As we previewed yesterday, Angelina Jolie will appear in a pre-taped interview with Anderson Cooper for his talk show on Monday. In the coverage I did yesterday, Angelina was talking about her family’s nomadic lifestyle, and how she hates to “settle” and the whole thing inspired a very interesting conversation about Brangelina and how they’re raising the kids. As you know, I like Jolie. But I think this is one of her flaws – she acts as if she would be so disappointed in her children if one of them actually wanted to stay in one place for a year and put down some roots. Anyway, AC’s people sent us a lengthy transcript of Jolie and Cooper’s conversation, and here are some of the highlights:

Jolie on her Thanksgiving: “It was good, we actually Brad and I decided we were actually going to make the turkey and we were very successful and very proud of ourselves. We did it! I’ve tried on and off but this was just the two of us with the kids watching trying to pretend we knew exactly what we were doing.”

Family dinners: “We actually have family dinner every night. We make a point of it. It’s crazy. There’s a good five minutes were everybody is quiet and sitting together and then it starts to break off into different…No, no [video gams] and no blackberries for mom and dad.”

More on always traveling: “We do, we’re a big traveling. Now we are starting to get them where they each have their own luggage and they unpack their own clothes and pack their own because it was just getting to confusing for me to figure out but it’s great, it’s so much fun. Fortunately, my kids love to travel because I do and they’re very worldly and what I love is that they can be in New York in a hotel in Manhattan and think it’s so cool and then I can bring them to the middle of Kenya and drop them in a tent with no TV and no nothing and they’re just as happy as so I feel like that’s what we are trying to do to balance them.”

Explaining to the kids about war and refugees: “They do, and they’ve come with me to some. You know I try not to be one of those mothers that says, ‘Some people around the world don’t have,’ I try not to do that, but I try by example to bring them to places and hopefully they’ll make friends with people in different countries, coming from different backgrounds, dealing with different situations and they’ll understand that actually is what the world looks like, not this small world of just the place we live in our house. This is not reality, reality is all of these things. So they know and they are very good about you know, ‘Mommy has to go, mommy’s going to try to do some good and this thing is going on. So, I’ll be right back.’ They seem to be very generous about it and understanding that they’re kids and they want their mom but they also know that there are other kids that mom can try to help.”

Angelina on reading the reviews of ‘Blood & Honey’: “Well I have to read some things on this because I need to understand how people are receiving it if there is something more I need to explain in case it is being misunderstood. This is the first time I had to and it’s terrifying but I’ve avoided everything on myself.”

She doesn’t read any of the tabloids: “Which is so funny because I’m the most boring. I’m not totally boring but we do often say that because we don’t go out clubbing, we’re not big into fashion, we do a lot of dealing with kids and stuff.”

If Brad retires at the age of 50: “I’m happy for it. No, we were both racing to see which one of us gets to retire first. We both, like most people, we like being home. Whoever is the one whose home tends to be the happier one because we get to play with the kids and the other one is out earning the money… He was with the kids taking them to school in the morning then he’d come to the set in the afternoon and do stills photography. He was my stills photographer.

[Via Anderson Cooper’s show transcript]

La Jolie is “boring”??? NEVER. Okay, sometimes she is boring, but just when I think that, she says something that I find innocuous and everybody FREAKS OUT.

I’m also including some video clips below… Anderson and Angelina are seriously adorable together. Coop looks at her like… “If I was ever going to try a vadge, it would be yours.” And Angelina is all, “Oh, Silver Fox, BEHAVE!”

Photos courtesy of Anderson Cooper’s talk show.

Melissa McCarthy was a guest on Anderson Cooper’s talk show yesterday, and the hilarious 41 year-old actress revealed that she’s starting her own plus-size women’s clothing line. Unlike most other celebrities who slap their names on clothing, McCarthy has actual experience in the field. She went to fashion school and used to make clothing for clients. McCarthy even made the dress she wore to the Emmys this year. So when she told Cooper that she was starting her own clothing line it sounded like she was genuine about it and not like she just wanted to make some cash. McCarthy also discussed her body image. She said that while she cares about her weight and would like to be thinner she realizes it’s not that important in the scheme of things. This is similar to what she’s said in the past about it, and it’s nice to hear. Here’s more:

On her body image
“I’ve been up and down. I’ve been much thinner since my second baby. I’m still working on it. It’s a work in progress.”

“I hope I wake up at, like, 94 pounds. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“There’s so many other things to worry about. I still worry about it, but I think, my kids are healthy, I’ve got a great husband, and I go to work every day and do what I want.”

On her kids
“I have a four and a half year-old and a 19 month, and I want them to be confident, strong, happy, healthy women and define themselves by their actions and what they do, and how they treat other people. I know everything else is going to get all caught up in it. My job, I think, is to always bring it back to what do you do, how do you live, what do you say to other people?”

[From AndersonCooper.com, some quotes via People, ]

She’s kind of awesome. I haven’t been a fan as I’ve only seen her in Bridesmaids, but I’m really warming up to her. I didn’t know that she was a mom and that her kids were so little! The Daily Mail has a whole article on McCarthy’s goth past, including a photo of her with porcupine hair which Anderson points out looks just like Kate Gosselin’s old ‘do!. You can see a video of her talking about being a goth in high school here. I can relate, as I went through a similar phase in the very late 80s. I used to shave my hair on one side too, but thankfully I grew out of that, and grew it out, quickly.

Photos credit The Anderson Cooper show. Tune in information here. McCarthy is also shown on 11-7-11 outside The Late Show and at an event. Credit: WENN.com

Anderson Cooper has the “25 Things You Didn’t Know” about in this week’s US Weekly and it’s just awesome. It’s funny, it’s humble, it’s smart, it’s informative – just like AC! Compare Anderson’s nice little non-braggy list to a recent one compiled by Joe Manganiello of True Blood, who just listed off his accomplishments and told us that The Fountainhead was his favorite book, like he was doing us a favor. Cooper doesn’t have anything to prove, but he manages to prove that he’s so much more worthy anyway. Take a look:

1. I started going gray in college.
2. I wish I still had brown hair.
3. I love my Real Housewives of Atlanta and Beverly Hills. Miami, not so much.
4. I met Charlie Chaplin when I was 6. I have a photo, but no actual memory of it.
5. I’m very disorganized.
6. Shopping for clothes makes my head hurt.
7. I work out nearly every day. Yes, I know how annoying that sounds.
8. I love fast food.
9. I need to eat better.
10. I collected toy solders when I was young.
11. I became a reporter by going to wars by myself with a camera and a fake press pass.
12. I’ve been addicted to TV since I was little.
13. I was a Dungeons and Dragons geek when I was young. I spent a lot of time indoors.
14. I can fall asleep anywhere at any time.
15. I was a child model. Embarrassing!
16. I don’t drink any hot liquids. No tea, no coffee.
17. Oddly, my favorite ice cream flavor is coffee.
18. I don’t wear sunglasses, no matter how bright out it is.
19. I struggled with sydlexia as a child.
10. Chocolate chip cookies make me happy.
21. I can’t sing, and won’t try.
22. I like to dance, but never on TV.
23. I’ve bitten my nails for as long as I can remember.
24. I am a dog person and have a dog named Molly, but I’ve recently discovered cats are OK too.
25. I like to assume the best about people, until I am proven wrong.

[From US Weekly, print edition, September 19, 2011]

I love how this list tells us a little tidbit about AC, then kind of corrects it with a counter item. It’s clever, and it’s also self deprecating. For all the times he sort-of brags, he balances it out. He’s not a humble bragger either. It was only a year or so ago that I learned that Cooper is Gloria Vanderbuilt’s son, and that he comes from American royalty. Notice how this list has nothing about his family background and nothing about his brag-worthy education. He graduated from Yale, he studied Vietnamese in Hanoi at the University of Hanoi for a year, and he interned for two summers at the CIA. He’s been all over the world reporting on war and genocide, but there’s only one item here about how he became a reporter. He’s a prominent telejournalist on his own merits, and he continues to prove that with every move. Of course everyone is wondering why AC doesn’t come out of the closet, but I just think he wants to keep his personal life private.

I know I became a total AC fangirl at some point, and I think it was after that Gerard Depardieu giggle fest. Look at this man. Even when he makes a sexy face, it’s like he’s making fun of himself.

Photo credit: WENN, Fame and PRPhotos

I love Anderson Cooper. Like not as much as Micheal K at D-Listed, and I’m not an Anderson-loonie or anything, but I’m getting there. The more this guy deigns to comment on pop culture, the more he endears himself to me. We last saw his adorably giddy laugh as he mocked Gerard Depardieu for peeing on the plane. (I’m sure Cooper has said plenty of other witty stuff in the interim, but it’s not like I watch CNN regularly. If it doesn’t reach the gossip bubble and isn’t big news, I usually don’t hear about it.) This time, he held it together as he lambasted Kate Gosselin for bogarting the pizza on a family road trip that was shown on the second to last episode of Kate Plus 8. In his aptly-named “ridiculist” segment, he laid out how obnoxious Kate was.

Now we heard about Kate’s freakout yesterday, but this is the first time I’m seeing the entire clip and Kate’s behavior is even worse than I thought. She demanded the last piece of pizza for her lover the bodyguard Steve, then she lambasted the nanny for letting one of the kids hand over the slice without wrapping it in foil first, calling it “disgusting,” since the kids have “dirty hands.” When the nanny Ashley tried to make it up to her by asking if she could make some mac and cheese for Steve, Kate shrilled “No, he doesn’t eat macaroni and cheese or salad! That’s my whole point!”

Cooper explained it well. “Yeah Ashley, stupid Ashley the babysitter, he doesn’t eat macaroni and cheese or salad, that’s the whole point. This is your job. Haven’t you learned anything about the kids’ mom’s bodyguard’s culinary piccadillos? What are you even getting paid for?”

Ashley yelled out the window of the RV “We will survive, pizza is not a freaking big deal. I am so sick of your dramatics.” Then Ashley quit and left. (It was unclear yesterday whether she had quit for good or just ditched the road trip, but she did quit.)

Coopers summary is so clever. I’m sure a team of people wrote it, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome. “It is a cautionary tale really, so many lessons for all of us to learn. Wash your hands, guard your food, and if you somehow, against all odds, find a woman who is willing to help you take eight kids on a cross country road trip, for goodness sakes let her divide the pizza any way she wants.”

Did TLC throw Kate Gosselin under the giant bus, as a few of you commented on yesterday’s story? Producers easily could have cut that segment, but they know good viral-worthy television when they see it. It’s more like Kate dug her own hole, and continues to scream and belittle everyone from it. They probably have way more stuff they haven’t shown where Kate acts like a witch and have been holding back until now so she will continue to do the show. It’s just sad that her kids are no longer going to have a camera crew to buffer them from their mom’s rages. I’m praying that there’s an even worse Kate meltdown in the final. Bitch should go out with a bang.

Here are some hot photos of Anderson Cooper, because we don’t need any more Kate Gosselin. Does this guy ever take a bad picture?

Photo credit: WENN.com

When Gerard Depardieu took a piss in the middle of a plane aisle, some of you laughed. When it came time for Anderson Cooper to report the story, the boy had a near breakdown. Maybe it was just the basics of the story – large, French actor taking a piss in front of people on a plane – or maybe it was all of the puns and double-entendres in Anderson’s script, but whatever it was, Anderson erupted into an unstoppable giggle fit that quickly went viral (the giggling starts around the 2:30 mark):

So, everyone was talking about how Anderson giggles like a girl. Entertainment Weekly spoke to Anderson about it, and he was pretty funny about the incident:

It’s safe to say Anderson Cooper finds laughs in bathroom humor. Just last Thursday, a video clip from Cooper’s CNN show, Anderson Cooper 360, went viral after the anchor fell into an mean case of the giggles during his “Ridiculist” segment. The subject? Actor Gerard Depardieu’s airplane urination which Cooper said at least wasn’t a “Depar-TWO.”

Now, Cooper tells EW he’s even surprised by how popular the footage became.

“I don’t know what happened with the giggling,” Cooper tells EW. “I mean, I’ve always giggled like a 13 year-old girl at a Justin Bieber meet and greet. There’s nothing I can do about it but I’ve never not been able to stop. I’m a little stunned by how many people have seen that video. I went to bed telling myself, ‘I doubt anyone will notice the giggle fit.’ I woke up and in the elevator the first thing my building super said to me was, ‘What’s wrong with your laugh?’ It could be worse: I could have a viral video in which I throw up on a guest or drunkenly eat a hamburger on a bathroom floor. Not that I’ve ever done either of those things. Not yet at least.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

There is something he could do about it, I think. I worked to change my laugh, and it ended up happening. When I used to laugh, my whole body would shake, but very little laughter would come out of my mouth. It was more like a full-body fit than a chuckle. Anyway, I consciously made the effort to laugh differently, and it worked. Sort of. Now when something really cracks me up, I end up snorting. But that’s fine.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

By now, I think we all know that Anderson Cooper is gay. He has a hot boyfriend named Benjamin Maisani who owns and operates a club. They have a big gay love shack that is a converted firehouse (complete with a fireman’s pole, apparently). They’ve even been photographed together (Benjamin is the hot, muscular dude with Anderson in these photos). Anyway, the Enquirer often runs stories about the state of Andy and Ben’s relationship. They sometimes go over the top with their claims, probably thinking that if Anderson ever tries to refute them, he’ll have to come out of his glass closet. Last year the Enquirer even reported that Ben and Anderson were thinking of adopting a Haitian orphan, which was probably never going to happen in reality. This week, the Enquirer claims that Andy and Ben were having relationship problems, but Anderson’s mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, stepped in and mediated a solution. She’s not so selfless though – she wants Anderson and Ben to give her grandbaby, NOW.

Anderson Cooper’s famous mom is pushing him to marry his boyfriend – so she can get another grandchild! Fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt helped the CNN anchor mend his crumbling relationship with club owner Benjamin Maisini, 38, amid quarrels over their taxing work schedules.

“Anderson and Ben are in love, but they were on the verge of breaking up,” an insider told The Enquirer. “Between Anderson’s dangerous work assignments and Ben’s crazy hours at the club, the guys reached an impasse.”

That’s when Anderson’s 87-year-old mom worked some magic.

“At her age, Gloria is desperate to see her son settle down and make a family. So she got right in the middle of things, and reminded each of them how lucky they are to have found love and to stop being so demanding,” the source divulged.

Anderson, 44, said he could cut back on road trips, said the source.

“Then Ben said his real worry is that Anderson’s job keeps him in danger. Pretty soon they got a dialogue going and the breakup was averted,” the source added.

Now Gloria – who has three grandchildren – is pushing hard for the two to marry and pick up their plans to adopt a child.

As the Enquirer reported, the two considered adopting a Haitian orphan after the country’s January 2010 earthquake, which Anderson covered extensively. They scrapped that plan due to his busy career, but now “Anderson is ready to settle down, and Ben is content,” said the source. “And they both have Gloria to thank!”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition]

I’m not really sure who is the bigger “get” in Ben and Anderson’s relationship. Ben seems like a decent guy, he’s hot, he spends a lot of time at the gym, and he’s a successful businessman. Anderson is hot too, and he’s probably lusted after by scores of ladies and dudes. BUT, if you date Anderson, you can rarely go out in public with him. You can’t be his date to any official functions, you can’t even hold his hand when you go to Crate & Barrel. So who has the better deal in this relationship? I hope Ben likes being Anderson’s not-so-secret lover for a few more years, because I don’t think this whole marriage-and-babies thing is in the cards for now.

Photos courtesy of WENN & Pacific Coast News.

I’ve been hearing some mutterings for weeks that a CNN anchor was going to be coming out of the closet publicly and making some big media splash about his gayness. Everyone was all “Duh. Anderson Cooper is teh ghey.” Not so much. Well, I mean, obviously Andy is fabulous beyond belief, but he’s not the one coming out in a big, gay splash this week. No, it’s CNN anchor Don “Not T.J. Holmes” Lemon (I confuse the two, both are handsome black dudes on CNN, and they look alike, for real). Lemon has written a new book about his struggle to be out and proud as an African-American man. It actually is pretty groundbreaking, considering The Silver Fox is still kind of hiding in his glass closet:

A CNN anchor has come out — no, not THAT one — rather, Don Lemon told the world that he “was born gay.”

Lemon told the New York Times on Sunday that while his colleagues in the news business have been aware of his sexuality for years, cultural implications kept him from revealing his sexuality on a grand scale.

“It’s quite different for an African-American male,” Lemon told the paper. “It’s about the worst thing you can be in black culture. You’re taught you have to be a man; you have to be masculine. In the black community, they think you can pray the gay away. I guess this makes me a double minority now.”

Lemon said in a statement he later released to the media that despite feeling relief after coming out to his mother, he “still chose to keep those secrets hidden from the world.

“I, like most gay people, lived a life of fear,” Lemon said. “Fear that if some employers, co-workers, friends, neighbors and family members learned of my sexuality, I would be shunned, mocked and ostracized.

“It is a burden that millions of people carry with them every single day.”

Lemon, 45, said he dedicated his new book, Transparent, “to the memory of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who jumped to his death from a bridge after his dorm mates streamed his private business over the Internet for the world to see.

“Tyler might still be with us today if more gay men and women had chosen to live proudly and openly,” Lemon said of the September 2010 tragedy.

The newsman, who’s been with CNN since September 2006, took to Twitter after his revelation.

“I’m overwhelmed by all your tweets and support! Hoping this prevents more tragedies like tyler clementi’s suicide. Don Lemon”

Transparent hits stores June 16.

[From Radar]

Aw, that’s nice. I’m happy for him, and I hope the public support for Don continues. People often debate whether it really matters if your newsman or newswoman is gay, but the fact of the matter is that most news departments are socially conservative boys’ clubs, and they fear that the audience will abandon an anchor if they find out that the anchor is gay. It will be interesting to see CNN’s reaction – as a news agency, as a corporation – to Lemon’s admission. It’s not like CNN has awesome ratings anyway, but now that Don is out, CNN might give him a better timeslot and stuff. Who knows, it could be the best thing for his career.

Oh, Silver Fox. Will you ever bring your hot, sexy boyfriend to a CNN event?

Photos courtesy of WENN, Google images.

Oh noes! Anderson Cooper, like many major journalists (coughcoughKatieCouriccough), is in Egypt for the massive demonstrations and anti-Hosni Mubarak (I spelled his name right before looking it up! YAY!) activities. For the most part, it seems like the millions of demonstrators have been non-violent, which is a good thing. International support of these demonstrations can turn on a dime, and so far, the anti-Mubarak people have been playing it safe with the Western journalists and everybody is playing nice. Unfortunately, in a last-ditch effort to save his job (and his life, maybe), Mubarak is attempting to photo-op his way out of this disaster. Small, pro-Mubarak groups have been trailing Western journalists and demonstrating (against the anti-Mubarak demonstrators) in front of the cameras. When CNN’s camera crew – lead by Anderson Cooper – was trying to report from the street, these pro-Mubarak demonstrators got out of hand and attacked The Coop.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper escaped serious injury Wednesday when he was attacked by a group of demonstrators in Egypt, which has been plunged into crisis in recent days by political protests.

Cooper, 43, said he and his production crew, reporting from Cairo, were set upon by demonstrators loyal to embattled president Hosni Mubarak. “The attackers pushed and shoved the CNN crew and punched them in the head, he said, but no one was seriously hurt,” according to a report on CNN.com.

A colleague, CNN’s Steve Brusk, tweeted that Cooper was “punched 10 times in the head” by a “pro-Mubarak mob.”

The extent of Cooper’s injuries were not known, but the anchor has continued to file reports on the unrest since the incident.

[From People]

Poor Anderson. What’s worse is that I get the feeling that Anderson is in no way a brawler. If that had been CNN’s Michael Ware, that junk would have gotten really bloody, with Ware throwing most of the punches. I’m biased though – I love Michael Ware. He’s crazy and brave, and I love the way he says “lame duck” with his Aussie accent. Anyway, Anderson took the punches like a man and continued reporting later on in the evening. See Andy describe the scene afterwards:

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I’m sad to say that I missed Anderson Cooper’s interview with Eminem last night on 60 Minutes. First of all – Eminem, clean and sober and thoughtful, on 60 Minutes is kind of awesome. I’ve said this before, but I’ve really begun to respect Eminem lately. His interviews to promote his latest album have shown how interesting and intelligent he is, and how he really does have a maturing and increasingly inclusive world-view. In his New York Times profile, Eminem even came out in support of gay marriage, and he’s given a lot of credit to Elton John for Elton’s help and support in getting clean. At about 8:30 mark on the video below, Anderson challenges Eminem on his lyrics, his language, especially regarding violence, misogyny and homophobia. Eminem lets the word “f-ggot” fly (in front of Anderson!).

On last night’s “60 Minutes,” rapper Eminem had an unlikely interviewer: Anderson Cooper. Basically, the hip-hop star repeated the life story that most people learned (in fictionalized form) by watching “8 Mile” in 2002. Cooper did ask Eminem about his use of anti-gay slurs in his lyrics.

Cooper asked Eminem, who has often been branded a homophobe, why he uses words like “lez” and “f*g” in his lyrics, but seemed to accept this answer: “The scene that I came up in, that word was thrown around so much, you know? F****t was, like, it was thrown around constantly, to each other, like in battling, you know what I mean?”

“But, I mean, do you not like gay people?” Cooper asked.

“No I don’t have any problem with nobody, you know what I mean. Like, I’m just whatever,” Eminem replied.

The rapper also said he doesn’t use profanity “around my house, no. But this is music, this is my art, this is what I do.” And as for the people criticizing his lyrics, he feels he’s “singled out,” he says. Other rappers “do and say the same things that I’m saying. And I don’t hear no one saying anything about that. I didn’t just invent saying offensive things.”

[From Newser & WSJ]

Well… Eminem didn’t really answer the question the best way, honestly. Would I like Em to actually apologize for some of the language he’s used in the past? Sure. But I do understand what he’s basically trying to say – that he was going through a process, that those are the words he heard around him, that he is an artist who is still growing. I’m not defending the use of those words, just that I understand what a journey Em has been through, and how far he’s come.

A couple of weeks ago, Kaiser reported on the trailer for upcoming Ron Howard-directed comedy The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn, Kevin Jones and Winona Ryder. It looks really dumb but more than that it started with a dud of a joke in which Vaughn’s character called electric cars “gay”. It’s offensive and homophobic and although the trailer was put before the recent batch of gay youth suicides, everyone involved should have known better. “Gay” is not a put down.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper spoke to Ellen Degeneres via satellite on the issue of bullying, and he brought up the trailer as an example of how media is making it seem ok to mock people’s sexual orientations. He also made a lot of good points about how the Internet makes bullying both easier and more cruel to victims.

There’s a lot of intolerance in the world and that trickles down to school…

I do think there’s something happening in our culture of sort of a lack of empathy that’s grown…

We’re living online now and it’s very easy to be cruel to people online, we’ve seen a huge uptake of cyberbullying…

[Bullying] is much different than it used to be for us, who grew up in a pre-computer generation…

I was sitting in a movie theater over the weekend and there was a preview of a movie, and in it, the actor said, ‘that’s so gay,’ and I was shocked that not only that they put it in the movie, but that they put that in the preview, they thought that it was okay to put that in a preview for the movie to get people to go and see it.

I just find those words, those terms, we’ve got to do something to make those words unacceptable cause those words are hurting kids. Someone else I talked to recently said that the words people use and the things people say about other kids online, it enters into their internal dialogue. And when you’re a kid, it can change the way you see yourself and the way you think about yourself, and the worth that you give to yourself. I think we need to really focus on what language we’re using and how we’re treating these kids.

[Transcript via The Huffington Post and Just Jared]

Cooper said he wasn’t bullied at school because he went to a small school. He called himself a “bystander” and said he witnessed kids making fun of a classmate for stuttering. He didn’t say anything about it as a kid because he was afraid of being bullied too. Ellen said we need a class in school to teach kids about diversity. She also pointed out that bullying and the use of negative terms for gay people is not a gay/straight issue. They both said that it’s time that we make the “F” word and “that’s gay” unacceptable. Cooper reiterated that we “really need to focus on what language we’re using” and how that affects kids’ self esteem.

So are they going to clean up the trailer for this very terrible-looking movie? Are they going to remove this scene or change the language in light of the recent tragedies? I would hope that something is done about it soon, especially now that they’re being called out for it. I’m team Cooper. You can see the trailer here if you’re interested. Let’s not mess this post up with any photos of Vaughn, ok?