Anderson Cooper Has Mommy Issues

This month, HBO premieres two docs about gay men and their legendary mothers, whose lives are shown as both laudable and damning. Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper sees the silver-fox journo unearth his filthy-rich mom's lifelong melodrama in the wake of her 90th birthday. There's dishy stuff (amid marriages to luminaries like Sidney Lumet, Vanderbilt bedded Frank Sinatra), but at times Cooper robs the reins from director Liz Garbus. The better movie is Everything Is Copy, an illuminating inquiry into the life of the late Nora Ephron, directed by her son Jacob Bernstein, another gay journalist. Anyone who only knows Ephron for directing her fluffy rom-coms will be floored by her early work as a reporter--one who found joy in penning cover stories on murders. Before she was Meg Ryan's meal ticket, Ephron was a shark, and like its talking heads the film leaves you with mixed emotions: She was equally vicious and lovable.

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