Omedia's Anderson Cooper To Serve As Grand Marshal Of 500 Festival Parade

The Indianapolis 500 Festival Committee announced today that CNN's host of "Anderson Cooper 360" will serve as Grand Marshal for this year's 500 Festival Parade. Anderson Cooper is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt, best known for her tight jeans brand of the 1970s. Cooper is decidely left-leaning and a certified member of the Omedia. I'm not sure what appeal he has to Indianapolis 500 fans. The former Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren model's news show posted its worst ratings ever last year. You could probably fit the number of viewers who watch his show in the Indianapolis market into a small bar on Massachusetts Avenue given his show's bottom-dwelling ratings in the cable news market. The openly gay New York-based newscaster lives in a converted firehouse in Greenwich Village and has a boyfriend, Benjamin Maisani, a bar owner in the East Village. Will Benjamin accompany him? Will he share his horror stories of being attacked by the Religion of Peace revolutionaries during his recent reporting in Egypt? Yeah, making him the Grand Marshal of the parade makes about as much sense as asking Donald Trump to drive the pace car, eh? I'm betting Dennis Ryerson won't be publishing a front-page, above-the-fold editorial column in the Star attacking Cooper as a clown undeserving of the honor. He'll probably ask to be his personal escort.