Anderson Cooper confronts “Human Barbie” Sarah Burge about publicity seeking; then kicks her off his show


Earlier this week Anderson Cooper had “Human Barbie,” and professional headline grabber for giving plastic surgery (and plastic surgery vouchers) to her underage daughters, Sarah Burge on his show.

Anderson confronted the British tabloid queen about calling up the British press with sensationalist stories about her young daughters.

Over the past few years those headlines have been on the following topics:


Giving her then 6-year-old Poppy pole-dancing lessons

Giving Poppy several gift certificates for future plastic surgery when she was ages 7 and 8

Planning to take Poppy to the U.S. solely for the purpose to be in U.S. pageants

Letting her 16-year-old daughter Hannah get Botox to prevent her from sweating on stage when she danced

Sarah herself has gotten $500,000 worth of plastic surgery over the past 20 years, and now is qualified to give Botox injections, and works with plastic surgeons all over the world. Apparently part of her job is to generate press about plastic surgery, mostly corrective plastic surgery. Sarah was badly disfigured as a young woman, and turned to plastic surgery to correct damage done at the hands of an abusive boyfriend. However, Sarah has gone on to have extensive surgery past the amount that was required to correct her damage.

She poses with her for sensationalist pictures , and even though she was admamant on Anderson that she only gave Poppy the plastic surgery vouchers because she works in that business, and Poppy can actually cash them out to buy something else, Poppy actually told Dr. Drew when they were on his daytime show that she might use them for plastic surgery if she “looks weird or something.”

Anderson battled with a defensive Sarah for a while, and then just told her he didn’t want to talk anymore and she left the stage in a huff (transcript below.) In an after show video, he said he had regrets about the show, but not about sending her off the stage: he regrets ever having her on.

At one point Sarah turned the tables on Anderson when he accused her of publicity seeking by saying he was twisting her words to use her for his own publicity just like “all the media.” If Sarah’s so upset about how “the media” portrays her, she’s free to stop calling them up about giving her daughters plastic surgery, and sending them cheesy pictures. She was just upset that Anderson was getting a little too close to the truth, and interrupting her spin.

Here are some video clips of what went down.

Highlighted but thorough transcript of their conversation in process below:

SB: In a sarcastic tone: “Aren’t the press brutal Anderson! Oh my God!”

A: “Why do you want your daughter involved in pagents?”


SB: “Pageants are not always about beauty. They are obviously about representing your country, and person as well, and raising huge amounts of money for charity. Because I am an advocate of domestic violence charities, and this is what I do for a living as well. So, we put a lot of time and effort to actually do global campaigns to help raise awareness.”

A: “But you’re trying to get your daughters involved in like the Toddlers & Tiaras type pageants here in the United States. Those aren’t really about charity.”

SB: “I’m not really familiar with Toddlers & Tiaras pageantry to be honest, It’s something that came about.”

A: “How much about this is about publicity for you. I’m gonna ask this because you’ve done things that are clearly about publicity, like giving your seven-year-old daughter a voucher so she can get liposuction or breast augmentation later on in life.”


SB: “That’s actually not quite the truth, that’s where the sensational comes in with the press, and it gets highly distorted.

A: “So you didn’t give her a voucher?”


SB: “I’ve give her a voucher for if she so wishes to use it, at the age of 18, she can. She actually wants to be a plastic surgeon, and take herself off to become the person that she wants to be. Cause she can cash in those vouchers, they’re like a bond, so it’s like a tax-free gift.”

A: “So you’re telling me that wasn’t about publicity?”

SB: “I’m taking advantage of my trade. I’m an associate of many plastic surgery companies around the world, and by doing that, I was put in a position to actually give her the voucher at this moment in time.”

A: “What kind of message though, do you think it sends to a seven-year-old saying when you being 18, if you want, you can get a breast augmentation and liposuction? Doesn’t it send kind of an odd message?”


SB: “Well, it might seem to you, but I mean she wants to be a plastic surgeon, or weren’t you listening to me? So she actually would like to take herself off to university there afterwards, and cash it in.”

A: “I was listening to you, why did you actually put that money into a college fund so she could become a plastic surgeon. I don’t know many plastic surgeons who do plastic surgery on themselves. You also have your daughter pole dancing. Why d you have a seven-year-old pole dancing?”

SB: “I’m sorry, what question are we on? We were on the last one just now, I haven’t finished answering it.”

A: “Well, you’re not really answering it, and I don’t think there really is an answer. So I’m curious about the pole dancing.”

SB: “Oh, so you’re doing exactly same as what all the other media do. you’re twisting things and trying to get publicity for yourself, and you’re being nasty to me, and I don’t think that’s really fair. Because you want to actually turn this into some sort of, you want me to be the proverbial whipping post then? I’m not going to sit here and be a whipping post. I’m not.”

A: “That’s fine. I’m genuinely curious about why a mom would give her seven-year-old daughter a voucher for plastic surgery, and why a mom would have her daughter dancing on a pole.”

SB: “Because she can cash it in. There’s not many people in this audience, if I gave them a voucher for plastic surgery that they could actually cash in, and themselves a car, or take them selves to uni[veristy] could actually use it?”

SB On pole dancing:

“It’s polercize, it’s exercise, and in more recent times it’s actually been introduced into shows now, all over the world. On talent shows. It’s like cirque du soleil, what do you think they come from, then? Do you think they just get up one day and swing around the pole?”

A: “You’re an intelligent woman, you know this is about publicity. You don’t put a seven-year-old daughter on a pole, and have her photographed, and it doesn’t just happen wind up in the paper. You contact the British tabloids, you contact the papers, and let them know about this stuff. ”

SB: “I let people know that it’s good. It’s good exercise. In fact more people should actually try it instead of stuffing their face with burgers, I don’t know. And it would be better for them, and they would be much more fit and healthier.”

A: “I also understand that you also gave your 15-year-old Botox, is that true?”

SB: “No, I didn’t.”

A: “I find that hard to believe.”

SB: “Well, you would find that hard to believe because you believe the press, obviously. My daughter is a professional dancer. All my children are professional people, and she perpetually sweated on her forehead, and so the best answer for that was actually a shot of Botox. ANd I didn’t actually give it her, somebody gave it to her.”

A: “Obviously.”

SB: “What do you mean obviously? I am actually a practitioner myself, and I can administer Botox.”

A: “So just about anybody can give Botox these days?”

SB: “They might out here, but I don’t know.”

A: “So giving a 15-year-old daughter Botox because she sweats on her forehead because she’s a professional dancer. So, I’ve never heard of that.”

SB: “You wouldn’t hear of it, would you? Because you’re not in that industry. I’m in the plastic industry, and obviously I’m an associate of many plastic surgery companies, and I’m an therapist myself, so yes.”

A: “We called a board certified plastic surgeon who said there are no medical indications for a teen to need to have Botox.”

SB: “Well, in that case he doesn’t know what he’s talking about because there are medical indications as well.”

A: “What’s wrong with a 15-year-old sweating?”

SB: “Well not on the stage. You wouldn’t see Beyonce sweating on the stage, would you?”

A: “Well actually, you do.”

SB: “Well that’s what my daughter said, she didn’t want to sweat on stage!”

A: “You actually do see Beyonce sweat on stage.”

SB: “I would prefer to actually oversee my daughter’s Botox than actually having her go underground and finding a voodoo witch doctor, or in fact getting it off the internet and administering it herself.

A: “Right. I honestly have nothing more to talk to you about, I’ve got to be honest. I got to just stop. I’m sorry. I try to be really polite to all of my guests, I just think you’re dreadful, and I honestly don’t want to talk to you anymore, so I’m just gonna stop.”

SB: “That’s fine.”

A: “Yeah, I’m sorry.”

Sarah walks off stage, and pushes away a camera.

A: “I just don’t think there’s any point in wasting viewer’s times.”

end scene

Anderson regularly has attention-seeking sensationalist headline grabbers on his show (and we regularly give them publicity on this blog,) but as he talks about in the after show, they are usually up for some (even a small, microscopic) degree of honest conversation. Sarah Burge was like a brick wall.