Even the most eclectic TV-watcher may not travel back and forth between the two universes in which Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen dwell.
Cooper has for years been an anchor on CNN, as well as a correspondent for “60 Minutes,” delivering news reports from both the CNN studios and hot spots around the world.
By contrast, Cohen is the host of “Watch What Happens Live,” the Sunday-Thursday talk show on Bravo. Cohen welcomes pop culture figures to dish about what’s current, from celebrity scandals to the latest table-flipping temper tantrum on one of the “Real Housewives” series, which Cohen executive produces.
But offscreen, Cooper and Cohen are longtime friends, and they’ve teamed up for “AC2 – An Intimate Evening With Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen,” a tour subtitled, “Deep Talk and Shallow Tales.”
The tour featuring the TV hosts comes to Portland on Friday, Feb. 10, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Before coming to town, Cooper and Cohen both spoke with us in separate phone interviews to explain how this unlikely-seeming double act came together.
“Two years ago, Andy’s second book came out, and I interviewed him at the 92nd Street Y in New York,” Cooper says. “He and I have known each other for so long, we have really good chemistry together. That was so much fun, though we didn’t think it would turn into anything. Now, it’s kind of taken on a life of its own.”
Since then, Cooper and Cohen have toured to other cities for their “AC2” show, which features each one interviewing the other, showing videos they say they couldn’t air on TV, and taking audience questions that, they both say, can’t be printed in a family newspaper.
“We like to lower expectations, and encourage drinking,” Cooper jokes, adding that there seems to be “a lot of drinking of pinot grigio and cocktails beforehand” by people who attend, and that Cohen may drink during the show “and encourages me to drink, even though I rarely do. It can go off the rails.”
Cohen says seeing their show is “like going out to a bar with us, basically, and hearing our war stories. He’s at the front lines of world events, and I’m at the front lines of pop culture, and in the middle, we meet.”
Though Cooper has been in Portland on occasion to deliver speeches and so on, this will be Cohen’s first trip to the Rose City.
“I’m just so psyched to come to Portland,” Cohen says. “If you’re out and about in town on Friday, you’ll probably see me,” as he plans to “have a very touristy day in Portland.”
Cooper jokes that part of the reason for their tour is “an excuse for Andy to go out afterward in cities he wants to go to.”
On a more serious note, Cooper says the current political climate, in which President Donald Trump seems to be at war with the media, makes this “a really interesting time to be in cable news, because the president watches cable news.”
On Monday’s “Anderson Cooper 360” on CNN, Cooper responded to Trump’s allegation that the media hasn’t covered terrorist attacks by showing clips of Cooper himself at the scene of a variety of attacks, reporting on them.
“It’s more important than ever to know what is true and what is not true,” Cooper says. “And it’s more important to hold people accountable for their statements.”
Even with Trump’s Twitter attacks on the media, Cooper says that conflict between the president and the press isn’t new. “The Obama White House stopped talking to me for years,” he says. “After the BP oil spill, I spent two months in New Orleans, and after that, I seemed to not be on the list of people who got to interview the president any longer. That’s totally fine. It’s the president’s prerogative.”
“AC2 – An Intimate Evening With Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen” starts at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets are $55-$95. Tickets are available through portland5.com, the Portland’5 Box Office, TicketsWest outlets, and by phone: 800-273-1530. For details, go to portland5.com/
— Kristi Turnquist
kturnquist@oregonian.com
503-221-8227
@Kristiturnquist
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