Are you sitting down? I hope you’re sitting down.
Friends, it turns out Anderson Cooper is gay.
I hope you were sitting down.
My only reactions to this news are:
1) Oh, sure. Fine. Come out publicly in The Daily Dish. Because Andrew Sullivan totally needs the readership. What, other gay bloggers can’t get a little love?
2) Anyone who spent so much time hanging out with Kathy Griffin wasn’t fooling anyone, anyhow.
3) Am I glad he came out? Of course I am. It sucks to be in any kind of closet, even if it’s as rickety as an Ikea sale item that’s been through a few moves. And it’s always good to have another openly gay person with decent Q ratings out there.
But I’m looking forward to the day, which I suspect is fast-approaching, when nobody cares about this kind of thing at all. It will be good news when someone’s sexuality isn’t news at all.
Anderson Cooper is GAY???? No!
Please tell me you were sitting down
Wake me when a FOX anchor comes out.
(Bonus points if it isn’t Steve Doocy.)
Shep?
Maybe? As I’ve said before, my gaydar only works when people tell me “I’m gay.”
There’s an evil part of me, though, that doesn’t want it to be Shep because that would only confirm what FOX viewers thought anyway. The evil part of me wants it to be Hannity. I’d pay a lot of money to see the far-right punditsphere try to deal with that.
Great–evil minds think alike. I was pondering the same scenario.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to black ball Hannity. (Oh, stop giggling. What other term would you have me use?)
space awesome
This is the same impulse that makes me want Derek Jeter to admit steroid use.
I think it’s great that one of – if not the – top Cabinet Ministers in the Conservative government is gay. I don’t think he’s officially out of the closet, but anyone who follows Canadian politics at all closely knows. You’ll see occasional references to it, but generally it’s not really discussed (I think both out of respect and because it’s not really important).
Damn! I kept hoping against hope that he played on my team alas. Well at least Johnny Depp is back on the market
Dudette:
YOU’RE off the market in, like, 10 days.
I know but a girl can dream can’t she. All kidding aside I am very excited to be off the market. My S.O. is a wonderful man even if he is a libertarian (lol) ELEVEN days not ten I need all the time I can get to get every thing sewn, alter dress, make corset, make vest, make two bow ties, four sashes for the girls and two sets of kilt flashes (NOT what you think, flashes are the little tabs of tartan that hang from the kilt wearer’s socks)
Wait – you need to MAKE your corset? And a vest, and bow ties?
Is “Anne” the screen name of Martha Stewart?
No, just a masochistic textile person. If you can’t find a corset in your family tartan (at a price that won’t bankrupt you) you make one. I’m not even that bad my mother wove the fabric for the dress for my sister’s wedding in the 80’s all I have to do is rip off the godawful poofy sleeves. Making the corset is a breeze the bow ties are the pain in the ass.
I seem to be missing something here…
as in How does Tod know that Anne is getting married?
Because he is the great, powerful, omniscient TOD
that, and I have a big mouth and he has paid attention
I thought he had already come out. Certainly this wasn’t exactly a surprise to anyone. … Then again, I was sitting down.
He hadn’t formally admitted it, but had said enough that it was pretty clear. There was the same thing with David Hyde Pierce. He’d said enough that people knew (“My life is an open book, but I’m not going to read it for you”), but at some point chose to make it explicit rather than merely declining to deny it.
Everyone sorta knew.
An impassioned plea to the gay community:
Please leave us straights a few of our attractive celebrities. At this rate we’ll soon be down to Paul Giamatti, Steve Buscemi and that really tall bald guy from The Hills Have Eyes.
We’re starting to get a complex.
I will grudgingly allow you to keep Timothy Olyphant on the condition that at least one person on the active roster of any (ANY!) American major league team sport comes out.
Mrs. Likko will take that deal. She likes her some of that Timothy Olyphant.
Splendid. I await the announcement from ESPN. If possible, the gentleman in question should look nice in his uniform.
Seriously? There are, like, no attractive sports stars. Tom Brady maybe, but TOTALLY not my type. And then…no one. Well, I do have an Andy Pettitte thing.
I respectfully disagree. During most team sporting events, on the rare occasions I find myself watching I can usually find a gentlemen or two to catch my eye. (Chances are better with baseball, and slimmer with basketball, which is my least favorite professional sport anyhow. Possibly relatedly.)
And, yes. It would be great for Morale and Gay Rights and give people a Role Model no matter how pulchritudinous the chap is. But is it too much to ask that he also be cute, and fill out the uniform fetchingly? Especially in exchange for Olyphant?
Clearly, you need to watch more soccer.
Wait, you said “major American league team sport.”. I withdraw my comment.
I don’t know if that was directed at me or my esteemed co-blogger, but yes, I have found that the gentlemen of the Beautiful Game are proportionately more attractive. If only I actually enjoyed the sport.
It was intended for Rose, but I guess it works either way! 🙂
Baseball players have an inordinate amount of very odd facial hair arrangements (like a skinny goatee with half a moustache or something) and an inexplicable passion for necklaces. Football players are too burly and grunt-y, basketball too gangly. Soccer players…good to know! David Beckham will do in a pinch.
How is Tom Brady not your type, Rose? Are you freaking blind?!!
“But is it too much to ask that he also be cute, and fill out the uniform fetchingly?”
No. I have the same request for every straight athlete.
In that Anderson Cooper kinda way, the hockey guys are the most metrosexual.
90% of my viewing of Timothy Olyphant is from Deadwood, so it still surprises me every time he’s smart or funny. The guy can act.
Chris Kanyon came out.
For what that’s worth.
It’s a start.
Chris Kanyon is not at all physically attractive. I’m sure he is a very nice person though.
Sadly, he passed a couple of years ago. However, he had a good amount of charisma and a great smile. If you saw him say “Who’s better than Kanyon?”, you’d smile yourself.
Those people are my favorite, JB. I kind of have a reputation for being attracted to less than “hot” guys.
Well hello…
Lol, I just adore you Kazzy.
It’s true. I think Kevin Smith and Jon Favreau are amazingly attractive and… well, have you ever seen them?
But how much is personality (or your perception of their personality, unless you know either of those guys personally) or other non-physical features factoring into that? If you see regular guys on the street who look like Smith or Favreu, are you all like, “Ooo la la”… or whatever it is women say when they find a man attractive?
If I see regular guys on the street that look like Smith or Favreau I’m almost instantly attracted to them, but that is really a pavlovian response.
I can’t remember a time I was ever more than mildly interested in a man that I didn’t get to know first. So, yes, it is a personality thing.
Mary, you know, if I’d heard you say that a couple years ago, I would have said “There’s this guy in your city that you *really* need to meet.” (I’d temporarily leave out the fact that he had a girlfriend, as one of the points of the exercise would have been to change that. Or change the girlfriend, anyway. Oh yeah, and for things to turn out happily-ever-after for you, too! :))
(As it turned out, his relationship was a problem that took care of herself.)
Damn, another missed opportunity to be used as a pawn. Hate when that happens.
Haha, well, you mighta ended up with a guy that’s a little chubby, has a beard, and is an artistic genius!!
(Okay, yeah, you’re probably better off this way.)
This way? Which way is that? I’ve been single long enough my friends have taken to suggesting that I join online dating sites and trying to hook me up with their husband’s friends because the are “really nice” guys.
I meant “this way” as in “not getting involved in that sort of situation.”
(Sorry if my joke about a set-up touched a nerve with regard to your friends actually trying to set you up. That can definitely be awkward.)
No nerve, it’s quite laughable actually. I was in a relationship for so long I’m still in the honeymoon stage of being single, actually.
There are personality traits, or not-directly-looks related traits, that have an impact on whether I find someone attractive. I can think someone is attractive without finding them attractive (see above re: Tom Brady). Someone’s being gay is kind of a deal-killer (sorry, Russell, I know you were hoping against hope). It’s not being off-put at homosexuality, I’d have the same reaction if I find out that someone was say, exclusively attracted to blondes (I am brunette). Part of my finding someone attractive (as opposed to thinking someone attractive) is that they could possibly find me attractive, too.
We still have Clive Owen, Daniel Craig, and, most importantly, Jon Hamm…
Meh, I just assume I could charm anyone into liking me. That whole lack-of-self-doubt thing. I’m relatively confident if I had a few hours in a bar with Mila Kunis, I could at least get her to consider it.
Self-delusion… It’s my anti-drug…
I’m deluded enough to find Jon Hamm attractive. I take an extremely liberal (the ungenerous might say “implausible”) view of who could find me attractive, but just don’t think I could force a team switch or overcome odd fetishes.
There were rumors about Don Mossi …
“I will grudgingly allow you to keep Timothy Olyphant on the condition that at least one person on the active roster of any (ANY!) American major league team sport comes out.”
A counter-offer… we’ll give you Timothy Olyphant if you can eliminate the color teal (or any similar such monstrosity of the Crayola box) from any and all sports teams’ color schemes.
You do not get to give away Timothy Olyphant, Kazzy. Give Russell whatever he wants. Your prescious sports team can wear pink for all I care, Timothy is ours. He’s hot and scottish.
I don’t even know who he is, to be honest. But fine.
A bit seriously… does the sexual orientation of an object-of-attraction really matter? I realize we’re all sort of joking here, but I wonder if some are joking more or less than others. Not that there’d be a problem in that, but I wonder if Mr. Olyphant’s relative attractiveness would shift for, say, Mary and Russell if he were to come out.
I can say, most assuredly, that learning that Portia De Rossi was gay did not make me enjoy “Arrested Development” any less.
“does the sexual orientation of an object-of-attraction really matter? ”
No. I’ve lusted after a number of gay men. It gets trickier when you are straight and find yourself attracted to a gay woman.
Stranger than being attracted to straight women?
I have no real issue recognizing men as attractive (though I’ve been told I have horrible taste), but I can’t say I’ve ever actually been attracted to a specific man, gay or straight.
And I’ve been attracted to many a lesbian. Hell, I even dated a few…
Yes because I could actually date the gay woman if I wanted to, assuming she was attracted to me.
Not every lesbian wants to fuck you, Mary. Jeez… :-p
You are so lucky you are thousands of miles away, Kaz.
I have this odd tendency to be really taken with celebrities I later find out are Lesbian. Had a celeb-crush of Etheridge. Had a celeb-crush on DiRossi. Had a friggin’ celeb-crush on Ellen!
(Speaking of DiRossi, have you ever seen her on Better Off Ted? If not, go watch it now.)
Love Ellen! She is who i was thinking of in the above conversation.
“If only she was into chicks. Oh, wait… hmm, I’m going to need to think about this.”
Ellen is the one I really can’t figure out. The other two make a certain amount of sense as I have always been attracted to strong women (DiRossi played one on Ally McBeal, Etheridge just sounds tough as nails). Ellen? I first saw her as Margo Van Meter on “Open House.” Doesn’t fit the pattern.
Ah, better off Ted…
That show deserved a second season.
DiRossi was hilarious on Arrested Development, but the plot lines that had her unable to attract a lover were too outlandish even for an over-the-top farce.
Nob, technically it had two seasons. They were only half-seasons, though. So your point stands. That show deserved many seasons. Would that it had been picked up by NBC instead of ABC. NBC lets low-rating quality shows last forever…
Nob –
For the record, Better Off Ted did have a second season. If tou have Amazon Prime, you can stream it for free.
“DiRossi was hilarious on Arrested Development, but the plot lines that had her unable to attract a lover were too outlandish even for an over-the-top farce.”
I disagree. The whole show was entirely absurdist. Her relationship with Tobias, coupled with her inability to get a man, was actually one of the LESS outlandish things. We all know at least one woman who is objectively attractive but has such glaring personality flaws that even strangers aren’t interested in her.
Will, meant to say, watched Better Off Ted on your recommendation. Cute! Thanks! Also, my husband did everything you said to do for cell phones and still no luck. Bleah.
Rose, I’m glad you liked Better Off Ted. Sorry to hear that the battery management still isn’t working. My phone has inexplicably started getting great battery life. I wish I knew what I did, cause then I could tell you and get my wife’s working just as well.
When Gaereth Thomas came out, he was well on his way to becoming Wales’ all time most capped player. Which counts not toward your requirement, but in the rugby community and Britain more generally, was a BFD.
And although I am not gay myself, I have no compunction rating the attractiveness of another man. Gaereth is, sadly, about as attractive as an overripe avocado.
Regrettably, you speak the truth. Gareth is not my cuppa.
You’re so fickle and heartless, Dr. Saunders! Someone’s gotta love this poor man.
Meh, I thought he had already told the public. I really don’t know why he felt the need to make a grand public statement about his sexuality. Frankly, I could care less what he does with his naughty bits.
There can only be closets where there is sufficient social pressure to inflict significant material or psychic harms on people who are different. Coming out of the closet is in such a sense an act that indicates that one is in a position where the damage can be mitigated, (i.e. I’m a big name and you can’t get rid of me you bigoted pricks), a show of solidarity (hang in there, it will get better, there are more of us around) and/or an act of defiance (I don’t give a shit about what you feel about me living my own life. This is me, this is how I feel, get over it) In many ways coming out of the closet can be cathartic. Someone can be what one is openly and without shame. When one is in the closet, I would imagine that a person may feel some mixture of fear or shame. This can be detrimental to their sense of self and their self respect.
Writing a letter to a friend and a blogger in which he states that he is gay qualifies as a “grand public statement”? Are you one of those people that considers a gay person putting a picture of their spouse on their work desk as “rubbing their homosexuality in everyone’s face”?
Many of us make grand public statements about our sexuality on a daily basis. Every time I mention my wife, I’m making a grand public statement. Why shouldn’t Anderson be entitled to the same celebration of love?
If anything, the noteworthy part is how non-grand the announcement is.
It is if you are writing to your blogger friend for the purpose of making a a grand public statement. There is a slight difference between a picture on your desk and this and if you can’t tell the difference then I don’t know what to say, maybe you are being obtuse on purpose. Folks already knew he was gay so there was no need for a publicity stunt.
Did you even read the post?
EW did a feature on the trend of gay celebrities downplaying their coming out. Sullivan asked him opinion on the piece. In it, he stated that he was gay. Sullivan’s publishing of this (which I assume was with AC’s consent) appears to be the first time that AC has gone on record about his sexuality in such an explicit manner. And it amounted to this:
“The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”
23 words. One of them was the word “gay”.
That’s a “publicity stunt”? That’s a “grand public statement”?
Seriously dude, holy fishing poop. If you A) honestly believe that and B) are going to insist that your assessment of such has nothing to do with the content of the announcement, than just about every thing anyone has ever done is a massive publicity stunt.
Which makes me think either you don’t really believe that or (my bet) you apply a different standard to gays discussing their sexuality than heterosexuals discussing there.
Now, if you’ll excuse me… my wife and I are about to co-sign our names at the bottom of an email and need to get the vacuum ready to clean up the confetti that is sure to burst forth from the computer after such a monumental publicity stunt.
It wasn’t a publicity stunt. He was asked for some feedback and gave it. Less “Friends, folks, countrymen, lend me your ears!!” and more “Oh, what the hell. Yeah, I’m gay.”
Anderson Cooper has said, “I’m gay,” publicly fewer times than I’ve said, “I’m straight”. The score is now 1,498,498 to 1. What a prima donna.
Scott, I admire your fortitude in tolerating all the super-gay razzmatazz I insist on broadcasting with this blog. It’s like a drag show wrapped in a cabaret swaddled in a Chelsea gym up in here, and somehow you manage to come by and comment anyhow. It’s gay really striking gay how you gay gay tolerate all the gay gay gay gayness around here gay. You are truly a profile in courage.
Gay.
What Russell neglected to mention was that he wrote that comment while tongue kissing aman and simultaneousy destroying the institution of marriage. Also, he was wearing assless chaps.
Someone recently pointed out to me that the phrase “assless chaps” is redundant.
On a sidenote, this bit of not-a-surprise lead me to discover that two actors I enjoy also came out in a similarly low-key fashion: Jim Parsons and Matt Bomer.
My late brother Matt similarly honored me with his own coming-outage. Since his last girlfriend was Meg Heinemann when he was 6 and she was 5, I was like, oh.
If the 1-2% of our population who are gay starts watching his show out of sexuo-solidarity, Anderson Cooper just made a sharp ratings move, since he is a ratings disaster on his own merits.
I remember I had a record out, and one college radio station wrote my label asking if Thomas Van Dyke was a gay artist so they could play it on their gay show.
Hell yes, they wrote back. Play it!
I approved.
“If the 1-2% of our population who are gay…”
Are estimates really that low?
If there is indeed a ratings bump, my hunch is that it would be temporary. Unless he started branding himself as the “Gay News Correspondent”, which might keep a gay audience but would likely just fail on a number of other levels. And fat chance he actually does that. Hopefully others don’t attempt to paint him into that corner.
“And now, live from Atlanta, we go to Anderson Cooper to hear what he has to say about what Madonna was wearing. Anderson?”
“You guys know I went to Yale, right? And have been anchoring news shows for over 10 years?”
“Sure, whatever… but those pants with those shoes??? Dish, boyfriend!”
“Seriously… you know this is insulting, right? You’ve never once asked me before about Madonna and for good reason. And suddenly you want me to ignore the humanitarian crisis happening in a country whose accented I perfected for pronouncing the names of its cities so that I can “dish” on some washed up celebrity?”
“Looks like SOMEBODY woke up on the wrong side of the bed… a bed filled with virile young men with shaved chests.”
“That’s it. I’m outta here.”
“So last year…”
Kazzy: Awesome.
Cooper could always work on the Daily Show as the Special Correspondent for Gay Issues.
Just to be clear, I’m not attributing any of the mindsets in this comment to Tom. I was just riffing off the musings of what this might mean for his career. The only party really directed at Tom was an inquiry about the estimates of the percentage of the population that is gay. If there was any confusion in that regard, my apologies to Tom.
Thanks, Will!
Many years ago, I knew a guy who drove delivery vans and wrote short stories on the side. He made a delivery to my office one day, just grinning from ear to ear.
“I just sold a story!” he told me.
“Great!”
“I sold it over the phone!”
“OK.”
“You know why I sold it over the phone?”
“No idea.”
“It’s for an anthology called ‘Young Black Storytellers’!”
He was, of course, a white guy.
My thoughts? Good for him.
Is there any celebrity who is in the closet that more people know is gay than Anderson Cooper? This is a genuine non-snark question.
Jodie Foster.
I actually read in an article just yesterday that she came out three years ago.
Oh, really? Good for her. I must have missed that Big Gay Memo.