Music

Billy Corgan's beef with Anderson Cooper gets its own cat t-shirt

by Mark Teo

Is the Billy Corgan-Anderson Cooper rivalry the softest feud in the history of weak-sauce beefs? We think so. Indeed, the cue-ball headed Smashing Pumpkins vocalist has been bristling with silver-haired CNN anchor for months, and he recently took time from writing a musical about ancient Greece to take his beef to the next level. Indeed, the spat has escalated to include vulgar kitty shirts.

At the Smashing Pumpkins’ hometown show at Thalia Hall in Chicago, Corgan unveiled a limited run of shirts featuring two bowtied cats, which, from a distance, reads, “Fuck you Anderson Cooper.” (At closer inspection, though, the shirt reads “Fuck you Smashing Pumpkins Anderson Cooper,” which works just as well.) That’s a photo of the shirts above.

So, how did this pasty, pillowy feud begin? Well, it all began when Corgan posed for Paws Chicago magazine, in an adorable photo with his two cats, who seem to be the same cats in the Smashing Pumpkins’ recent shirt. Yes, adopting felines is Corgan’s Siamese Dream, har har.

Check the incredible cover below.

Then, after noticing Corgan’s soft spot for kittens, Cooper called Corgan uh, soft on his CNN show, 360. Here’s what he said.

Perhaps Billy Corgan is, I don’t know, off his alternative rocker. But I think maybe there’s more to this, maybe he’s being ironic, or maybe when the cool rock stars start doing less rock starry things, it kind of makes us face our own morality. See I want R.E.M. to stay just the way I know and love them, I don’t want ‘Everybody Hurts’ to suddenly be used in an Excedrin commercial.

Corgan responded on Twitter, calling him a “globalist shill” for criticizing his support of PAWS Chicago, a no-kill adoption centre for animals.

Is a Cooper-baiting shirt a little excessive? Maybe. But there’s no denying it: His cats, Miss Sammi and Mister Thom, are damn adorable. [H/T Gawker]