Star Jones Is ( write your expletive here )

Thursday, Oct 4, 2012 -- 06:46 PM EDT

Anderson Cooper slams Star Jones
The news anchor responds to Star Jones' claim that he came out as gay to boost ratings VIDEO

By Prachi Gupta


Most people lauded news anchor Anderson Cooper’s decision to come out publicly. Former “The View” co-host Star Jones, however, was less impressed. In July, she told the “Today” show: “I’ve been in daytime television for a long time. He’s a daytime talk show host and when the ratings slip in daytime, the hosts tend to tell you lots of things about them … There were times that you generate information for ratings.”

Cooper (and his mother) took note of the comment, and responded to it on this morning’s “Anderson Live.” “I haven’t thought about Star Jones in I don’t know how long. I was unaware she was even on TV still … but she apparently shows up on a morning show.” “My mom was like, ‘Who is Star Jones?’ ” Then Cooper unleashed an epic verbal assault on Jones:

As memory serves, in terms of boosting ratings, I seem to recall [Star] hawking her wedding every single day to get free products when she was on ‘The View’ and I seem to recall her lying about her gastric bypass surgery and making everybody else lie about it as well. So for her to suddenly emerge out of the shadows and suddenly attack me for this, I couldn’t believe it.

Cooper had invited Jones to discuss the issue on his show, but she declined. “I would think she would want as much publicity as possible given her penchant for wanting publicity,” said Cooper.

Jones responded to Cooper’s rant via Twitter:


Watch the full clip below:


Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.