Tonight was supposed to be Anderson Cooper's Big Fat Coming Out party (Allegedly!). Instead he's covering Michael Jackson's death for CNN, where he just shared a special memory—Partying at Studio 54 with Jacko when he was 10!

What will Anderson Cooper be doing tonight? Unvogue Magazine says he'll be attending a party at the Sapphire Go-Go Lounge for their men's issue. It's been informally dubbed "Anderson Cooper's Big Fat Coming Out Party." [UPDATED: AC's denial below]:

"Obsession uses vocabulary and describes activities of a sort that readers of The New York Times are usually shielded from," Charles McGrath blushed in a story from today's Grey Lady, before going on to enumerate the risqué "activities" in question, including "scenes involving dildos, whips, silken cords and golden nipple clamps, not to mention an ebony, smooth-backed Mason Pearson hairbrush purchased at Harrods." What was the occasion for offending the sensibilities of the most cosmopolitan readership this side of the Atlantic? Gloria Vanderbilt, of course. If a regular author were to write "erotica" involving "mint, cayenne pepper and a fresh garden carrot... deployed... in ways never envisioned by The Joy of Cooking," the Times might turn up it's nose. But when the 85-year old blue blood who birthed Anderson Cooper decides to write a novel involving "a five-story Brooklyn sex mansion where most of the orgies take place," it's suddenly interested. Fair enough!

Anderson Cooper's mom's sexy erotica book is coming out next week! Gloria Vanderbilt is 85 and not taking any crap from anybody when it comes to, oh, kinky food sex fantasies. The New York Times is scandalized! Details!

The Church of Scientology has launched a deeply creepy advertising campaign. They're buying spots on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, and seem to have stolen the ad playbook from their arch-enemies in the pharmaceutical industry.

James Gandolfini walking around the West Village ... Jessica Biel carrying a Theory shopping bag downtown ... Anderson Cooper leaving a taping of Live With Regis And Kelly at ABC studios ... Isabella Rossellini walking in Soho ... New Jersey "Housewife" Danielle Staub arriving at Fox Studios ... Blake Lively and Penn Badgley going to dinner at Five Points with Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn ... David Blaine and fiancé Alizee Guinochet shopping for furniture ... Meryl Streep filming scenes for her new movie in midtown ... Joel Schumacher walking in the Village ... Matthew Broderick riding a scooter in the West Village with son James ... Mandy Moore leaving a party for her new album ... Claire Danes walking in Soho ... Nicole Kidman shooting scenes for Rabbit Hole in Queens ... and Paris Hilton leaving her hotel.

CNN's Anderson Cooper turns 42 today. Tennis star Rafael Nadal is turning 23. Humorist/Apple pitchman John Hodgman is 38. Stanford law professor and Internet pioneer Lawrence Lessig is 48. Raul Castro, the president of Cuba, is turning 78. Actor Tony Curtis is turning 84. John Barlow, the Broadway publicist and partner of producer Scott Rudin, is 41. High Line advocate Josh David turns 46. Phish bassist Mike Gordon is 44. Melissa Mathison, the ET screenwriter and ex-wife of Harrison Ford, is 59. And former game show host and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind author Chuck Barris turns 80 today.

• How is Twitter going to make money? With a reality TV series, naturally. The show will involve "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format," in case you were wondering. [Variety]
• The primetime lineups for next year "are chockablock with shows meant to make recession-weary viewers laugh and feel better." How encouraging! [NYT]
• Ratings are down for CNN's Anderson Cooper as well as for Roland Martin, who has been subbing for Campbell Brown recently. [Page Six]
• Bravo's next Real Housewives installment: Washington, DC. [Daily Intel]
• Fox News nut Greta Van Susteren may not be around for long. Rumor has it her contract won't be be renewed and Megyn Kelly will replace her. [NYT]
• New York lost close to $5 million last year; with ad pages down 37 percent thus far in 2009, "losses are expected to be even higher this year." [NYP]
• A Russian investment firm has dropped $200 million into Facebook's bank account in return for a 1.96 percent stake in the company. [NYT]
• Ben Stiller's Night at the Museum sequel beat out the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise with a four-day pull of $70 million. [Reuters]

• Jim Dolan's Cablevision says that Newsday is not for sale, which is good since there isn't a company on the planet that wants to buy it. [E&P]
• David Geffen made an offer to acquire the stake in the New York Times Co. controlled by Phil Falcone's Harbinger fund; Harbinger passed. [Fortune]
• The mood isn't too upbeat at the Cannes Film Festival, unsurprisingly. [THR]
• 60 Minutes' segment on Anna Wintour should air this Sunday. [Gawker]
• As of the publishing biz didn't have enough to worry about, "web pirates" are now posting copies of books on the Internet. [NYT]
• Anderson Cooper's ratings have been on the decline all year. [LAT]
• OK! appears to be dissolving into chaos. [ASSME, Gawker]

• Brooke Shields can't seem to make up her mind about who's to blame for the Kiefer Sutherland-Jack McCollough incident last week. A few days ago, her reps denied she'd been pushed by Jack. But now she says he did bump into her, and that Kiefer "has always been a gentleman" with her. Go figure. [TMZ, NYDN]
• Madonna took her kids to a Mets game on Mother's Day, which was all part of a plan to make Alex Rodriguez jealous, apparently. Also, the singer/diehard baseball fan sat in Jerry Seinfeld's seats and hung out with the Anderson Cooper the whole time, just so you know. [P6]
• More topless photos of Carrie Prejean have surfaced online. [TMZ]
• Barbara Walters wore the same dress to the Time 100 gala and the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The horror! [TMZ]
• Maya Rudolph and PT Anderson are expecting their second child. [People]

• New York Times union members approved a five percent pay cut last night, which takes effect today. Meanwhile, the NYT will resume negotiations with the Boston Globe's largest union at 5pm this afternoon. [NYP, E&P]
• The Onion is killing off its LA and San Francisco print editions. [Gawker, MP]
• How desperate has NBC become? Execs have announced that Jay Leno "is not afraid to experiment with live commercials and with sponsorships." [AdAge]
• Better news for NBC: It scored big with its coverage of the Derby. [NYP]
• Ad spending in the fourth quarter fell 9.2% from a year earlier. [WSJ]
• Writers gathered last night to say goodbye to the Times' City section. [NYO]

Marisa Tomei walking with her boyfriend, Logan Marshall Green ... Jon Stewart shopping with his wife and kids on 8th and Broadway ... Christy Turlington and Ed Burns crossing the street with their kids in Tribeca ... ... Lauren Conrad leaving JFK ... Joy Bryant holding a baby during a lunch at Gemma ... Anderson Cooper walking by himself ... Jay-Z and Beyonce shopping in Soho ... Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber walking to Pinkberry with their son and dog ... Rachel McAdams and Josh Lucas getting out of a car in front of their hotel in Soho ... Heidi Klum and Seal arriving at LaGuardia with their kids ... Josh Hartnett walking with a friend in Soho ... and Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott leaving dinner at Cipriani Downtown.

Foxnews.com has published a screed taking the mainstream media to task for their "orally charged" coverage of the tea parties: Namely, the repeated use of the term "teabagging" for giggles.

[Submit your own Gawker Stalker sightings to stalker@gawker.com] April 16 @ 12:06pm Just saw Anderson Cooper looking casual, head down in a baseball cap, but his telltale silver hair peaked out the back.

It's about time: Anderson Cooper finally weighed in this whole teabagging phenomenon. The dashing CNN anchor seems surprisingly well versed!

What do Donald Trump or Anderson Cooper know about taxes? Beats us, but for some reason the pair came up at the top of the list of "celebrities Americans feel most comfortable doing their taxes." The Donald came in first with 32 percent of the vote; Coop followed behind with 27 percent. That Trump came in first may be slightly surprising considering he has trouble keeping his own finances in order. Much less surprising? Paris Hilton came in dead last.

CNN has a new promo featuring an attractive young woman at a bar making eyes at a guy. The guy makes eyes right back, but it turns out she's not looking at the guy, but at the television behind his head—which is tuned to CNN's Anderson Cooper!

Anderson Cooper was seen "rapidly texting" on his cell phone in the bathroom of the cruisey David Barton Gym in Chelsea. Or at least we think that's what E!'s Ted Casablanca is saying, but we can't be sure since we rarely understand anything Casablanca says. Assuming it's true, though, you can also assume that whatever Cooper was writing couldn't have been any smuttier than anything his mom has written recently. [E!]

You may blush at the contents of Gloria Vanderbilt's forthcoming book, Obsession: An Erotic Tale, but Anderson Cooper isn't expressing any embarrassment. The CNN anchor says he's totally supportive of his mom's new tome, since "at 85, whatever she wants to write is fine by me." How sweet! Of course, he may just be relieved that the attention paid to his mom's private life is finally taking a little bit of focus off of his own. [NYP]

It looks like you won't be seeing any less of Keith Olbermann on MSNBC anytime soon. Back in January, Phil Griffin, the network's president, told the Times that finding a new show to replace the rerun of Olbermann's Countdown at 10pm was a "top priority." But MSNBC's plans have changed, it seems. Griffin now says he's putting an "indefinite hold" on the search for someone new, which may have something to do with the fact a canned Olbermann still usually beats out CNN's Anderson Cooper: