Greg Pollowitz at NRO Media Blog found CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper sat in as a host of Live With Regis and Kelly on Wednesday, and drew hoots and Internet notice by asking Jillian Harris, the latest star of the ABC reality show The Bachelorette, how many bachelors she er, took for a test drive before buying. She shot back: "Let’s talk about your sex life first, Anderson." (Video here.) Check out the exchange:
COOPER: How many did you actually hook up with?
HARRIS: Like...?
COOPER: Like how many did you actually sleep with? [Audience whoops in shock.] Oh, I'm shocked! I'm shocked! Wait a minute. Wait a minute!
HARRIS: Let’s talk about your sex life, first, Anderson.
COOPER, protesting: You greased up this guy in oil on national TV and you're shocked at that question?
HARRIS: It was aloe vera.
COOPER: I really don’t wanna know, but –
HARRIS: I kissed 10 guys, but only four with tongue. [Makes a jokey face.]
COOPER: You know what? I just threw up in my mouth a little.
If CNN president Jon Klein is such a stickler for being the network of "real news," why does he let Cooper sub on Regis and Kelly? Does he have to ask saucy questions that he wouldn’t answer? Pollowitz related this to Chuck Todd's blog lament that "actual journalists" are taking a back seat to ranters and entertainers.
For people who haven’t watched The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, when the field of 25 contestants is whittled down to four, the couples are offered a night in the "fantasy suite" (the audience is encouraged to imagine what happens during the sleepover).
In this season, Ed -- the man Jillian Harris actually picked to marry -- was humiliated by ABC when it was broadcast to the world that even after the on-air aloe vera rubdown, he was in need of a, well, a blue pill. So even if Cooper’s question is incredibly personal, that’s also where ABC makes its money on this "reality" show.
