Jennifer Aniston
Thanks for saving the date yesterday. Very soon I will advance your knowledge of the February 28th project.
Something different today:
Just as I sometimes ask you to fill me in on cultural events I’ve missed, now and again I am going to appeal to you to top up my feeble knowledge of Celebrity Life. This is a new series called How Are They Doing Now? You know sometimes you see someone famous in a film or TV show or something from ages ago, and wonder… how are they doing now? It’s that.
Emily and I saw an old episode of Friends yesterday. She remarked that things hadn’t worked out too well for Jennifer Aniston. She had that whole sad business with Brad Pitt and her movie career didn’t quite reach the heights you might have expected (not yet, anyway). She speculated that Aniston might have hoped for better from life.
However, I don’t like to think of Aniston being disappointed. I used to have a tremendous crush on her. I like to think she’s still done pretty well. I mean obviously she’s rich and lives in LA and all.
But is she happy? I hope so. Emily fears not. I want someone here to give me the lowdown.
Of course this is the most ludicrous tittle-tattle because nobody reading this is personally acquainted with 90s icon Jennifer Aniston, or would tell me anything about her if they did know. But in just the same way as quite a few Watsonians are always equipped to pass comment on the films of the day, perhaps some of you are up to speed with celebrity gossip and can give me a hand here. Or if not, we can all at least speculate.
Some of you are probably too young to remember or care who Jennifer Aniston is, by the way. Some of you probably look at old ‘Friends’ episodes and say ‘wow, that looks really old. Didn’t they all have floppy hair?’ But I’m reluctant to acknowledge those people. Because that is MY CHILDHOOD YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.
Thanks.
Posted by Helen on January 20, 2011
I tend to think she must be feeling a little bit better about her break-up since Courtney Cox’s estranged husband called up a live radio show in LA and drunkenly declared that he and his wife hadn’t had sex in months (well, not with each other anyway). Because even though her very public break-up was embarrassing, it wasn’t *that* embarrassing.
Career-wise, she’s just finished filming ‘Wanderlust’. It sounds pretty dire but because Judd Apatow is involved it’ll probably be a hit – something which, at this point, she really needs.
So, in summary, I reckon she’s doing all right. Maybe a 7 out of 10.
Posted by Leah Parker on January 20, 2011
Ooh, how exciting!
Just catching up on the MW blog and I see that Anna has quoted an episode that I’m *sure* I haven’t seen. That said, my lovely other half will probably roll his eyes at this as he seems to think that when I snooze through a TV programme (which happens embarrassingly often) it means I have indeed seen it.
Off to seek out the rogue episode and quash all beliefs that I have seen every episode of Friends every produced…
Posted by Juliet on January 18, 2011
I’m 18 and I know who she is. I remember when I was young I saw her in a beer ad or something and I thought “one day I’m gonna write a script for a movie and I want her on it”. I was a weird kid.
Anyway yeah, things may have gone a bit bad for her ever since Brad Pitt left her. Not “normal” bad, just “celebrity” bad. The worst part is that everyone thought that Brad and Angelina weren’t going to last and yet there they are looking as strange and dirty as always.
I used to like her now I kind of feel sorry for her. I know I shouldn’t. I’m sure she’s just fine.
Posted by Corey on January 17, 2011
I quite like her. All her films seem exactly the same to me, but I do quite like them as well. I saw one the other day with her in called ”Management” which was a lovely feelgood flick about finding love, but not in the usual RomCom vein.
Posted by Lisa D on January 17, 2011
I agree with Anna that the “poor Jen” narrative has more to do with why we think she’s doing badly. Back during the whole Brad/Angelina nonsense making Jennifer Anniston the victim sold more tabloids (in the States there were two tabloids owned by the same company that took opposite sides in the breakup so the company could make money either way) and the narrative stuck. That’s why she keeps saying “I’m fine” in every interview, though in the same paragraph the “writer” then describes how tense and/or unhappy Jennifer is when she says it so I don’t know why she bothers. With such clearly biased storytelling going on and none of us actually knowing the woman, I’m prepared to go with the assumption that like most people she has good days and bad. She makes a lot of money doing what she loves and makes movies with her friends (I don’t much care for Adam Sandler, but then I’m not the one who has to pretend to be in love with him) and has a pretty good life set up for herself. Not married and not a mom, sure, but also not–like her friend Courtney–going through a divorce in her 40′s.
Posted by Rachael on January 17, 2011
She is still getting roles and there seems to be rumours about her and a different man every week so I guess she is still desirable in that respect too. Isn’t that about all an actress can want?
Posted by Anna Lowman on January 17, 2011
Now if there’s one thing I can talk about, it’s Friends. Good writing with moments of excellence; consistently excellent, often quietly inspired performances. They didn’t phone it in (for the most part). Take this exchange at a fancy dress shop:
Shop assistant: Are you here to return those pants [gesturing to the ones Ross is wearing]?
Ross: These are my *pants*.
Why does he put the emphasis on ‘pants’ and not ‘my’, which makes more sense? Because it’s loads funnier. There are loads of instances of this.
Anyway, that’s not really the point…. It’s odd that there’s this ‘poor Jennifer, unlucky in love’ narrative – if she were a guy she’d be celebrated for being a jack-the-lad, bedding loads of top A-listers. Instead she’s cast as a victim – I’ve no idea whether that’s the case, obviously. Hope not. And on the work side of things, it’s a such a shame that the cast just don’t seem to be able to reproduce the sort of form they show in Friends in anything else – Aniston does middling rom-coms, Cox does middle TV, Schwimmer directs middling films and appears in Come Fly With Me of all things. Sigh.
Posted by Clembear on January 17, 2011
Ah, Jennifer Aniston Watch (JAW)
I think its best to start JAW with the idea there are 2 Jennifer Anistons. One is a real person with thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams, who is as you mention only known by her friends and family.
The second JA is the one discussed on magazine covers, and who has a media narrative of “poor spinster Jen.” This individual eats baby food to stay thin, pines after Brad Pitt and hates Angelina Jolie. She is a media invention and therefore exists but isn’t an actual person. This Jennifer Aniston is also not allowed to enjoy her 10 years of success on a popular and funny sitcom and must have more success in films than her reasonable string of hits which continue to give her work. Given a lot of success is luck, it is unlikely that someone with a international hit TV show for 10 years will win an Oscar. This has less to do with talent but more odds of everything aligning again. This media Aniston is also cast in lots of romantic comedies out of meta-commentary spite.
The spinster side of her is interesting as well; there’s a frequent idea that
women can’t be happy outside of a relationship, so she must be sad. The same does not apply to men – for example, compare and contrast coverage of her and Matt LeBlanc. If she were a bloke and had dated equivalently attractive women, she’d be Jack Nicholson, who is lauded as a sexy bastard not damned as a lonely old man.
At a guess, the first JA is probably happy the more she ignores what written about the second JA. No one could live up to what the second JA is expected to do or be. So why is it held up as an example?
Posted by Lydia on January 17, 2011
I always think of her as unhappy, but that is mostly because the place I see her most is on the front of gossip magazines. I find it kind of hard to believe that someone insecure enough to parade their “private” life across various publications is happy. I don’t dislike her or anything, I just feel like everything would probably start to come together for her if she stopped pushing so hard.
I guess out of everyone else in Friends she has had the best career, so it’s not like she is forever going to be stuck with being Rachel. Having said that she is stuck with being “Brad Pitt’s ex wife” but even that might disappear eventually.
Posted by Joelle on January 17, 2011
I think she’d be happy. She’s made lots of movies that haven’t done terribly and by the end of Friends she was on over a million dollars per episode so she can’t possibly be having any money troubles.
She’s certainly done better than a lot of the other Friends cast. Matt Le Blanc and Matthew Perry have both had little work and had bigger relationship/addiction problems. Lisa Kudrow seems to have done alright for herself with a few good movies like P.S. I Love You. Courtney Cox-Arquette was doing very well until recently until she separated from her Husband but she still has done a couple of TV Series and has their own production company. David Schwimmer has certainly done very well. He’s voiced a popular kids’ movie and is now directing some great movies.
Unnecessary information but useful in showing that compared to the other Friends cast members, she’s done pretty all right.
And yeah, I’m a big Friends fan >.>
I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend
Posted by Andrew on January 17, 2011
Friends is your childhood? Blimey, that’s depressing. I was a full grown adult with a child when Friends debuted.
Here’s an ironic story. I was watching an early series of Friends with my girlfriend (now wife). We had one child at this point, and I said to her “Our next child will be a boy, and he’ll be called Joey”. She instantly and dismissively said “No he won’t!” But I thought it was a terrific name, and when she got pregnant I insisted on referring to it as Baby Joey. So when he came out a boy, it would have been weird to call him anything else. I’d won.
Time passed. Friends got rubbish. Lisa Kudrow became the most irritating person ever to have appeared on TV in any capacity. We stopped watching it. I started to hate Friends for having been so good in its first series and ending up so terribly.
More time passed. Joey grew. Joey is now 14, and watches Friends every possible opportunity he can. It drives me berserk.
There is probably a moral here, but damned if I can find it.
Posted by Tracey on January 17, 2011
Hi Mark. I must admit I’ve never watched Friends – most American comedy leaves me absolutely cold, the two exceptions being, somewhat bizarrely, The Addams Family and Sabrina the Teenage Witch! If you ever have a daughter you’ll probably find out about the latter. Back to Jennifer. I must agree with Dan – she was pretty good in Derailed with Clive Owen which is a good film. Beyond that her movies don’t seem to leave much of a lasting impression, they all seem pretty much run of the mill forgettable. The Pitt/ Jolie debacle must have hurt, especially as they seem to keep having sucess after sucess and seem very happy.Beyond my musings I don’t really have much idea, much preferring Kristen Scott Thomas and Helena Bonham Carter. Take care, Tracey x
Posted by Nathan on January 17, 2011
Her films, although often criticially panned, often still make a lot of money (Marley and Me, He’s Just Not That Into You…) and she is one of the biggest Rom Com stars in Hollywood, if not THE biggest one.
Is she happy? I have no idea. Yes, she had the divorce from Brad Pitt and that mustn’t have been nice, but I would assume that she’s over it by now. She’s had fairly long relationships with other people since then (like Vince Vaughn and John Mayer) and I believe that she was rumoured to be linked to Gerard Butler for a while (rather convenient, given they had a film to promote!).
I think that most people’s opinions of her – and her “media narrative” as it were – are still stuck around the timeframe of her divorce, and so it is easy to still think of her as wronged and sad. However, I would assume that she is happy and has moved on from all that.
That said, I don’t read gossip magazines etc so for all I know I could be talking a load of rubbish (but then so could they!).
Posted by Sam on January 17, 2011
I heard that she was on a cheese tour of Western Europe, trying to find the perfect accompaniment to a Californian Merlot made near her. However she got derailed in the west country and is now hiding somewhere in Wookey Hole, living of Hummus and growing quite a considerable beard.
I don’t know if it’s true but I heard that.
Posted by Dan on January 17, 2011
The film Derailed is good. (she’s in it, with Clive Owen and Vincent Cassell, that wasn’t just completely random) I know that doesn’t help
Posted by Natalie-Helen on January 17, 2011
I always feel a little sad for her. Though that might have been created by the media. When you look at the other girls in Friends, she’s doesn’t come out so well. Jen’s recent films have been not so good, the divorce thing ( which I seem to recall was over children) then see Pitt with a multi child woman..etc etc. Whilst Cox and Kudrow might not have had loads of work either, they’ve got children and have had stable relationships (I know Cox has just spilt up from Arquette but Jen flits from loads of people without it seeming to go anywhere) .
The more Jen says in magazines “I’m fine” the less fine she appears. It’s funny because she hasn’t had a melt down, no drugs or drink driving or head shaving but she still seems to be unhappy. I think maybe it’s because it seems like she wanted marriage and children and hasn’t got either which makes her seem unhappy and unfulfilled all the time.
Friends reminds me of university and I love it for that. I have seen it so much that now can pre-laugh when I sense something is coming up and can reference plot points as examples for daily life. We used to watch the double bill (and repeats) whilst cooking and eating at uni and worked out that you can watch Friends for about five hours a day. I shall miss it when E4 finally takes it away from me…
^_^
Posted by Helen on January 16, 2011
I’m not really very celeb savy myself but I sort of think this is one of those things where, because you don’t know her and magazines are hardly good representations of reality, you might as well think of her as being happy because it just makes the world seem a bit nicer.
Posted by Ingrid on January 16, 2011
I love Friends and watch a lot of it (probably to much actually) and i think she is great in it. Since then ,as you may be aware, she has been in loads of rom-coms. Last one i watched was Marley and me. Not the best film but she was as good as ever.
Then of course she had that whole thing with Brad Pitt, which is a shame. Its hard to tell if she’s happy or not. I had the general impression she wasn’t, but thinking back i can’t really remember why i thought that. Anyway i do like her, and i hope she’s happy. xx
Posted by misha on January 16, 2011
I’ll be honest here, being born in ’92 and slow on the uptake means I don’t know what Anniston is doing now. I’ve also only really become acquainted with friends recently due to uni, although I don’t think they look that old. Anyway. Yes.
Posted by Megan on January 16, 2011
I don’t think she’s happy. Sorry. I think her flagrant (I nearly typed ‘fragrant’ there) self-promotion by posing in chic yoga clothes for fitness magazines and shilling vitamin waters of unproven merit kind of show it. (‘LOOK HOW FIT I AM!!’) I also have read in several places that her hairdresser flies everywhere with her, which is baffling because she’s had the same hairstyle for ten years.
Of the Friends, she has probably made the most money since the show ended, but has the least good work* to show for it because she will, seemingly, say yes to any arsey script that is give to her. (While still doing Friends, she made a reasonably good film called The Good Girl and was in the stupendously funny Office Space, though.)
I was never pro-Jennifer nor pro-Angelina, BTW. I don’t really care for either of them.
* This might be debatable.Joey was an appalling program.
Posted by Anji on January 16, 2011
All I can say is don’t watch Bounty Hunter, that’s 1.5 hours I’ll never get back and goodness knows how long of her life she spent doing that film! I only watched to the end because I hoped something would happen!
Apart from that, I would think financially she’s sound, does that bring you happiness? Who knows what actually does in la la land!
Posted by Zoe Fell on January 16, 2011
*The last I heard, she was dating Adrian Brody off’ve The Pianist. She doesn’t seem to have a lot of luck in the love department. There’s plenty of speculation that she dates her co-stars to bring a bit ore interest to whatever project she’s working on at that moment. (Step forward Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn) That’s a little depressing if true, but I suppose it’s each to their own really.
*I stress that I know this because we only keep gossip magazines in the staffroom at work. I have a life outside celebrity tittle tattle, honest!