Anderson Cooper's Private War

Thanks to Ivy!

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Anderson Cooper on the Auction Block... and he is worth every penny!

Yeap, you read it right! Anderson Cooper is up for auction... if you are willing to spend a bunch of your money for a double good cause - the charity and you - you can check, register and assist to the Baily House Auction.

P.S. Legal notification: it is for just a lunch - SCRAMBLED WHITES -and a tour of AC360. It will not endow or allow you to sexually bother nor stalk, Mr. Cooper. But you can faint during lunch and make a fool of yourself. Just don´t expect mouth to mouth resuscitation.

DON´T MISS The Journalist and the Jihadi, the Daniel Pearl Story

This weekend, through CNN's SIU, they will be presenting HBO formidable documentary The Journalist and the Jihadi. It's must see tv. Check it out!

This documentary addresses the issue that we talk a lot about: how journalists endanger their lives covering a story and how personal information is used to harm them.

• The jihadists claimed he was a CIA agent
• They used his jewish background for torture and excuse to execution
• Even today, Linda - his widow - and his child, are in danger of violent repercussions.
  

SYNOPSIS

Narrated by acclaimed journalist Christiane Amanpour, THE JOURNALIST AND THE JIHADI: THE MURDER OF DANIEL PEARL was directed and produced by Ahmed A. Jamal and Ramesh Sharma, who gained unprecedented access to many of the key figures in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in early 2002. Anant Singh ("Sarafina!," "Cry, The Beloved Country," HBO's Oscar®- nominated "Yesterday") also produced.

The debut of THE JOURNALIST AND THE JIHADI: THE MURDER OF DANIEL PEARL coincides with events taking place around the globe between Oct. 6 and 15, and organized by the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which battles cultural and religious intolerance through journalism, music and dialogue.

Through the words of Pearl's family, friends and colleagues, as well as FBI agents and State Department employees involved in negotiations for Pearl's release, and those who knew Sheikh best, including former schoolmates and associates, the documentary explores the forces that led to the tragedy.

Interviewees also include noted philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Levy; Pakistani police officials; Khalid Khawaja, a retired squadron leader of the Pakistani air force and a former Pakistan Intelligence Officer, known for his links with extreme religious organizations; and Maulana Shamszai, a noted Islamic scholar and the leading source of inspiration for the Taliban, and head of a madrassa (Islamic religious school) in Pakistan.

Ahmed A. Jamal has received numerous awards for his films, including "Who Will Cast the First Stone?" and "The Beach Boys of Sri Lanka." Through the independent production company First Take Ltd., he has made several groundbreaking documentaries, including "Dead Man Talking," "The Bounty Hunter," "The Dancing Girls of Lahore," "Camel Kids," "Iran - The Other Story" and "The Fundamental Question."

Ramesh Sharma is an award-winning feature film and TV producer-director. His Moving Picture Company India Ltd. is among the leading production houses in India. Sharma's list of credits includes the feature film "New Delhi Times," an award winner at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, as well as numerous acclaimed documentaries, including "Rumtek," "Drikung - A Faith in Exile," "Afghanistan - The Taliban Years and Beyond" and "Jihad - The Sword of Islam."

THE JOURNALIST AND THE JIHADI: THE MURDER OF DANIEL PEARL is an HBO Documentary Films presentation, co-produced by Moving Picture, First Take Ltd. and Distant Horizon. Directed and produced by Ahmed A. Jamal and Ramesh Sharma; producer, Anant Singh; narrated by Christiane Amanpour; written by Amit Roy; edited by Tony Appleton; music by David Heath. For HBO: executive producers, Sheila Nevins and Lisa Heller.

MORE ON THE DOCUMENTARY AND ON DANIEL PEARL

And now we know what he wants....

I just imagine all the ink this will spill:

Anderson Cooper: Heir, anchor, dad? “I’d like to have kids,” he tells the March Men’s Journal. “I think I’ll have a family someday.” Cooper was contemplating some other big changes in early December, when he pondered a move from his CNN post to a traditional anchor position at another network. But, he says, “Doing 22 minutes of news from a desk in New York is just not for me.”

Anderson Cooper, Men´s Journal Magazine March 2007

Some lucky girls met Anderson in New Orleans

Congrats Ashely and Erin and Erin 2 the PhotoLady!

In their own words:


"OH MY FUCKING JESUS

So I'm sitting with Erin and Christie Tuesday night and we're watching Anderson Cooper 360, like we do. And then Anderson says, "Join us Thursday where we'll be live from New Orleans."

And Erin and I look at each other.

"Do you think...?" I trail off.

And we did. The only problem? We didn't know exactly where he would be filming. We figured he would probably be either in the CBD or the Quarter, and that wherever he was, he would be there for the full two hours, due to the live broadcast thing.

So we drove down to New Orleans tonight. Exited at Poydras, like we always do. Drove past the Superdome, still looking, when.

"Oh my God, it's the CNN truck!" quickly followed by

"Holy shit, it's Anderson!!!"

And there he was, getting ready to go live, right there on Poydras. Can you get any luckier?

The answer is "Jesus fucking Christ, yes."

So after the show he approaches the six of us (me, Erin, some woman and her husband from Lakeview, two girls from Metairie) who have been watching the show.

And he shakes our hands (on his own). And smiles, and looks us in the eye. And then listens--actually listens--to the (slightly intoxicated) lady recount her Katrina story and how much Anderson had helped her (which I totally understand, don't get me wrong, but she was really, really, really loud). And then he asks her questions about her situation, and they talk for a bit. And then we join in and the four of us talk for a bit (Blanco sucks, Nagin sucks, thanking Anderson for giving a shit about New Orleans, trying to convince him he actually is making a difference). Then I offer to take her picture if Anderson doesn't mind. He doesn't, and so I take it. Then she takes a picture of me and Erin with him. This wasn't part of the plan, which consisted of me taking a picture of Erin with Anderson (I don't like pictures of myself).

And then it happens. I fucking flirt with Anderson Fucking Cooper. I find myself smiling my "You know I'm charming smile" and leaning my head in that "No really, I'm fucking charming" way, and say "I was really planning on being the one taking the picture, not the one in it." And he chuckles. And puts his arms around us for the picture. And asks where we're from, and what we do, etc. And then holds out his hand for one last handshake before we go while thanking us for watching the program tonight."

I just have to love Cooper´s fans!

Anderson Cooper and the curse of the breaking news

We all know how important NOLA is for Anderson Cooper, the frustration was palpable during the first hour of the show, they organized and send resources to explore the reality of the criminality in the City, just to be pranked by Saint Francisco de Sales, the Patron Saint for Journalists, making them put NOLA in a second layer in order to work with the Anna Nicole Smith story.

The story impacted me due to our age... we are all kids of 1967. Enjoying our last thirties ( or the wrong side of thirties as a friend says).

I really enjoy whenever he interviews Herbert Gettridge and the great interaction and sincerity that shows how empathic Anderson is with his stories.

BTW, if you have the time and the resources, please join Eliza in the fund raising effort for Help Herbert Gettridge Rebuild, God knows he needs the help to bring his "old lady" back home. They deserve to be reunited.

I think that what Michael Ware reported about the arrest of the Iraqui minister by USA forces is something to monitor up close. It sends the wrong message. The elections, new constitution is all a puppetry, and a very bad way to earn the hearts and minds of the Iraquis. Like it or not they have immunity. If they are not interested in playing by the rules, then they should allow Germany to arrest Rumsfield...

We are also posting the story Black Market / Fertility Chase from Randi Kaye for which she won an Emmy Award, CONGRATULATION RANDI!



Check out the lower right column on the blog, for your convenience, the most recent comments will be displayed there, because if a story is worth a little more discussing, you will be able to see if anyone has posted in an older post.

Anderson Cooper's Larry King Live Interview... In case you missed it!

Here is the copy - thanks to Marie - of the interview rerun Larry did to Anderson. He was promoting his book Dispatches from the Edge.

Part 1 Family Background


Part 2 On his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt


Part 3 Gloria Vanderbilt


Part 4 Sarajevo


Part 5 Politics on their sleeves

An Anderson Cooper HeadsUp!

Anderson Cooper in the march issue of Men's Journal

Press Relase

Hot off the press, Anderson Cooper graces the cover of March's Men's Journal. The article titled "Anderson Cooper's Private War" explores AC's personal life and his career as a journalist and how being out in the world with the survivors helps him cope. In the article AC reveals he considered leaving CNN to pursue an anchor job at another network.

"In early December Cooper was weighing whether to move from his post as host of CNN's nightly news program Anderson Cooper 360 to a traditional anchor position at another network. As he weighed this decision a woman named Angela kept playing on his mind. He's met her on a reporting trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in October, at a secret compound outside Goma run by a charity. Five months before, she'd been gang-raped by three soldiers in front of her children. They shot her in the right arm and burned one of her daughters across the stomach and chest. Angela's husband subsequently kicked her out of the house, fearing she might have contracted HIV, and she fled the village.

Cooper spent most of the day with Angela. She had long eyelashes and short braids and a gentle manner. "She was extraordinary beautiful, such a contrast with what'd been done to her. She had every reason to kill herself or spend the rest of her life stewing in hatred," he recounted with some awe. "Instead, she spoke of forgiveness: forgiving her husband and forgiving the men who had raped her."

To Cooper, Angela embodied the extremes of the human experience he has witnessed in his more than 15 years of international reporting: the unimaginable brutality and the expansive will to overcome it. Four million people have died in the DRC since 1998. "Four million in eight years." Cooper told an audience last December. "And virtually no one knows about it. '

" During 22 minutes of news from a desk in New York is just not for me," he said, explaining why he wasn't enticed by the anchor job. At CNN he could be out in the world encountering victims and survivors like Angela, bearing witness. And he needs that."

At Anderson Cooper 360 blog they are asking Can people change from gay to straight?

That is a great question, and like most of the people out there, I thought the answer was written in stone: no way! But life takes you through strange venues and situations... and this is what I sent to the 360 blog - I posted late, do it might not make the cut, particularly if the Anns have their share- :

I was one that thought it was simply impossible, until I met an odd case. My friend was an openly gay executive, prominent in his local gay community, non apologetic and quite outspoken against the "closet cases". He lobbied fervently for gay rights, he truly wanted to marry his long time lover and then the unexpected happened. He got involved with a a fellow female co-worker. It was a huge scandal. Both married (although he wasn't legally, he felt he was morally). They both divorced, she got pregnant and now are married. I have to admit that I was (and fellow colleagues ) more uncomfortable with the situation than them. We didn't want to do anything with their wedding, and he even had to leave the workplace. Once a friend confronted him and he bluntly answered: "It's MY choice". Against all odds they are still together. What scares me is our reactions to things that we can't label... we tag everything. But isn't love - in its essence - the purest feeling? I think of love as something completely different from sex. Sex, we hope, is a manifestation of love, although for some is just a manifestation of sheer lust, like the steam of a teapot. Our sexuality, and its execution, can't and shouldn't be boxed. Sexuality is very personal and an individual intimate expression of ourselves. My friend recently told me that he battled his entire life against gay discrimination, but he never expected the levels of antagonism and hatred - particularly from the community he represented - after he chose his new life. Our sexuality is not a community matter. It is a personal intimate option. And political correctness, religious standards or bigotry shouldn't have any space in our decisions of how we express it, unless it is not consensual or it is meant to hurt someone who doesn't have the means to understand the act. So I learned my lesson: don't judge, don't be afraid of political incorrectness, and be true to your feelings.

More Anderson Cooper for your enjoyment

Anderson Cooper images galore! at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week

No doubt that Anderson Cooper didn't look too comfortable during the fashion show. Maybe he really isn't into fashion. Probably he is tired, he just returned from Florida. But here are more images of him from the services of Associated Press and Wire Image.

Anderson Cooper at the W Lounge, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, images Galore!






Anderson Cooper and Charlie Rose

Anderson Cooper at the Diane Von Furstenberg 2007 Fashion Show

Crystal Dempsey tried to interview him at the fashion show, but she really approached him in a very clumsy way asking him what he was doing there if he is supposed to only wear Prada - in what planet does she live? - , Anderson seemed more interested in chatting with Charlie Rose... who could blame him!. Although I have to agree with her of bringing a Christiane to the show...

Here are some images from different news services of Anderson Cooper at the Diane Von Furstenberg 2007 - Front Row. More will be posted as they surface. Enjoy!




With Charlie Rose

Image update (courtesy and copyrighted by Ambre) :

And these ones from the Palm Spring Post

Got to love their caption!

"…you’re right! It is CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the most embarrassed-looking fashion show attendee in history. (Didn’t his mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, ever drag him along to one of these things?)"

Next one:

So, PBS talk show host Charlie Rose, what do you think of the single-digit temps this New York Fashion Week?

"Yeah, us, too. Rose attended the Diane Von Furstenberg show on Sunday night, and if you think you recognize the fellow behind him…"

Anderson Cooper's Reporter Notebook, Florida Tornados

For those of you that missed it - like me - , Marie did this copy of Anderson Cooper's last edition of his Reporter's Notebook about the Tornados tragedy in Florida.