Anderson Cooper on Star Jones: Riled Over Accusation that He 'Came Out' Gay to Boost TV Ratings [VIDEO]

During a recent chat on "Anderson Live" with Bravo's Andy Cohen, riled host Anderson Cooper (who openly came out as gay in July) slams former "The View" co-host Star Jones for insinuating that Cooper publically announced his sexuality just to boost TV show ratings. Cooper strongly denies the accusation, stating, "If I was wanting to boost ratings. I would have waited to announce it on 'A Very Special Episode' that would have been promo'd for weeks and weeks and there would have been commercials ... 'Anderson's Huge Announcement.'"

45-year-old Anderson told Cohen that the fact Jones made such an accusation against him still makes his skin crawl. The journalist-turned-television host said, "I was unaware she was even on TV still but she apparently shows up on a morning show on 'Today' or 'Good Morning America,' 'The Today Show.' Anyway, out of the blue Star Jones said this was a ratings ploy by me to boost ratings."

Cooper seems really annoyed at the fact that he wasn't even on-air at the time - he didn't appear back on TV for days following the announcement.

Cooper, known to call people out on their BS, even offered Star a spot on his show to hash things out - which she denied. Although Cooper remains calm and doesn't freak out during the segment (some reports make it out to seem that way) he does offer a few good jabs aimed at Jones' own "publicity stunts": "In terms of boosting ratings, I seem to recall her hocking her wedding every single day to get free products when she was on 'The View' and I seem to recall her lying about her gastric bypass surgery and making everybody else lie about it as well. So for her to suddenly emerge out of the shadows and suddenly attack me for this, I couldn't believe it."

Cohen (coincidentally a good friend of Anderson's for over 20 years) seems to agree that Jones' accusations were totally uncalled for.

To lighten the mood at the end of the discussion, Anderson tells Cohen, "I would think she would want as much publicity as possible given her penchant for wanting publicity. You could be the moderator if she joins us."

Anderson publically announced that he was a homosexual through an email sent to Andrew Sullivan on July 2 (which he was given permission to publish). It reads:

"I've begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It's become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something-something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true... 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."

Of course, Jones responded to the video through Twitter, posting:

@StarJonesEsq: "I was wrong. @andersoncooper didn't come out as a ratings ploy. He used ME talking about him coming out @todayshow as a ratings ploy. #mybad."

Looks like the publicity surrounding this new "feud" seems to be working out well for the both of them!