Andy with mom Gloria
Closing out gay pride month Anderson Cooper brought the heavy when he told bff Andy Cohen about the moment he knew he was gay.
Anderson appeared on Andy’s podcast and talked about the time he was 11 and met a shirtless Richard Gere.
He recalled meeting his mom Gloria Vanderbilt’s gay friends as a kid, such as Truman Capote, Gore Vidal and photographer Paul Jasmin, who along with his boyfriend, took a young Cooper to see a Broadway show.
“And they took me to see Richard Gere in Bent, which if anyone doesn’t know about the play Bent, it’s about two gay guys in the concentration camp,” Cooper recounted. “I mean the opening scene… It is the gayest thing you can imagine.”
“And this was Richard Gere in 1977, Looking for Mr. Goodbar. He was so beautiful. And I’m there. My mom didn’t go. It was just me and my mom’s two gay friends,” he continued.
Cooper explained that the opening scene features a man getting out of bed completely naked and putting on an SS uniform after sleeping with another man the night before.
“And I just remember being like, ‘Oh my God, I’m gay. … I’m totally gay.’ And afterward, Paul Jasmin was friends with Richard Gere,” he said. “Cause Paul Jasmin took the pictures for American Gigolo and we go backstage and Richard Gere is shirtless in his dressing room.
“And I couldn’t speak. And I had my Playbill and I wanted to get him to autograph it, but I was too — I just couldn’t stop staring his chest. And so, fast forward to 10 years ago, I was interviewing Richard Gere and I took out the Playbill … and I told him the whole story and I had him sign it. Yeah. He was very tickled with it,” Cooper added.