Still Friends

A well recognized photo of Anderson and his friend Julio Cesar Recio at the
Westminster Kennel Club dog show in 2005 taken by samuraiphotog.

Fast forward 3 years

2008
It's good to see they are still friends.



Anderson and Julio at LAX airport. Photos by our friend Addie Oakley
on Flickr at A_O's photostream.


Great pictures A_O, thank you.

Notice Anderson's T-shirt logo: "DEFEND New Orleans" with a skull in the middle -- whatever that club might be, I want to join it!

Anchor School

Take a stroll down memory lane; just think, Where were you on January, 3, 2006?
If you don't remember, perhaps reading what Anderson Cooper
was doing and thinking on that date will jog your memory.
Enjoy!

---

Anderson Cooper: 'I Didn't Go to Anchor School'

The host of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°" describes himself as a nontraditional newscaster: "I've never pretended to be all-knowing, all-seeing. ... Maybe I don't look the way anchors are supposed to look ..."

By Patrick Phillips
I Want Media, 01/03/06

Anderson Cooper, anchor of the CNN weeknight news program "Anderson Cooper 360°," had a big year in 2005. The 38-year-old television journalist literally traveled the world to cover many of the year's top news stories, such as the tsunami in Southeast Asia.

During his reporting on Hurricane Katrina, Cooper famously interrupted his interview with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who was in the middle of praising the government response to the disaster. Cooper told her: "For the last four days, I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. ... I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are upset, and very angry, and very frustrated. ..."

In the wake of his buzzed-about reporting throughout the year, Cooper's CNN news program was expanded to two hours and he quickly became regarded as the news network's hot new star. At the end of 2005, the silver-maned son of socialite designer Gloria Vanderbilt and onetime host of the ABC reality show "The Mole" was named the Media Person of the Year in the annual online poll by I Want Media.


I Want Media: You were voted Media Person of the Year. Do you believe you made an impact in 2005?

Anderson Cooper: I'm not really conscious of myself in that sense. I'm doing what I've been doing for the last 15 years. 2005 was a very eventful year, and I certainly went to a lot of places where things were happening. I'll leave it to other people to judge.

IWM: What were the big events of 2005?

Cooper: It started off with the tsunami. I literally went from the ball drop on New Year's Eve in Times Square to Sri Lanka. And certainly Indonesia was a very humbling story to be on. I was there in early August reporting on starvation, particularly among children. From there I went to Hurricane Katrina. To me, Katrina still feels like the most important story going on right now. It continues to be a disaster. It's something we're following every day.

IWM: Your "emotional" reporting during your early coverage of Katrina reportedly helped lead to a heightened role for you at CNN. Do you believe reporters should inject more "emotion" into their reporting?

Cooper: I don't know what that means. I think you should be yourself and be honest. Pretending to be outraged or emotional is silly. I don't think the lesson of Katrina is that reporters should start inserting themselves into stories. That sounds very artificial to me.

As a viewer, I don't care about what some blow-dried anchor thinks about a political position. That doesn't interest me. It's not something I'd watch.

IWM: Fans favorably compare you to Jon Stewart, the host of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. Do you consider the comparison to be a compliment?

Cooper: Sure. Jon Stewart's very cool and very funny. A lot of what he does is very smart. He doesn't actually cover news -- as he often says -- but I'm certainly a fan.

IWM: Do you have any qualms about being compared to a comedian?

Cooper: I haven't heard those comparisons myself, so I'm guessing that what they're based on is the idea of a nontraditional anchor. And that comparison I'll certainly take.

I never really set out to be an anchor. I didn't go to anchor school. I probably don't speak like a lot of anchors speak. Maybe I don't look the way anchors are supposed to look ...


IWM: How are anchors supposed to look?

Cooper: I'm not sure, really. I'm not trying to be something that I'm not. I'm just trying to be myself and talk about what I know, and admit what I don't know.

IWM: You're a popular news personality. Why do viewers find you appealing?

Cooper: [pause] If I were a more traditional news anchor I would have an answer to that question. As a viewer, I like to watch people who I believe are real and are being honest. I've never pretended to be something that I wasn't. I've never pretended to be an all-knowing, all-seeing anchor. I just don't buy that as a viewer.

IWM: You're a contributing editor for Details magazine. What do you write about?

Cooper: I write a mix of stuff. Some of it is serious. I've written behind-the-scenes looks at covering Katrina and the tsunami, about reporting in Iraq. I've written about my brother's suicide and the impact it had on my early reporting.
And I've written about what it's like to read a book that your mom wrote about her sex life.

IWM: That doesn't sound like something a traditional news anchor would do.

Cooper: [laughter] That's probably on the list of things they tell you in anchor school to avoid.

IWM: Why write for Details?

Cooper: Frankly, no one else had approached me. I always wanted to write for a magazine. And the editor, Dan Peres, is really smart. They've got a great roster of writers -- Augusten Burroughs, Anthony Swafford, Carrie Fisher. They've got an edge to them. I don't read many magazines anymore. Details is one of the few that I read.

IWM: CNN president Jon Klein suggested recently that there won't be news anchors within five years. People will type keywords into their handheld devices and up will pop the news they want. Are you concerned?

Cooper: [laughter] I'm not concerned, no. Look, television is changing. I don't think five years ago anyone could have predicted where things would be right now. So I have no idea where things are going to be five years from now. There are enough things in the world that keep me up at night. That's certainly not one of them.

IWM: What keeps you up at night?

Cooper: I knew you were going to ask that. Oh, I don't know. Life, I guess.

IWM: What are the qualities of a good news anchor?

Cooper: Again, I think honesty is the most important. And being willing to go and see for yourself these amazing, sometimes terrible times that we're living in. One of the things I learned from Peter Jennings early on when I was at ABC was there's really something to be said for going to these stories. Peter used to go to Sarajevo all the time. You really learn things when you go and see it for yourself. It's completely different from sitting in a studio.

It's important to be passionate about news, and to figure out ways to take viewers on that trip that you take. There's this notion that viewers don't care about international stories. I don't think that's true. People care about any story that's well told and interesting. A good news anchor is someone who lives and breathes news. I think that passion comes across on the screen.



IWM: Would Katie Couric be a good choice to take over as anchor of the "CBS Evening News"?

Cooper: She's a remarkable talent. I think she can do anything she wanted to in this business. And out of this business, frankly.

IWM: Where do you see yourself in five years?

Cooper: Being downloaded on a handheld device maybe? Hopefully?

I've had an amazing experience with CNN, and hope to continue having amazing experiences with CNN for a long time. There's a real desire here to have people who are out every day finding stories and telling stories -- not just talking about the news.

IWM: Are you referring to Fox News, MSNBC?

Cooper: I'm just saying in general that there are a lot of programs that just talk about the news. It's an expensive, time-consuming proposition to actually have bureaus and be able to respond to stories. CNN proves over and over again that it values news and reporting facts.

IWM: What's in your news diet? Where do you get your news every morning?

Cooper: I get several newspapers delivered to my apartment. I get the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Post, New York Daily News, L.A. Times. I think it's important to get a cross-section of analysis and perspective, and see what stories are playing in different regions. I try to get the Dallas Morning News, or read it online, the Chicago Tribune ...

IWM: Do you go online for news?

Cooper: Throughout the day I check Web sites and stuff. But I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with it. There are a bunch of blog sites from a variety of political backgrounds that I'll read just to see what people are talking about. Like Daily Kos, AndrewSullivan.com.

I think it's a good thing that there are bloggers out there watching very closely and holding people accountable. Everyone in the news should be able to hold up to that kind of scrutiny. I'm for as much transparency in the newsgathering process as possible.

IWM: Your hair turned gray at an early age. Have you ever thought about dyeing your hair?

Cooper: I thought about it for about 30 minutes. I asked the guy who was cutting my hair one time what it would take. I have a big enough ego that I was considering doing it, but not so big that I was willing to sit for two hours in a salon reading old copies of Rosie magazine with tin foil in my hair.

IWM: I guess it's too late now.

Cooper: Yes, if I did it now it would be kind of sad and pathetic.

Swimsuit Anderson

Don't forget to set your mental clock for tomorrow,
Sunday, Nov. 30 at 7:00 PM/ET

---

Saturday, Nov 29
Anderson Cooper in a Bathing Suit



Did we get your attention?

Two weeks after 60 Minutes saw its best ratings in almost a decade, Anderson Cooper contributes a report on Michael Phelps for the CBS program tomorrow.

Besides discussing his diet in the profile, Phelps also accepts Cooper's challenge to an on-camera swim race. But Cooper had some conditions: "How about if I get to dive and I get to do freestyle, one lap, you go underwater the whole way, you can't breathe and you can't take a stroke. And you'll still beat me?"



Watch CBS Videos Online

Relationships

Anderson Cooper
in Relationships

Anderson Cooper has frequent emotional outbursts due to his fiery temper and emotional impulsiveness. Cooper expresses himself very directly and honestly and no one has to guess what his true feelings are. However, Anderson Cooper dislikes showing any personal weakness or his need for support, comfort and nurturing. He is often impatient with himself and others. Anderson abhors emotional dependency and dislikes "complainers".

---

Anderson Cooper
birthday and natal information

This is the birth data that we used to calculate the natal chart and to prepare Astro Profile interpretation for Anderson Hays Cooper:

Birthday: June 3, 1967
Time of birth: 15:46
Place of birth: New York City, New York, United States

Please post here any other information that you may have.

---

If you understand anything about the graphic above, you are a genius. I just posted it because I had nothing better to do.

Now, about the first paragraph, the one about "relationships," I think there is something very wrong with it; it states that Anderson "has frequent emotional outbursts due to his fiery temper." Fiery temper? He is the calmest, coolest guy on television. I don't know where they got the idea of the "fiery temper."

My second observation, which you probably noticed too: "[N]o one has to guess what his true feelings are." No one has to guess about his feelings? Haven't these people ever read this and other blogs, or the New York Post, or Michael Musto from the Village Voice, or every four out of five people discussing Anderson? Maybe they already know whether he is gay or not, which I doubt it very much.

But they are right on the dot on other aspects of his personality, i.e. "Cooper expresses himself very directly and honestly," or "Anderson Cooper dislikes showing any personal weakness or his need for support, comfort and nurturing," or "Anderson abhors emotional dependency and dislikes "complainers".

Then they get it half right, half wrong: "He is often impatient with himself and others." He may be impatient with himself, although I doubt it; but as far as being impatient toward others; that's a big, BIG error. I've never known a person that treats everybody: good or bad, smart or idiots, rich or poor, or simply pesky, annoying people, he treats everybody with more sensibility and courtesy than anybody I've ever known about.

Two and a half wrong predictions and three and a half correct ones. Well, I guess it's not too bad. But, "[N]o one has to guess what his true feelings are"? That baffles me.

If interested about your own chart, you can visit their site at: TopSynergy. Good luck!

i-Report Come Out

Peter's NOTE: The following i-Report is a hate post on a CNN's site. I decided to post it because, however a bad mouthed, hateful report that doesn't make any substantial points, it is the opinion of an i-Reporter, and CNN posted it as is. Please read at your own discretion, and PLEASE keep in mind that IT IS NOT My opinion whatsoever, quite the contrary. Thanks.

By the way, I don't know if the picture is supposed to turn into a video or not, all I see is the one picture of Anderson and whether I click on it once or double click on it, it doesn't do anything but show that one picture. Go figure.

---

Cooper-Come Out the Closet! Please!


Posted by: CreoleBoi30 [real name: Teddy Parker]// 1 hour ago // viewed 57 times
long beach, California [real hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana]


Anderson Cooper, the CNN black woman journalist trapped in a white man's body-needs to just come out of the closet! So Anderson Cooper loves NeeNee from "Housewives of Atlanta?" Laughable!! Cooper would be in awe of the most ghetto, black woman on reality TV. One that just promotes negative black stereotypes. CNN would have favorable things to say about this clown.

I am sick of a couple of CNN's tabloid journalist. Soledad O'Brien and her Jerry Springer reporting style, DL "the token" Hugely and Anderson Cooper-who thinks he is Paris Hilton. I am so sick of Cooper's bad attitude. If he didn't have New Orleans and black males to talk about, then he would have nothing to say. He sounds like a biter, over weight black woman on Oprah's couch.

Cooper, should get botox injection, in the middle of his forhead to alleviate those deep frown lines and stop making public comments about Dina Lohan (Lyndsey Lohan's mother) and "The Real Housewives of Atlanta!" Does this CNN journalist have anything better to do with himself? If he wants to be Shasha Fierce or some Entertainment correspondent, then call Beyonce and get your stage name back.

In response to assignment: Sound Off

A Turtle!

Click on the image to enlarge it to its BIG size,
and you'll notice Jeff's big... turtle!

Wallpapers by Rita

Space is his last frontier!

Wallpaper for a monitor's screen of 1200 x 900 or 800 x 600 PPIs


Wallpaper for a monitor's screen of 1440 x 900 PPIs

Psy@ch&-edel|^ic

Wallpaper for a monitor's screen of 1200 x 900 or 800 x 600 PPIs


Wallpaper for a monitor's screen of 1440 x 900 PPIs

No, he is not the devil, he is HOT!

Wallpaper for a monitor's screen of 1200 x 900 or 800 x 600 PPIs


Wallpaper for a monitor's screen of 1440 x 900 PPIs

Have A Fun(ny) Thanksgiving!

---

The last year we'll see these -- Thank God!

Two of a kind


And he is against gay marriage...?

Heroes is Tonight

Remember to watch CNN's 2008 Heroes tonite at 9:00 PM ET

Happy Thanksgiving

A Few Things You Know

...And A Few Thing You Don't Know About Anderson Cooper.


• Cooper is a self-described "news junkie", having been one "since I was ''in utero''."





• Cooper was photographed as a baby by Diane Arbus for a ''Harper's Bazaar'' Valentine issue; apparently not initially pleased with the result, Cooper's mother refused its publication at first, but eventually changed her mind. Following Arbus' suicide in 1971, the image was selected to open a retrospective of her photography at the Museum of Modern Art in 1972.


http://trotz.com/blog/mtarchives/2005/03/anderson_cooper.html





• He modeled for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Ford Models and Macy's from age 10 to 13.

• At age 17, he went on a survival trip to southern Africa during which time he contracted malaria and required hospitalization in Kenya.

• Cooper started getting gray hair around age 20, and was completely gray by age 35.

• In his ''Details'' column in August 2003, he stated, "Going gray is like ejaculation. You know it can happen prematurely, but when it actually does, it's a total shock." http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/16/going.gray/

• It is claimed that Cooper "doesn't drink hot beverages."

• He sometimes goes by the nickname "Andy."


• Regarding his appearance on ''Celebrity Jeopardy'': "It was called the ''Power Players'' edition, though I'm not sure why I was in it because I'm neither a "player" nor a person of power. The experience really made me realize how much of a loser I am, because of how much I got into it. I mean, it's kind of a no-win proposition. In what I do you're supposed to know a certain amount of things, and there you are exposing yourself to ridicule for not knowing stuff. I didn't consider it that much in advance, but that morning I woke up and was like 'What have I got myself into?' But I feel OK about it now."



Peter's own interpretation of Anderson on "Iron Chef." • He was once a judge on ''Iron Chef America''.


• Cooper was among the top ten men on Vanity Fair's international best-dressed list for 2004.



• He has been featured in ''Maxim'', ''Esquire'', and ''Vanity Fair'' magazines.


• His height is reported to be 5' 10" (178 cm).

















• He has a pet Welsh Springer Spaniel named Molly. Previously he also had a Golden Retriever named Ozzie.










• He has been named as one of the Sexiest Men Alive in 2005 by '''People'' magazine.

He's Everywhere

...Like God!
Thank God!


Sparkling above the Diamond District in New York


Taking notes (along the lines of "Don't forget to buy Peter a present for his birthday coming up in December.") hanging from the side of a building in New York


Above the "big" shopping mall of a small town in rural America.That little speck you see on the upper left side of the sky is not a scratch on the film,
it's a glider that got into the picture at the right time.



I don't know where this billboard is located, but it seems like some
kind of passage way in some airport. (???)


Ah! The best for the last: the perfect location, above a
Taiwan/Chinese Restaurant!!!

Shirtless, Again?!

Anderson Cooper goes tanning~ 2006 ~
(01:27 min.)

An Uneven Race~ 2008 ~
(01:01 min.)

Let's pray he doesn't wait another two years before he shows
us his pecs, abs, biceps, etc. again.
Amen!

Michael Phelps

Mark your calendars forSunday, November 30, 2008 at 7:00 PM/ET
~ CBS ~

EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA!
In this segment of "60 Minutes" to air on Sunday, November 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT, Anderson interviews Michael Phelps, the winner of 8 Gold Medals at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. And he, Anderson Cooper, "a mere middle-aged mortal," his words, not mine, dares Michael to a one lap race in the pool. Guess who wins... But Anderson didn't do bad at all, he's a very good swimmer too.
See Anderson wearing only a swimming suit (not a Speedo, mind you :-( but a boxer type swimming suit :-) He looks GORGEOUS! Watch the third short video at the start of this article.
The picture directly below this paragraph is from the finish end of the race. Notice something really amazing? Anderson has not a single hair out of place! And he just swam the length of an Olympic pool! How does he do it?! What is his secret? Do we have a Faust in our midst?...

---

Michael Phelps On Making Olympic History
Tells 60 Minutes How A Competitor's Mistake Helped Him Win His Record-Tying Seventh Gold

Nov. 25, 2008

(01:15 min.)
A Golden Mistake
Michael Phelps recalls how an opponent's mistake helped him win one of his gold medals.

(01:55 min.)
Cooper's Notebook
CNN's Anderson Cooper discusses his experience joining Olympian Michael Phelps on his post-Beijing "Victory Tour" for "60 Minutes."

(01:01 min.)
An Uneven Race
So how fast is Michael Phelps? CNN's Anderson Cooper finds out first hand in a little pool competition.

(CBS) A small mistake made by his opponent was the difference Michael Phelps needed to win his seventh gold medal on his way to the single Olympic record of eight, reveals the U.S. Olympic superstar swimmer.

Moreover, it came at the perfect time: Phelps was exhausted and "had nothing left" after winning his sixth gold the day before, he tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

The interview with Phelps will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Phelps won his seventh gold medal to tie Mark Spitz in the 100-meter butterfly by just one one-hundredth of a second - a victory aided by the mistake made by runner-up Milorad Cavic of Serbia, says Phelps. "He's picking up his head, so it’s acting like a speed bump," Phelps says, pointing to the photo of the race's finish. "So he's coming up and then trying to lift his head before he touches the wall…[my head] is in a straight streamline. So that's the difference in the race," he tells Cooper. "If his head is down, he wins…hands down, wins the race."

But before tying Spitz, Phelps, who had won six gold medals in six races, felt he was running out of gas. "I remember saying, 'I got nothing left,'" says Phelps after winning the 200-meter individual medley on August 15 in Beijing. Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, saw it on his face. "If you look at the pictures right after the race and even when I was standing there and he was in the water, I thought, 'Wow, he is really tired right now.'"

Nevertheless, he went on to make history when he, along with his teammates, won gold in the 4x100 meter medley relay the next day. It was his eighth gold of the Beijing Games, the first time any athlete has ever won that many gold medals in a single Olympics.

When Cooper spoke to Phelps, the 6-feet-4 inch swimmer weighed 205 lbs., the heaviest he's ever been, he tells Cooper. But it's not because he's eating the rumored 12,000 calories per day talked about so often during the Beijing Games. "[The 12,000 calories a day] is not true," says Phelps. It's more like eight to 10,000 calories a day when he's training, he says. It's still a lot and Phelps says when he in training, it's necessary. "I have to always just constantly shovel food in because I can lose anywhere from five to 10 pounds in a week."

Phelps is not training right now, but plans to resume the grueling daily schedule that made him the best in the world in January. He will be preparing for the London Olympics in 2012.


Produced by Draggan Mihailovich
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

---

Last Summer Anderson interviewed David Beckham on "60 Minutes," and he played a little bit of (bad) soccer with him; now he races Michael Phelps on a rather well coordinated swim. I wonder, When will he interview a striper?!