newsmakers

newsmakers

Anderson Cooper: ‘The fact is, I’m gay’

NEW YORK

Anderson Cooper, who has been reluctant to talk about his personal life in public, revealed that he is gay in an essay posted online Monday.

The CNN journalist said he had kept his sexual orientation private for personal and professional reasons but came to think that remaining silent had given some people a mistaken impression that he was ashamed.

“The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself and proud,” he wrote in a letter to Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Beast.

Cooper, the son of Gloria Vanderbilt, had long been the subject of rumors about his sexual orientation. He said that in a perfect world, it wouldn’t be anyone’s business, but that there is value in “standing up and being counted.”

“I still consider myself a reserved person, and I hope this doesn’t mean an end to a small amount of personal space,” he wrote. “But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter’s shield of privacy.”

Eric Church, CMT prepare minimovie

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Eric Church is playing movie host on CMT.

The country star is helping the network air the minimovie “Mixtape” commercial-free this weekend. The half-hour movie, written by Peter Zavadil and Roger Vaughn, was inspired by Church’s recent hit “Springsteen.” The movie, in turn, inspired Church’s video for the song, which spent two weeks at No. 1 earlier this year.

The movie will air Saturday and Sunday and then can be watched on demand at the network’s website.

Church will host an online contest in conjunction with the premiere and is giving away two tickets to his tour.

Avon taps Bon Jovi for new fragrances

NEW YORK

Jon Bon Jovi is going Unplugged in a bottle.

Avon Products Inc. announced Monday that the 50-year-old rock star is the company’s newest celebrity fragrance partner. He’ll appear in ads for both Unplugged for Her and Unplugged for Him.

The company said the inspiration for both scents is the unique feeling one has listening to a favorite song. The goal is “an emotional connection.”

The women’s version, which will be available through Avon representatives and online in October, is a floral oriental perfume, and the men’s is a woody floral musk fragrance. It will go on sale in November.

Poet laureate is working on memoir

NEW YORK

The nation’s new poet laureate will be telling her own story, in prose.

Natasha Trethewey is working on a memoir, currently untitled, that has been acquired by Ecco. The publisher, an imprint of HarperCollins, announced Monday that the book is scheduled to come out in 2014.

The 46-year-old Trethewey is the daughter of a white father and black mother. The memoir will tell of her childhood in the American South in the 1970s and ’80s.

Associated Press