CNN’s Anderson Cooper continues to be a hot topic in the media this week. First the New York Times cited a CBS News executive as being a big fan, and now Kelly Ripa says that he was her favorite guest co-host on “Live with Kelly.”In addition, on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” last night, Cooper overwhelmingly won a very special viewer poll ( see right). Sorry Piers and Wolf, maybe next time.

The CNN anchor hosted a book party for WWHL host Andy Cohen over the weekend. Attendees included “CBS This Morning” host Gayle King and NBC’s Harry Smith.

Cooper has his own daytime talk show now, so he won’t be replacing Regis Philbin, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a connection between him and Ripa. Watch Ripa explain, after the jump.