Anderson Cooper swats back at Star Jones’ coming-out charge

We hold Anderson Cooper in the highest regard when it comes to journalistic integrity and also when it comes to flipping one’s hair and putting fellow a fellow diva in his or her place.

Following his brilliant shut-down of a nosy airplane passenger in June, Cooper took his defiance to the airwaves this week on his daytime talk show “Anderson Live.”

When Cooper came out as gay in July, former “The View” host Star Jones suggested that, when ratings slip, daytime hosts tend to reveal a lot of personal things in efforts to boost viewership.

Anderson wasn’t having it.

PHOTOS| Gay celebrities: Who is out?

“I haven’t thought about Star Jones in I don’t know how long. I was unaware she was even on TV, but she apparently shows up on a morning show,” Cooper said Thursday on his show, gabbing with friend and Bravo exec Andy Cohen.

“It so annoyed me.... If I was wanting to boost ratings I would have waited to announce it on a very special episode,” he said, “that would have been promoed for weeks and weeks.”

But the silver fox didn’t stop there. After debunking Jones’ theory, Cooper took a walk down Star’s self-promotional memory lane.

PHOTOS: Celebrities by the Times

“I seem to recall her hawking her wedding every single day to get free products when she was on ‘The View,’ ” Cooper said.

“And I seem to recall her lying about her gastric-bypass surgery and making everybody else lie about it as well.”

As if we could barely contain our joy over this, Cooper delivered the final blow to Star’s ego with a sentiment from his mother, designer and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt.

“My mom was like, ‘Who is Star Jones?’ ” Cooper recalled.

Clearly he learned from the best.

ALSO:

Anderson Pooper, um, Cooper loses it over Depardieu-story puns

Anderson Cooper doesn’t love the idea of Chris Brown in a rom-com

Anderson Cooper berates photo-snapping airplane passenger [Video]

Follow Matt Donnelly on Twitter and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs and on Facebook facebook.com/ministryofgossip.

PHOTOS AND MORE:

PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times

PHOTOS: Peril on the set - Celebrity injuries

TIMELINE: Kristen Stewart cheating scandal