Pink List: Out in the USA

America's gay lifestyle magazine Out is looking for a little attention. It wants it about as badly as the two people on the front cover of its May issue want to avoid it, at least in this context. They are Anderson Cooper, a star anchor on CNN, and the actress Jodie Foster.

Cunningly, it is not them in the photograph but two models holding up Foster and Cooper masks. The headline declares them members of America's A-list "Glass Closet" - famous types who have never come out as gay, but take no strenuous steps to hide the fact either. And it has created a storm of controversy.

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The magazine publishes for the first time a ranking of the 50 most influential gays and lesbians in the US, with the Hollywood magnate David Geffen at number one and Ellen DeGeneres, the TV personality, Tim Gill, a philanthropist, and Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank rounding out the top five. Mr Cooper is second, while Foster makes 43 on the list.

If ranking gays and lesbians on such measures as impact on culture, political influence and contribution to the greater good is new in the US, it is not so in Britain where this newspaper has for some years published annual rankings of its own. We call it the "Pink List" and find - with increasing enthusiasm from all concerned - 101 names to include.

"I would be lying if I told you I wasn't aware of your list," Aaron Hicklin, editor of Out, said yesterday. "We wanted to do a little of what the IoS does, to have a dynamic list where people are ranked and where people are rising and falling on an annual basis."

The outspoken entertainer Rosie O'Donnell is sixth. Two places below her is the fashion designer Marc Jacobs, while photographer Annie Leibovitz is 29th.

The silver-haired Mr Cooper, son of heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, is a household name in the US, enjoying promotions in the CNN galaxy of anchors, notably since his award-winning stint reporting Hurricane Katrina.

As with the Pink List, the Out rankings theoretically include only people who are publicly out. But there are two exceptions: Mr Cooper and Foster. Their place on the cover is tied to an essay inside, "The Glass Closet: Why the stars won't come out and play", by Michael Musto.

Mr Hicklin laments that so many A-list celebrities in America who are gay still feel compelled to skirt the issue. He would not mind if his cover propelled Mr Cooper, for example, to take the last step. "If he would acknowledge his sexuality, it would challenge prejudice," he said.

PINK LIST

Anderson Cooper

News anchor and reporter for CNN, Cooper is the son of the fabulously wealthy heiress Gloria Vanderbilt

Marc Jacobs

Fashion designer and artistic director for Louis Vuitton, he dressed as a pigeon for his opulent holiday ball last December

Annie Leibovitz

Photographer known for work in 'Rolling Stone' and 'Vanity Fair'

Jodie Foster

Twice an Oscar-winning actress, she has successfully moved into film-making as both producer and director, and owns her own production company, Egg Pictures