Anderson Cooper gained a lot from his mentor Gordon Parks, but not his Jaguar. “Gordon had this Jaguar convertible that my brother and I loved,” Cooper told us Tuesday night at the Gordon Parks Centennial Gala. “He would always say to us, ‘Well, you can have it when I die.’ But at his funeral there were 100 people my age that had been promised that car. We realized that was his line to everyone.” Parks photographed Cooper’s mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, for Life magazine in the 1950s, kicking off a long, intimate relationship between the pioneering lensman/movie director and Vanderbilt. Cooper hosted the gala at the Museum of Modern Art, where HBO co-president Richard Plepler, Annie Leibovitz and Alicia Keys were honored. Though Keys wasn’t there, Clive Davis accepted her award on her behalf. Anna Wintour, Tom Ford, Karl Lagerfeld, Sarah Jessica Parker, Russell Simmons, Josh Groban, Carine Roitfeld and former Sen. Christopher Dodd also attended.