Anderson Cooper has to consider it one of the highlights of his career thus far, a thoroughly pleasurable counterbalance to his weeks of depressing Hurricane Katrina coverage back when the CNN anchor was still paying his dues: A flirty interview with champion Olympic swimmer and fellow heartthrob Michael Phelps, complete with shirt removal, medal-fondling, a cozy little nap together and the line, "Mind if I hold one? They're very heavy!" Viewers of Cooper's own AC360 are used to being brought in on this sort of innuendo; it was only a matter of time before the 60 Minutes contributor started beating CBS' larger audience over the head with the "boys make me giggle" routine. So to speak. (Clip after the jump.)

After getting through a remarkably quiet week without a single controversy or racketeering lawsuit, the Church of Scientology was dealt another bruising body blow with Isaac Hayes's death over the weekend. As much as the Church is expected to miss the singer/songwriter's hot buttered soul and totemic cultural presence, Hayes's "friend" and generally unreliable Fox source Roger Friedman notes in today's touching eulogy how the Church wrung every last cent from subpar live performances after his 2006 stroke. And seeing as such allegations clearly wouldn't be insidious enough to defend his late pal's honor, Friedman stops a gold chain link short of blaming the Church outright for Hayes's death:

A (lucky!) redhead named Shannon Price agreed to marry and deflower Diff'rent Strokes star-turned-punchline Gary Coleman in what really we're hoping is an elaborate stunt to convince Vh1 execs to shoot a pilot episode for Strange Love 2: Short And Sweet. Taking a cue from the destructive relationship between Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsen, it seems that domestic abuse is just one of the many fun activities going on at Casa Coleman since married life began! The NY Post reports that Price told Inside Edition that: