VJBrendan.com: 2012-07-29

"Anderson Live" -- beginning Sept. 10th -- has a new name, a new set and a new live format with rotating co-hosts.

"We've got a lot of fun, great things planned for the new season," says Anderson. "I am really excited to be joined by daily co-hosts and look forward to switching to a live format, which allows us more freedom to cover topical issues as well as connect more with the viewer at home."

Executive Producer Terence Noonan adds, "Our biggest overall goal for 'Anderson Live' is to take the best elements of daytime and put them in a show that works in 2012. Being live plays to Anderson’s strengths, providing immediacy and topicality, which allows us to talk about what is going on in the world."

Hear more from Anderson in this week's newsletter message...

Two young New Orleans-area couples on Friday evening christened with a kiss a national push-back effort to Wednesday's celebration of the traditional family at a Metairie Chick-fil-A.

Raine and Alex, two 17-year-old Metairie girls, were first to smooch as part of the "National Same-Sex Kiss Day at Chick-fil-A," kissing at a table inside the fast-food restaurant at 3870 Veterans Memorial Blvd., a restaurant that was flooded with customers Wednesday on "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day," a national event organized by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to support Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy, a Southern Baptist who opposes same-sex marriage.

The teenagers asked that their last names not be used.

Ryan LeBlanc, 23, of New Orleans and Taylor Turner, 18, of the west bank, followed the girls' lead with another kiss viewed by some of the restaurant's patrons.

"I was excited," LeBlanc said, "but there wasn't much reaction."

LeBlanc said he and Turner wanted to show "this is who we are: normal."

The event was scheduled for 7 p.m. Central Time and the participants, who learned of kiss day via Facebook, were only a tiny fraction of the throngs who had turned out for the traditional-family celebration on Wednesday.

Yet, the two young couples left beaming.

"I hope we get the point across that people are people," Raine said.

"If straight people can kiss in Chick-fil-A, why not gay people," asked Alex.

Click here to read the whole story at www.NOLA.com