'Real Housewives,' Anderson Cooper share New Year's resolutions

 

A couple of "Real Housewives," one silver fox and other film and television stars are already offering up their 2011 resolutions.

To hype its live New Year's Eve show hosted by Andy Cohen, Bravo put together a reel of its favorite names giving solemn vows for betterment in the year to come.

Our favorites include the aforementioned fox Anderson Cooper, who said he'd like to "be a better friend to my friends."

Celeb chef Rocco DiSpirito vowed "not to miss an episode of any 'Housewives' ever again." One of those wives is Adrienne Maloof of the "Beverly Hills" franchise, who promised to learn how to cook.

Then there's the standard non-resolution, courtesy of Rebecca Romijn. 

"I don't make resolutions because I don't want to let myself down," she said.

What's your New Year's resolution? Tell us in the comments section below.

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-- Matt Donnelly
Twitter.com/MattDonnelly

 

Reaction to the end of 'Larry King Live': almost entirely gracious

Nancy Reagan called, and Regis Philbin, and Diane Sawyer, and Anderson Cooper via video, all to check in with Larry King on Tuesday after he announced that he'd be leaving his 25-year-old CNN show come fall.

"Nothing is forever, but there's new things ahead," King told Reagan. 

"Well good, as long as it's better, that's fine," she replied.

Ministry readers responding to our nonscientific online poll were, at the time of this post's publication, also tilting in favor of "Yes, I'll miss 'Larry King Live' when it's gone." (You can vote at the end of this post.)

King's cable competitors from MSNBC chimed in as well: Rachel Maddow with well wishes, and Keith Olbermann with some tweets that were, surprisingly, all about Keith Olbermann.

After alerting his followers that King would be stepping down, the "Countdown" kid explained who he was talking about — "Larry King is a lovely, generous man who tried, for eight years, to convince his bosses to hire me to be his 8 p.m. lead-in at CNN" — and then trifled with a world-record reference from Larry's "I'm outta here" statement:

Watch out, Larry King and Anderson Cooper -- the anti-celebrities are at the gates. Heck, inside the gates.

Should Anderson Cooper and Larry King be worried? Seems their news-celebrity status hasn't been quite enough lately to keep the prime-time stars at the top of the news ratings pile in Nielsen's sought-after 25-to-54 viewer demographic.

As of last week, that title belongs to the crew at "Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld," Fox News' late-night news-comedy mash-up (midnight on the West Coast, 3 a.m. where it's snowing, prime time if you have it on your DVR) that's been amusing insomniacs, including some high-ranking Ministry bureaucrats -- OK, one of us -- for the past three years.

Cooper has a spotlight, an impressive background, nearly superhuman powers in the face of human suffering and working knowledge of Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Kim Kardashian and the Situation. King can book just about any in-the-news celebrity on the block -- the likes of First Lady Michelle Obama, papa Joe Jackson, Simon Monjack and James Cameron to name a recent few.

Gutfeld, ombudsman Andy Levy and butt-of-most-jokes Bill Schulz have little cred when it comes to being sympathetic to human suffering. And the show's booking power isn't likely to lure the first lady any time soon. But a devoted Twitter following, a mixed bag of political views and the cleverly placed "legs chair" must be picking up the slack. 

'Hope for Haiti Now': Images from the star-studded telethon

There were familiar faces manning the phones -- Reese Witherspoon with her radiant smile and sweet, uplifting wishes as she thanked donors, Jack Nicholson and Steven Spielberg as we rarely see them -- and there were big musical acts performing all over the globe.

It was "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief," and it blanketed the airwaves (and cable waves, and Internet waves) for two hours Friday night and then again in an immediate replay on some outlets.

Click on the image of Bono and Rihanna to see a photo gallery from the night's performances.

George Clooney, who kicked off the show, also spoke after the telethon ended with CNN's Anderson Cooper, who was reporting from Haiti after chatting with a nurse, and a child who'd been injured and lost both his parents.

Clooney emphasized to Cooper the need for the entertainment industry and media to keep the Haiti recovery story front and center after the initial media blast, citing the continuing needs of the people affected, especially those who will need follow-up surgeries after emergency amputations and the like.

Beyond Casey Johnson: Socialites we don't worry about

Casey Johnson's legacy is now the stuff of cautionary tales, but notwithstanding her adventures with Courtenay Semel and Tila Tequila, the blond was a member of a very select crowd: heirs and heiresses to outrageous fortune.

As Casey is laid to rest at her family's plot in New Jersey -- Paris and Nicky Hilton are expected among the mourners, Tila is likely not -- we at the Ministry would like to turn the spotlight on some of her society peers who are making good use of their good fortune. Click on the photo of Casey at right to launch a photo gallery of to-the-manner-born names we don't have to worry about.

[Updated, 11:42 a.m., Jan. 11: Casey has not yet been laid to rest, according to a family source.]

Whether it's billionaire heiress Athina Onassis-Miranda (granddaughter of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' second husband, Aristotle) or publishing princess Amanda Hearst, these lucky few are on the up and up -- witness graceful Aerin Lauder, who has taken the reins at her grandmother's beauty empire, Estée Lauder.