Anderson Cooper, movie buff

On Valentine's Day Anderson said "Ah, the science of lerve -- or love -- or lerve. That's from a Woody Allen movie, but anyway. I won't go into it. Happy Valentine's day, everyone." Christian, at The Anderson Cooper Corner " further explained, "If you don't catch the reference, Andy was talking about Annie Hall, where Alvy says to Annie: "Love is too weak a word, I lerve you..."

It's not the first time Anderson Cooper has given us some clue that he's a movie buff. Remember his Goodfellows impersonation a few weeks back? While surfing the net I found this interview between AC and Russ Letherman, Mr. Moviefone. I found it very interesting, hope you do too.

Tuesday Oct. 29 2002 Leatherman joined CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper via satellite from Los Angeles on to talk about the top scary movies of all time -- just in time for Halloween.

RUSS LEATHERMAN, "MR. MOVIEFONE": Are you OK there, Anderson?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm doing all right. I was a little scared. "The
Exorcist" kind of freaks me out. Let's talk about scary movies that are out in
release now. I just saw "The Ring."

LEATHERMAN: There are a couple of scary movies in theaters right now. You
talked about "The Ring" -- that's probably the best one, certainly the
spookiest one. You watch a videotape and you die seven days later -- what's
spookier than that?

COOPER: And that was based on a Japanese movie from a couple years back.

LEATHERMAN: It was "Ringu," and that's a very scary movie. It's like you're
looking at the clip with the girl crawling out. That's all very scary stuff. If
you want to go to a movie theater to see a scary movie there is "Halloween."
That's the one you want to see.

COOPER: There's also "Ghost Ship" which opened up this weekend. I think it came
in third behind "Jackass." I always wanted to be able to say that on TV.

LEATHERMAN: Yes, it did come in third. Maybe didn't do as well as some may have
thought. It's one of those movies. It's called "Ghost Ship," so you know what
you'll get going in. No big surprises. It's a lot of fun. Not nearly as creepy
as "The Ring," but still kind of fun for a Halloween kind of movie.

COOPER: Let's talk about the top five scariest movies of all time in your
opinion.

LEATHERMAN: Well, you know, we all like to do something on Halloween, and if
you weren't invited to the big party or something like that, you got to find
something to do. So go out and rent a DVD, and we took a little poll on
moviefone.com to find out which movies moviegoers thought were the scariest
movies of all time. If you look at number one, moviegoers think "The Exorcist"
is the scariest of all time. I don't know if you remember "The Exorcist" or
remember the scene...

COOPER: How can I forget it?

LEATHERMAN: ... of Linda Blair with her head spinning around, and she had that
green stuff flying out of her mouth, which also can be seen in the movie
"Jackass," by the way. But in "Jackass," it's real. "The Exorcist" was a scary,
scary movie, and as scary today as it was then. It's really held up over
time.

COOPER: I was disappointed that "The Exorcist 2, The Heretic" was not on your
list. But number two, "The Shining," I think that is the scariest movie. I was
thinking earlier, I've never seen the entire thing all through. I've seen it in
little bits, but I just can't watch the whole thing; it's too scary.

LEATHERMAN: You're kind of a wimp, Anderson.

COOPER: I can fess up to that, yes.

LEATHERMAN: I agree with you. I think it's certainly one of the scariest movies
of all time. Probably the best work that Jack Nicholson has ever done. You're
looking at him right now, and he's getting ready to chop the door down, and
here he goes with that famous line -- "Here's Johnny!" So, again, this is
another one of these movies you can watch today and still be creeped out just
as scary as it was when it first came out in 1980.

COOPER: Also, "Jaws" really holds up. It's a whole different kind of scary, but
it really holds up. I just saw it again recently.

LEATHERMAN: "Jaws" is one of those movies that really kind of changed the way
Americans behaved. I mean, this movie got into our psyche. Right before "Jaws,"
nobody thought about sharks. After "Jaws," people didn't go in the water
anymore. Tourism was down. It was one of those movies [that], at the time,
really freaked everyone in America out. Everybody who saw it was really leery
of the water. So you look at what makes a movie scary, well, certainly, if
you're affected afterwards and your behavior changes, that must be a scary
movie.

COOPER: Equally scary is "Mr. Holland's Opus," which the guy from "Jaws" is in.

LEATHERMAN: That and "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

COOPER: I'm sorry we couldn't get to Pia Zadora, because I know she's in at
least one scary movie, not intentionally scary. But Mr. Moviefone, we appreciate you being with us. Russ Leatherman, thanks very much.

LEATHERMAN: Happy to be here. See you next time.