Jennifer Aniston in Harper's Bazaar

At the end of the day Angelina is a true goddess, whether she does good or not. And Jen is oh so plain and boring, whatever she tries to achieve. That’s all, folks.

Jennifer Aniston: ‘Friends’ for life?The ‘Friends’ actress Jennifer Aniston has struggled to distance herself from her iconic role. James Mottram asks her about her latest film 12 May 2006 A theory: Jennifer Aniston’s CV reads like a summary of her life to date. Even if she’s far removed from the dowdy supermarket cashier she played in The Good Girl (2002), it’s a spot-on way to describe this squeaky-clean and sunny Californian.In Picture Perfect (1997), to the casual observer, her marriage to superstar Brad Pitt was exactly as the film says. I admit this is not a watertight concept, given that it is hard to see where the 1993 potboiler Leprechaun fits in (unless she has a thing for Irish folklore) but you get the idea.Of late, as she became the woman scorned after Pitt fled into the arms of Angelina Jolie, art has been forced to imitate life. After once starring in a Lynx aftershave commercial which saw her reading a "How to Keep Your Man" manual, the last couple of years have already seen her in the Graduate-inspired romantic comedy Rumor Has It (something she’s faced on a daily basis from the tabloid press) and the scam movie Derailed (her life of late).To come is The Break-Up, ironically the film where she met current boyfriend Vince Vaughn. In the middle of all this comes Aniston’s latest film, Friends with Money, which - quite apart from recalling the sitcom that turned Aniston from a struggling actress into a global icon - rather sounds like her social life these days. Born in Sherman Oaks but raised in Manhattan, as a child she had to make good with hand-me-down clothes, crayons and dolls. "I couldn’t wait to finally go out and make my own money," she told one interviewer. "The idea of never relying on someone else always thrilled me." And, boy, did she manage that. By the end of Friends’ final season in 2004, it was reported that she was earning around $1m an episode. Yet when we meet in a hotel during the Sundance film festival, where Aniston has come to promote Friends with Money, she manages a pretty good impression of the girl-next-door. Admittedly, to be next door to Aniston involves your property backing on to a $29m Beverly Hills mansion. Nevertheless, she claims to still do her own housework. "I do!" she cries sweetly. "I make my bed every day and I clean my kitchen."Not that I can report that Aniston has dishpan hands. Wearing jeans, a lilac jumper, a grey scarf wrapped around her neck and leather, fur-lined, boots, she spends much of the interview fiddling with a half-empty Starbucks coffee-cup, seemingly oblivious to the crowds that have gathered outside to grab a glimpse of her. At 5ft 5in, there’s not so much to see - particularly as Aniston has managed to remain slim since her agent told her to lose 20lb when she was just starting out. Now 37, she’s also far more beautiful than the myriad paparazzi shots of her suggest. Everything about her - the blue eyes, the honey-coloured hair and the tanned skin - seems to glow..Her father, John Aniston, was a regular player on the long-running US daytime show Days of Our Lives, and there have been times of late when Aniston’s life appears to have been culled from a soap opera. She has been cast opposite Pitt and Jolie as the victim of a "sick, twisted Bermuda Triangle", as she dubbed it in Vogue.On top of this, she has been forced to deal with her strained relationship with her mother, Nancy Dow. As a child, Aniston was told by her mother always to make more of her features. "You got to the point where you felt like the ugliest duck on the planet," she says. It was Dow who held the family together after Aniston’s father left home for another woman while Aniston was a teenager studying performing arts in New York. But their relationship deteriorated when she gossiped about her daughter on a television show. Dow subsequently published the book, From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir leading to reports that Aniston called her mother "an unfulfilled, bitter old woman". Aniston has vowed never to depend on a man in the way her mother did on her father.In the past, she has worked her fair share of menial jobs - from being a waitress to a bike-messenger - to gain this sought-after independence. "I was out of work for a long time," she says. "We’ve all been there at some point. I absolutely had no money. When you don’t have it, you’re really thrilled with getting $500 a week waitressing." Did she ever worry that she’d never achieve success? "I wasn’t worried about it or not worried about it, maybe because I never had any great ambition or just knew I’d always be OK. I mean, I always wanted to act - it was all I could do - and I think I just knew I would be doing it."It’s for these reasons that Aniston notes that she feels "very connected to Olivia", her character in Friends with Money. Perhaps because it arrived at a time of crisis in her life, it’s arguably her finest film-role to date. Olivia is a singleton without the angst of Bridget Jones, though without the income either. Much to the shock of her wealthier chums (Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack and Frances McDormand), she refuses to take hand-outs as she toils away as a maid. But Olivia is not above foraging for free samples in a department store. "I did that," Aniston pipes up, "I still do!"Her character immediately recalls her role of Justine in The Good Girl, another blue-collar character trapped in an unfulfilling life. "There is a similarity," Aniston says. "She’s a non-glamorous, more ordinary girl who is a little bit stuck and has lost self-esteem." It’s no coincidence that it’s Aniston’s first film to be directed by a woman - Nicole Holofcener, who made the excellent Walking and Talking and Lovely & Amazing. "There was nothing magic I did to bring it out of her," the director shrugs, when asked what she did to glean such a competent performance. "It all came from her."Friends with Money, stresses Aniston, is not a chick-flick - a label that she reviles. "I hate it," she says. "It’s really stupid." That said, from She’s the One to The Object of My Affection, it’s the territory where she has often found herself. While her film career has flourished much more than any of her peers on Friends, she has yet to eclipse the likes of Cameron Diaz or Kirsten Dunst. Her biggest hits - Bruce Almighty (which took $242m in the US) and Along Came Polly ($87m) - have been more the result of the popularity of her leading men, Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller respectively. Her film roles have been largely anodyne, as studio heads have tried - and largely failed - to relight the spark she kept burning for 10 years as Friends’ Rachel Green. But then, as Jake Gyllenhaal observed while co-starring with her on The Good Girl, "People just associate her with Rachel. In public, everyone was like, ‘Rachel, Rachel - what’s happening with you and Ross?’ After a while she was like, ‘Oh, Ross is great!’"Aniston admits that she has spent years in Hollywood encountering "short-sighted" casting directors who believe she can only play variations of the character that won her an Emmy in 2002. "I’ll take as long as it takes," she sighs, regarding the issue of typecasting. "Unfortunately there’s [Friends] re-runs everywhere, but I love that character. She gave me my career. And, fortunately, we have directors in the world like Nicole who don’t give a ****! That baggage didn’t stop her seeing me as an actor." She says she doesn’t feel like she could ever return to television. "Not because I’m above it," she hastily adds, "but because I really don’t think I could ever top that experience. I miss acting in front of an audience. It was like every Friday was opening night. But episodic television is gruelling and it was years and years of the same thing."Aside from the self-fulfilling prophecy that is her film credits, she also has a fledgling career as a producer, as part of her work for Plan B productions, the company she set up with Pitt. She has attached herself to a variety of forthcoming quality projects - including Gus Van Sant’s The Time Traveler’s Wife and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, his remake of the Hong Kong classic Infernal Affairs. It leads us onto discussing how independent cinema differs from Hollywood. "There are a lot of differences," Aniston notes. "It feels more like camp. I don’t know how to explain it. It goes so fast and it’s so much more enjoyable because you don’t lull and you get to keep acting. You don’t waste time waiting for the lighting to be set. I like that speed. You just knock it out."While there have been reports that Aniston was thinking of selling up and moving to Chicago (where Vaughn hails from), she is certainly not planning to quit the business. "No, because I love acting," she says. "I have so much fun doing comedy."’Friends with Money’ is released on 26 May

All this vicious posting against J Aniston is starting to make me like her again, and I’m a huge BAMZ fan who resented evry drop of sympathy JA squeezed out of the breakup, especially the insinuations against AngieBUT…..JA may not be the greatest beauty or silver screen siren, however she is well aware of thatIt must have been difficult having a mother giving her such a hard time about her looks, and constantly making her feel undervalued - it will always affect a persons self esteem, esp as her Dad was not aroundShe worked her own way up Hollywood, and with an undeniable bit of luck became an integal part of a great show. It seems a little overexposed now with reruns, but I loved each new season at the time. I felt happy for her when she had Brad, she was no longer ‘the ugly duckling’ etc…I must admit though I did not respect Brad at the time, as I felt he was alittle superficialWith the emergence of BAMZ I saw Brad in a new light. I had no idea he was so articulate and passionate. I thought Jen wore the trousers in that relationshipYou had to feel sorry for Jen initially , whether he cheated or not -it had to hurtAnd everyone wanted to know about it when she was raw, she should never have left room for people to think she was milking publicity for her career, which I believe she did, along with most peopleJen is going her own way now, and needs to be cut some slack from everyoneI loved Angie since always -I had a seriously messed up childhood and could understand feeling so retched and full of self loathing. I work as a doctor and seeing other patients and helping them, helped me put my woes into perspectiveI believe Angie has done the same, and having the unconditional love of children heals those wounds. She is not a mess anymore, but a great role model. She would never atteck JA like most of you are - especially on the basis of looks

thanks everyone for your comments, they are all precious for me. Thanks so much. A particolary thanks to mongo, mmmmmm, remember da thrue and yuckshesucks; but lookwhaticando, anon, and many other usually posters. Thanks everyone. I hope that you continue to write post with comments smart, and true how always on this subjet. Thanks jj for the pics.

AS YOU CAN SEE POST # 204 ILLUSTRATES JUST HOW ‘BRAD PITT’-LADEN HER PRESS USUALLY IS - THIS IS THE WAY IT GOES W/ ALL OF HER CRAPTASTIC WHINY SAD-SACK INTERVIEWS - THEY ARE *ALL ABOUT BRAD & ANGELINA*…SHE PERSONALLY DOES NOT EVEN NEED TO SAY HIM/THEM BY NAME, WHEN THE WRITER OF SAID ARTICLE WILL WEAVE BRAD, ANGELINA, AND THE ‘TRIANGLE,’ ( ABOUT WHICH SHE COMPLAINS) INTO EVERY SINGLE LINE OF *HER* INTERVIEW/ARTICLE…THIS HAPPENS EVERY TIME OUT OF THE BOX. HER PEOPLE KNOW THAT WITHOUT THE ‘BRANGELINA’ CONNECTION NO ONE CARES ABOUT THIS SILLY SIT-COM ACTRESS.THIS B*TCH IS NOT ONLY LOOKING SCARY, BUT SHE’S THE BIGGEST WHINY PATHETIC HYPOCRITE GOING — NEWS BULLETIN FOR JEN: HERE’S HOW IT WORKS HONEY…YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT BRAD PITT, LIKE YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT ‘FIGHT CLUB,’ - AND WHAT’S MORE…IT STILL COUNTS WHEN YOUR INTERVIEWER TALKS ABOUT ‘BRAD PITT,’ SO YOU HAVE TO TELL THEM NOT TO MENTION HIM, ANGELINA JOLIE, OR THE ‘TRIANGLE’ YOU CLAIM TO WANT TO RUN AWAY FROM - AND YET *INSIST* ON PLACING IN EACH AND EVERY INTERVIEW YOU DO!!WHO IN THE HELL DOES SHE THINK SHE IS TRYING TO SNOW - WE’RE ALL NOT UNEDUCATED TWAT SHAVING SILLY B ACTRESSES LIKE HER — HER (AND THE HUVANES) MANIPULATIONS, AND DISINGENUOUSNESS (GET OUT YOUR MERRIAM’S JEN) ARE OBVIOUS!! SHUT UP *****, TALK ABOUT VAUGHN, AND YOUR MOVIE — QUIT WITH THE ‘BRANGELINA’ BACKGROUND/BACKSTORY IN THESE BORING AS F*CK INTERVIEWS OF YOURS…. WE GET THAT SAME DAMN SOB STORY WHINING IN EVERY SINGLE ONE!!WE KNOW, WE KNOW, WE *KNOW* ALREADY OKAY - ACCORDING TO THESE ARTICLES OF YOURS….ANGIE IS A MAN STEALING *****, BRAD IS A CAD AND YOU’RE THE VICTIM…….THEN SAID ARTICLE, WILL CUT TO YOU TALKING ABOUT ‘TANNING,’ OR HOW YOU AREN’T INTO CHARITY AS IT’S ‘NOT YOUR THING,’ OR WHATEVER OTHER COMA-INDUCINGTOPICS YOU DECIDE TO NOT HALF-ASSEDLY TALK ABOUT….YOU ARE KIDDING *NO ONE* jENNIFER ANISTON….YOU ARE *STILL* MAKING BRAD PITT & ANGELINA JOLIE A PART OF YOUR INTERVIEW *****!AND 10 TO 1 ANISTON DOES THE SAME PREDICTABLE WHINING AND PLAYING UP OF THAT BACKSTORY IN HARPERS BIZARRE AS WELL…BET YOU.

Her looks are average and I don’t judge her for that, but I do take exception to her phony character and lack of integrity. She blames everyone but herself for her life and uses her friends for cover, so that she still looks sweet. This is a despicable trait that she seems to get away with and I am awaiting the day when it is exposed and we no longer see the fawning over Aniston.

I’m a fierce BAMZ fan but I must say, Jennifer is having the last laugh in Hollywood.After a lucrative payout by being on Friends, she somehow manages to get paid millions by doing sh)tty movie after sh_tty movie. Her films don’t make money for studios, they aren’t arthouse or artistically driven films, they don’t even fill a niche where hard core fans drive & sustain that type of genre. Yet she is PAID. I feel that most of the work she got was due to being Brad Pitt’s wife. She even has credits as a producer on the Oscar bound films like The Departed & Running With Scissors because of Brad Pitt. She could be making even more. Where’s the cosmetics contract like Cover Girl, MAC, L’Oreal or Revlon? Or even a hair product contract ? Love her or hate her, she’s managing to get more & more studios to throw money at her and she’s at best, and ok actress with ok looks and terrible returns on her films. Smart.

Wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

WE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWell we are getting sick of Jennifer already. Tell her to get lost, her acting sucks and Brad is much better of with Angelina. At least Angie knows how to make him happy and to give him a beautiful family. Tell Jennifer to stop crying "Poor me" Jennifer moved on quickly enough so that’s enough of feeling sorry for Jennifer. she doesn’t deserve it. Jennifer is making money talking about her failed marriage big deal….. What a disgusting picture of her fat legs on the bike. YUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWE LOVE ANGELINA & BRADWE LOVE ANGELINA & BRAD

Jen Aniston is great. And it’s somewhere beyond ridiculous that any Bamz-fans think that JA shouldn’t be allowed to talk about her 7-year relationship with Brad. AFTER ALL it was HER relationship too and in the end, he treated her shabbily at best.

thanks for your comments 88,Sharon ,Sarah. Thanks so much. Continued to post this comments thanks. Thanks jj for this blog

she looks the same in every magazine cover!!!Jen at least try something new,maybe dye ur hair or something!!!Never mind I’m sick of hearing about her.Go away already to ur tanning booth!!

I bet she doesn’t even know NAMIBIA is a country! # 163 | katie | May 12, 2006 02:04 AM | Re=========LOL, she probably thinks it is a tanning lotion.