Anderson Cooper isn’t the kind of guy you want to mess around with, because he doesn’t take any nonsense and has no problem speaking his mind. The latest target of his wrath is TV host Star Jones, who has derided his recent “coming out” as a bid for ratings.

Today on Anderson Live, Cooper discussed the reaction to revealing his sexuality with Bravo’s Andy Cohen, who is also gay:

“I was really pleased with the response. It’s nice. I think it’s important to send a message to, especially young people, there’s nothing to be ashamed of and you can be successful and you can have a life and you can have many interests and this is one part of your life.”

One of the few negative comments to his admission came from former “The View” host Star Jones, of whom Cooper complained:

“I haven’t thought about Star Jones in I don’t know how long. I was unaware she was even on TV still but she apparently shows up on a morning show . . .out of the blue after I sent this email Star Jones said this was a ratings ploy by me to boost ratings.”

Cooper was understandably ticked off by this attack, since he was on vacation from his show when he made the public statement. Of Jones, he sniped:

“I seem to recall her hawking her wedding every single day to get free products when she was on ‘The View.’ I seem to recall her lying about her gastric bypass surgery and making everybody else lie about it as well. So for her to suddenly emerge out of the shadows and suddenly attack me for this, I couldn’t believe it.”

Meow! Not surprisingly, Jones is using Cooper’s counter attack as an excuse to get herself into the spotlight again. Jones tweeted today: “I was wrong. @andersoncooper didn’t come out as a ratings ploy. He used ME talking about him coming out @todayshow as a ratings ploy. #mybad.”