the guys or their value to the movement.
I find invariably in these cases the blogs say “we don’t owe these guys anything! we are going to treat them like anyone else!”. The blogs are very quick to make demands about what gay celebrities should do for them and the good of the community, but it’s all one sided. According to the gay blogs the celebrities are supposed to take career risks and make sacrifices to provide good role models and representatives but when the blogs sniff web hits they are not going to sacrifice those web hits to preserve the good role models and representatives they were claiming were so important. It’s “you owe us and need to nobly think of the social good of the many but we won’t owe you anything back and will think about ourselves and will prioritize providing jack off material over the social good of the many”.
BLBLB
How does Kathy doing repeated riffs on Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest fucking (the last one mentioning “barebacking” at VH1 Divas) fit into all this?
craig
@BLBLB: Ryan hates people saying he’s gay and Kathy hates Ryan. They presented together at an award show years ago. He was freaking out about what she might say about him on stage and when they got out there he ripped her top open on stage without her permission.
Ryan is one of those guys who is so metro he seems to like he would be gay but he is always trying feverishly to convince people he’s not gay. That’s funny to a lot of people. He’s pretty goofy, too.
BLBLB
So you’re saying Ryan isn’t gay, merely metro.
craig
@BLBLB: I don’t have any idea if Ryan is gay or not. He comes across as maybe being gay and everyone has their own theory on that. There’s been rumors he did Merv Griffin to get ahead.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
If Jamie Foxx joins American Idol and Simon adds Paula to the line-up of the X Factor, guess where everyone is going? Ryan Seacrest is uncomfortable to watch with his faux heterosexuality which usually shocks the celebrity he’s trying to grope. He’s probably a heterosexual who likes boys…because he fails at being a Man!
blliolo
Honey, ratings on Idol have shot up this season without precious Paula.
BradSA
Clay waited until he’d been dropped by his record company and tabloid scandal had lost him a lot of his fanbase.
_______________________________________________________
Clay wasn’t dropped by his label, his contract expired after 5 years and 5 albums. That is typical of recording contracts and artists change labels all the time. Your second point is wrong too because he lost a lot of his fans because he came out. They were happy with him until then.
What did he do that is so bad? He told the media his sexual orientation was none of their business. If any of the tabloid stuff is true the worst thing he did was have sex with a man. Color me shocked that a gay man would have sex with a gay man. What a joke!
He never bearded and only once did he ever imply that he wasn’t gay, 7 years ago when he was still green at this fame thing and even his family didn’t know yet.
He came out nearly 2 years ago. Can we stop ragging on him now?
roger
According to Craig only attractive, classy and likeable closeted gay celebrities get a pass. What kind of messed up thinking is that?
As for Kathy Griffin, she’s funny but to imply that she doesn’t out certain people because she has a moral compass is laughable.
mk
I’m not saying Clay did things that were so bad, I’m saying like others he waited until the timing was convenient for him before coming out. His contract was over and he was having a kid.
I’m sympathetic to why a young closeted very Christian young man competing in a national popularity contest might lie about his sexuality to the press.
He lost fans over a number of things before he came out, although others hung in there. Some seemed to get fatigue from “defending” him all the time. Most of them were hardcore Christians, which went badly with the tabloid things and later with the having an IVF kid out of wedlock. The alleged internet sex hook up who did a tell all on in the National Enquirer and on Howard Stern depicted him negatively as a “Jekyll and Hyde type” and went into graphic detail about Clay trying to fist him and doing barebacking with him. He presented a rag crusty with cum as evidence of the encounter and supposedly passed a lie detector test. The Enquirer also published some shirtless webcam pics of him looking fairly lecherous. The tabloid things aren’t morally bad but they were upsetting to his mainly religious female fanbase and really went against the public image he tried to present. It’s true other fans left over him being gay or over feeling betrayed that he hadn’t been honest about it.
My point wasn’t to pick on Clay. It was to point out a trend among the out American male celebrities to put the in celebrities in context.
Sean17563
@mk:
“He and a boyfriend took some photos while they were having sex back when he was a new wet behind the ears Mormon kid in LA. ”
What are you on??!!?!? The photos are from 3 years ago when Dustin was 32. He wasn’t a kid. He had been in Hollywood for years. Nobody made him take the photos. If you take naked photos of yourself you shouldn’t be shocked when they get out. As for his “bf” the guy does porn. You shouldn’t be surprised if a porn performer releases his “work”.
roger
That’s what happens to gays when they’re closeted, they end up doing dangerous things to hook up with someone.
I feel for those whose jobs may be on the line whether it be celebrities or school teachers but until gays come out of the closet and show that they are not lecherous monsters but just people who happen to be gay who want the same things as everyone else, things are not going to change.
scott ny'er
@craig: Ewwwwwww.
jason
Roger,
I agree. I think the closet mentality breeds the risky types of behaviors you see in saunas and public parks. The darkness of saunas and after-hours parklands is a metaphor for shame and inability to be open and honest about one’s sexuality.
mk
According to Craig only attractive, classy and likeable closeted gay celebrities get a pass.
Usually the people who get ridiculed by straight comedians in relation to sexuality are the ones who have actively denied they are gay. A guy like Tom Cruise is good looking and has some charisma, but he denies he is gay on top of acting fairly weird.
Larkan
@MK
“The alleged internet sex hook up who did a tell all on in the National Enquirer and on Howard Stern depicted him negatively as a “Jekyll and Hyde type” and went into graphic detail about Clay trying to fist him and doing barebacking with him.”
—-
It has been proven that the ALLEGED hook up is a stalker and an admitted liar. Clay denies having ever met the guy.
—-
“He presented a rag crusty with cum as evidence of the encounter”
—-
The stalker continues to blog about Clay since 2006 and in 2007 he admitted that there was no rag, no towel, no washcloth.
—-
“and supposedly passed a lie detector test. ”
—-
National Enquirer Standard Lie Detector Exam Questions
Question: What is your name?
Answer: John Stalker.
Question: How old are you Mr. Stalker?
Answer: 42
OK you pass.
—-
“The Enquirer also published some shirtless webcam pics of him looking fairly lecherous.”
—-
The naked headless fat chest picture could be any random guy in the world except Clay because he was really skinny at the time and he doesn’t have black body hair.
mk
@Larkan:
It doesn’t really matter if the allegations were true for this, we were talking about thing that turned people off. The allegations and other tabloid things were off putting for some people.
The lecherous face pics were in a separate article in Star magazine.
I know there were conspiracy theories that both the Star and NE articles were all an elaborate diabolical hoax orchestrated to promote porn movies. The theories may even be true. I didn’t look into it too deeply or invest a lot of trust since everyone on both sides of the argument seemed fairly unstable and obsessed.
Larkan
@MK
Porn producer Michael Lucas is diabolical when it comes to creating publicity for his products. He used Clay for tabloid headlines and to make a buck by selling a porn film claiming that it was Clay’s hookup in the starring role. At the same time he could humiliate a closeted gay celebrity. The man is a real bastard that way.
spindoc
Kathy Griffin is a typical sell out. She’ll attack anybody who can’t hurt her, or who doesn’t have any power in Hollywood. Now that she is going to parties with people she only mocks has been singing stars. She never laid off Clay Aiken when he was closeted and now is sitting here defending Anderson Cooper for doing the same thing. She claims Anderson goes to areas that are dangerous, but Kathy, Clay was raised in one of those strict religeons and most of his fanm base seemed to be the same so why protect one and not the other? Typical sell out hypocrtie. As for Anderson Cooper. Stay in the closet, at this point I don’t give a fuck anymore, just go away and let somebody younger and braver have your job.
Jones
MK, u seem to delight in refuting a lot of people’s posts here! man, that takes too much time, no?
JonathanHasHasIt
@no. 161, Spindoc
Well said. I think pretty much you’ve summed it all up quite nicely. Thank you.
blliolo
“Kathy Griffin is a typical sell out. She’ll attack anybody who can’t hurt her, or who doesn’t have any power in Hollywood.”
Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest don’t have any power in Hollywood?
Marty
Anderson don’t listen to “Spindoc”, keep on doing your job, some of us out here DO appreciate your work.