The world according to Anderson

OK, I must admit - along with a good chunk of the American female population, I have a bit of a crush on Anderson Cooper.


I watched an episode of "Live with Regis & Kelly" on TiVo last night. Regis is on vacation so Anderson was sitting in for the day. Doesn't hurt that he's hawking a new book too (which I just put on reserve at the library - yay!). He was clearing having fun with the gig. It doesn't hurt that Mariah Carey was on so he could gawk at her like a sexually frustrated schoolboy. (One a side note, her new album should just be renamed "Emancipation of a Hoo-ah", but I digress...) Anderson was equally amused with new American Idol Taylor Hicks, since he was a huge fan of the show AND stoked about meeting another prominent prematurely grey man. Gotta love it. (The third guest, Larry the Cable Guy, had a good line - "Who would have thunk it - the guy is from Alabama and named 'Hicks'?" But I digress - again...). Perhaps the greatest revelation of the show was that Anderson is not only a fan of American Idol, he obsessively loves "My Super Sweet 16" and "Tiara Girls". I find it incredibly amusing to see someone like Anderson, who comes from an affluent background himself, to completely bash the girls on this show for being shallow and materialistic. He went so far as to comment that the ideal season finale would be to line up all of the girls from the show and shoot them down. Excellent. Nice to know that we are on the same page here!

I'm looking forward to reading Cooper's book. I'm curious to see what his upbringing is like. If you didn't know, his mother is none other than Gloria Vanderbilt. It's somewhat refreshing to see someone whose family is obviously connected to strike out and try to make it on his own. He talked of struggling to break into the news field, having a small apartment, trying to figure out what to do with his life. Very down to earth, very understandable by the general public. This is a pretty good article on him - check it out.

In any case, the whole reason (finally) that I went off on this pro-Anderson Cooper tirade was that I came across my links for some old articles that he had written for Details Magazine. Anderson has a great sense of humor, and I found these pretty funny. He talks about trying to play the real estate game, talking sex with his Mom (ew!), fesses up to biting his nails, but perhaps my favorite is his account of his time on Celebrity Jeopardy. You can read all of his articles here.

I only wish I was more politically minded or I would probably be a regular follower of Cooper's show on CNN, "Anderson Cooper 360°. I much prefer watching him in The Mole.

Speaking of shows, while looking for images I found this great Jeopardy Site. Great way to try and play along and test your knowledge. But all of the pictures of Anderson came out really dorky looking.