Why Do I Love Thee...?

The Full Package: Anderson Cooper

Contrary to popular belief, we queers aren't attracted just to gym bods and pretty faces. We're looking for it all -- intelligence, charm, heart, style, talent, accessibility ... and that unexplainable sumthin' sumthin' called the "X-factor" that makes our hearts go thump.

From the worlds of entertainment, art, sports, business, politics and other realms we've plucked the very few people who fit these criteria, and we present them to you through our weekly series "The Full Package."

Cuckoo for Coop

More magnetic than George Stephanopoulos. Better bred than Chris Cuomo. Nattier than Matt Lauer. Able to report as passionately from war-torn Rwanda and Katrina-ravaged New Orleans as effortlessly as he can chew the fat on comforting morning fluff like ABC's "Regis and Kelly" or command a crowd at the Times Square New Year's Eve bash. It's a bird! It's a plane! It's the youthful silver fox who translates into network gold! It's Anderson Cooper -- the intrepid, intelligent and unassumingly sexy CNN anchor we can't get enough of.

We gays have claimed him as our own (whether he really is "one of us" or not). But why do we love him so much? Is it that he's a scion of one of the wealthiest families in American history yet comes across with the sharp yet boyish everyman appeal of a Jimmy Stewart? Is it that -- in 007/Indiana Jones fashion -- he looks as good in muddy khakis out in the jungle as he does in a tailored Ralph Lauren suit and perfectly knotted tie at a celebrity function? Is it that, at such an uncertain and pivotal time, when we're confronted with the confusions of Barack, Bush, Iraq, Hillary, McCain, he's made American politics and global issues accessible to us in a way that's by turns easygoing and charmingly earnest, but always insightful? Is it that he's shown his vulnerability by being candid about the tragedies in his personal life, or that he gives us a glimpse of his cocky side when he riffs with Kelly Ripa about his Manhattan social life? Or do we just love him for his trim build, his angular cheekbones and his blue eyes, made even more striking by his full, handsome and prematurely white head of hair?

The answer is: We like him for all of the above.

Vanderbilt boy

Who doesn't know that Anderson is a Vanderbilt or that he's Gloria Vanderbilt's son? I'm a big fan: I watch him a lot, and what's great is that he's never seemed to make a big deal about it. If anything, he jokes that his mom used to make blue jeans.
-- Steve Stiles, New York

He's a rich boy, but he never seemed to rely too much on the old man's money -- "the old man" being his great-grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a shipping and railroad magnate whose wealth was legendary. By the time Anderson was born, the Vanderbilt fortune had waned a bit, but we doubt this slight downturn forced Anderson to worry about how he was going to pay for his Yale education. His mother is author and designer-jeans queen Gloria Vanderbilt; his late father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, was a writer and editor. The long line of hard workers from which Anderson comes makes him all the more appealing, as Jerold Shea of Boston says. "His parents weren't just socialites who sat back in their swanky Fifth Avenue home and drank gin and tonics all day; they were working rich, and they used their talents, and Anderson has followed in their footsteps. That's just one of the things I find so attractive about him."

Sam Yuen of Stockton, Calif., finds that Anderson's pedigree is balanced by his work ethic: "Sure, he was born into privilege and seems so cosmopolitan," Yuen says, "but his experiences traveling the world makes him human. He's like a guy I wouldn't be intimidated about bringing home to meet my parents."

Out on the edges

Who cares whether he's cute. I don't care whether the correspondent I'm watching is cute. Bob Woodruff is cuter. I love Bob, too ... but there was this unexplainable humanity and accessibility about the reportage that Anderson Cooper brought to the disasters in New Orleans and places like Sri Lanka that made the coverage watchable.
-- Nathan Weiss, Allentown, Pa.

Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and New Orleans: These are just a few of the worn-torn or disaster-stricken locations that Anderson has decided to report from -- and chronicle in his book, "Dispatches from the Edge" -- with an openness, sensitivity and fierceness that, as fan Nathan Weiss says, "makes your head more than spin. It makes you think and consider what's out there."

He goes on: "Not many of us were born with a silver spoon in his mouth, as Anderson was, but even fewer of us would choose to face the horrors he has for the sake of exposing them to us."

A broken-winged bird that can fly

It's like a lot of people in the [gay and lesbian community] love the image of the broken-winged bird. We see that person who's experienced loss as a romantic figure. But most of us have been through tragedy, in some sense. What draws me to Anderson, especially, and what I find so courageous is that he seems constantly to be exploring his grief and fighting through it.
-- Steve Milanes, San Antonio, Texas

His father died on an operating table when he was just 11. His brother Carter committed suicide at age 23 by jumping out of the balcony of their mother's penthouse apartment in Manhattan, in an apparent psychotic state. Knowing this, when we watch Anderson engaging Katrina survivors or revealing to us the scars of war, we see something deeper than the pretty face and the stylish trench garb of polo shirts and khakis: We find a person who's gone through pain himself -- and not just aloofly reporting the tragedy of others.

Please pass me the salt

There's nothing more sexy than a youngish guy with a full head of white hair. But he's not like Brad Pitt, whose sexiness is in your face. There's something different about Anderson when it comes to his attractiveness -- it's like he's unaware, or he doesn't really care about it.
-- Garren Weller, San Francisco

He's my fashion hero. He looks good in everything I've seen him wear. He looks great even in the desert, where he probably hasn't had a shower in days.
-- Bo Cohen, Tampa, Fla.

He's been a TV darling since he was 3 years old, when he appeared on the "Tonight Show" with his famous mom, and has been honing his camera-friendliness ever since, as a former model for Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. But only nature could give him that sculpted bone structure and those dreamy blue eyes, not to mention the famous white hair, always superbly cut. He knows how to expertly knot a tie; he knows how a suit should fit his frame -- if fellow white-haired hunk Tim Gunn should find himself in need of a vacation, the "Project Runway" people know whom to call.

by Robert Ordona

Online Surveys & Market Research

---

My 360 cents worth...

---

Surreal!

He is Transparent

He never lies, he becomes self deprecating rather than telling us a lie. He's always in a good mood, he's always nice to everybody. He allows his picture to be taken and he never harasses the, so to speak, "paparazzi." His only secret is the one we like, the one we debate constantly, the secret we wish he'd never reveal to us because we like the mystery; that's his and each one of us little secret, isn't it?
-- Peter Treviño, New York City

One attribute we seldom talk about Anderson is his Transparency, and by this I mean that Anderson is very clear and easy to read. We see those unusual-blue-colored eyes of his and we seem to gaze deep into his soul. He doesn't seem to hold onto too much of his anger, hate, mortification, discomfort or sadness; but when a small part of those emotions surface, we seem to catch them immediately; a sliver of them comes out and it shows on his face and in his eyes, and in the movements of his body.

His happy emotions, Anderson wear those on his sleeves, we see them clearly and constantly; but his darker emotions, the ones that he is not supposed to show on camera, they still escape, if only for a few seconds, enough for us to recognize that something is going on inside that beautiful head of his. And it becomes personal, it becomes as if he is trying to communicate with each one of us individually and share those secrets with each and everyone of us. And the feeling is electrifying!