Anderson Cooper has knocked Star Jones
for the suggestion that his coming out gay could have been a stunt
designed to generate ratings.
The 45-year-old Cooper discussed his
sexual orientation for the first time in a lengthy e-mail published
in July on Andrew Sullivan's blog The Dish.
Appearing on Today's Today
Professionals panel, Jones said she was “a bit of a cynic”
on the issue.
After noting that Oprah Winfrey had
“said she smoked crack. Oprah said that she was pregnant at 14 and
considered suicide,” Jones pointed out that Cooper also has a
daytime show.
“There were times that you generate
information for ratings and, 'Whoa, I'm sorry I said that ... but,'”
she said, impersonating a celebrity who “accidentally” revealed
something controversial.
“I say bravo for him,” Jones added.
“The reality is, more people will
tune into his show today,” Donny Deutsch said.
“That's the truth, right?” Jones
volleyed back.
On Thursday's episode of Anderson,
guest co-host Andy Cohen asked Cooper about coming out.
Cooper said he appreciated all the
support he had received, then added that he was annoyed by Jones'
suggestion.
“I haven't thought about Star Jones
in I don't know how long,” Cooper said. “I was unaware she was
even on TV still … but she apparently shows up on a morning show.”
“Out of the blue Star Jones … said
this was a ratings ploy by me to boost ratings.”
“If I wanting to boost ratings, I
would have waited to announce it on 'a very specials episode' that
would have been promo'd for weeks and weeks and there would have been
commercials,” he added.
“As memory serves, in terms of
boosting ratings, I seem to recall [Star Jones] hocking 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.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)