Today on 'Anderson'

Anderson brings on mom -- what's left?

Updated: September 18, 2011 - 7:27 PM


"Anderson," a new syndicated daytime talk show, has been on only a week, and viewers already know more about Anderson Cooper than they've learned in the decade he has spent as a CNN anchor and correspondent.

Cooper is opening up about everything, almost.

On Monday he plans to show an interview with his famous mother, the exquisitely preserved Gloria Vanderbilt, 87. In it, they go over her tragedy-filled youth, and his. Cooper chokes up as they discuss his brother's suicide in 1988. He and his mother hold hands while a family friend, Judy Collins, takes the stage to sing "Amazing Grace."

In past shows, Cooper got a spray tan with Snooki of "Jersey Shore," mugged side by side with his wax likeness from Madame Tussauds, and compared childhoods with Sarah Jessica Parker. (When he was 11 his mother took him to Studio 54 -- with Michael Jackson.)

He invited comedian Kathy Griffin and a camera crew for a weekend at his summer house in the Hamptons. He and his high-maintenance guest romped in his bed and poolside; she complained that he didn't have servants.

The one thing he hasn't done yet -- and the lacuna grows more obvious and awkward with each show -- is talk about his love life. It's hard to see how he can continue to leave that out selectively and preserve one particular zone of privacy while building a confessional talk show wrapped around his good looks, high spirits and glamorous adventures.