Somehow, Jen’s hair has just never stopped being famous, even after girls everywhere realized that when they asked for “The Rachel,” they were really just volunteering to sport a modified Carol Brady. And now, an unmentionable number of years since Jennifer Aniston was making The Rachel famous, her haircuts still set the internet ablaze, even when they’re just as simple as, “Take off another six inches, I’m starting to feel like a Real Housewife.”
The other thing Jen is famous for, unfortunately, is being America’s most famously dumped female. Jen has gotten all kinds of a bad rap over the years since she dominated the airwaves on Friends, but not in the usual way for an actress struggling to make the transition from ingénue to forty-something leading lady. Most of Jen’s “bad rep” has been built out of pity.
We all know the story. Girl meets Brad Pitt. Girl marries Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt meets Angelina Jolie. Girl isn’t married to Brad Pitt any more.
But after letting the “poor, dumped innocent” label run her life for far too long, Jen seems to have up and picked a new direction when no one was looking. Well, okay, it’s not really a new direction. Jen is only like the 7,000th comedian to stage a comedy comeback by turning a famously sweet and innocent good guy/girl reputation on its ear by shining in a downright filthy role. But sometimes tried and true ain’t such a bad thing. It worked for Bob Saget and Betty White, and from the looks of the Horrible Bosses trailer, it’s working for our dear Jen too.
At the very least, it seems to be working on her personal life. She’s looking healthy, cheerful and, most importantly, truly happy for the first time in ages these days. Let’s hope, for her sake, that her new love, Justin Theroux, isn’t the only reason for the new, reinvented Jen. I choose to give Jen the benefit of the doubt that her revitalized personal energy is coming from the realization that she’s a damn funny chickadee.
Jen seems to have realized that, in order to survive her 40s in style in Hollywood, she’ll have to take a page from the guy’s handbook when it comes to role selection. She’s going dirty and aggressive in Horrible Bosses, and, if her interviews are anything to judge by, having a grand old time playing with the boys. And who wouldn’t, with co-workers like Charlie Day, Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis letting you in to the boys club?
If she keeps this up, we’ll be more than willing to ignore the string of poor movie choices and poorer guy choices (really, Jen? John Mayer? More than ONCE?). Fact is, we’d probably be willing to ignore those poor choices anyway, ’cause you just can’t dislike the girl. This is the quality we can all learn from Ms. Aniston this week. Charm. She sums it up in discussing her early waitressing career in an interview with Marie Claire:
“I dropped more than one Alpine burger in customers’ laps, and you just do not want all of that Swiss cheese and mushrooms in your pants. I wasn’t a good waitress, but I was told that I was very nice and charming, so people liked me anyway.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re good at something, at least at first. If you approach people with a nice smile and a sense of humor, they’re more than happy to let you dump another hamburger in their laps or another mediocre movie on their screens.
But Jen … babe … let’s keep up the ass kicking now, shall we? We demand it! ****
