AFTER A YEAR that began with the bombshell announcement of her separation from Brad Pitt, sparking a global tabloid frenzy that saw every detail of her private life and personal anguish pored over in excruciating fashion, it is easy to empathise with Jennifer Aniston when she talks about her wish for 2006. 'I just want it to be here,' she says. 'I can't wait for it. I bow to 2005. But I will welcome 2006. Even if I don't know what the hell's going to happen.' The love triangle involving Aniston, Pitt and Angelina Jolie was the grand-daddy of tabloid soap operas this year, the closest thing to the collapse of a royal marriage that celebrity-obsessed America has witnessed in recent times. And although the ink on her divorce to Pitt has been dry for three months, the public's appetite for news about Aniston remains as insatiable as ever, fed by an increasingly aggressive paparazzi pack. The day before Aniston arrives to meet foreign press to discuss her latest film, Rumor Has It ..., the National Enquirer's front page headline screams: 'Jen Out of Control!', speculating that her 'wild and crazy' friendship with actor Vince Vaughn is putting her life at risk. The story is a classic of the genre - long on quotes from anonymous 'concerned friends', pitifully short on details of what it is about Aniston's behaviour these days that is supposed to be so harmful. Its veracity appears even more dubious as soon as Aniston breezes into the room with her co-star Shirley MacLaine. If this is a woman who is 'out of control', you can't help thinking that maybe unbridled hedonism is poised to become the next big thing in the fitness industry. Aniston's green eyes are as striking as ever, her honeyed complexion is radiant, and her hair shines bright. America's golden girl is, well, golden. And she has every reason to be. As well as her leading role in the Rob Reiner romantic comedy Rumor Has It ..., Aniston's transition from television to silver screen has steadily gathered momentum, proving the 36-year-old is finally ready to leave her sitcom persona as Rachel from Friends firmly in the past. Next month, Aniston will be seen in Hong Kong cinemas starring alongside Clive Owen in the thriller Derailed, with two more films, The Break Up (opposite Vaughn) and Friends with Money also scheduled for release next year. But although Aniston would prefer to talk about her acting, the fascination with her private life endures. So it follows that in two interviews given earlier in the day, not one question concerned her role in Rumor Has It ... Does that bother her? 'What do you think?,' she sighs. 'It's just ... boring.' Photographs of Aniston sunbathing topless at her Malibu cottage, taken by a photographer perched about 1.6km away, are the latest example of the intrusion she has put up with. Not that the relentless paparazzi attention would ever make her consider giving up the day job. 'Nothing could make it not worth it,' Aniston says. 'I love my job. I wouldn't trade it for anything, for any amount of hassle. I will never stop doing my job because then I'm giving those people the power, I'm letting them win and letting them take over my life, which is ridiculous.' Having a strong network and friends, family and associates to fall back on has also helped her through the turmoil of the past 12 months. 'I have a very great home base, a wonderful group of people around me. It's just that sometimes getting from here to there can be difficult, which is annoying. But if you don't look at the news-stands, you're okay. It's just the street stuff, going outside that can be difficult.' The strong-arm tactics of the Hollywood paparazzi have come under scrutiny this year following a series of traffic accidents involving stars speeding away from chasing photographers. The Los Angeles County district attorney has even investigated the possibility of laying conspiracy charges against paparazzi. While not commenting directly on the official probe, Aniston believes something needs to be done. 'I believe that we do have the power somehow - and it just needs a little focus, and a little attention, and a little conversation - to change it before something really awful happens, something worse than a person's dignity being trampled. So that there will be a change, so that people won't be so aggressive and that there will be some boundaries.' While she has no plans to leave Los Angeles, she sympathises with celebrities who have moved out of a city which prides itself as a haven where stars can be anonymous. 'I totally get that. It's a refreshing thing to get out of this bubble.' Aniston's ability to tune out the background noise of her personal life while she was in front of the camera impressed both MacLaine and Reiner during filming for Rumor Has It ..., which was shot in late 2004 when the stories suggesting her marriage was in trouble first started to appear. 'To do what she's done, when this awful thing has happened to her, and she's being hounded by these mothers, who really ought to be impounded along with their cars,' MacLaine says. 'She has phenomenal emotional strength,' she adds, suggesting the experiences of the past 12 months could ultimately help Aniston become a better actress. 'I think at some point she'll be able to assimilate and process everything that has happened to her, let it run through the blood in her veins and use it in her work.' Reiner too is confident Aniston will consolidate her movie career. ' I think [Rumor Has It ...] is going to be a key picture for her,' he says. 'It's the first mainstream Hollywood movie that she has carried as the lead. And if it's successful it's going to move her up many notches. What's great is that it gives her the opportunity to be not only funny - we know she can be funny - but emotional, and dramatic in a real way. And that to me is a tremendous commodity which is always sought after. You always want to find a girl who is accessible, sexy, adorable, who can play comedy and drama.' The flurry of movies that Aniston appears in over the coming months signals a shift in direction for the woman reported to have once commanded US$1 million per episode of Friends. While she doesn't rule out a return to TV, it's an unlikely prospect. 'Those were 10 of the greatest years I can remember,' she says of Friends. 'I'm not saying I'd never do TV again, but I just don't think I'd be able to top Friends. That was pretty much the cream of the crop.' And if Rumor Has It ... plays well at the box office, Aniston's Friends days will recede further into the past. In the movie, Aniston plays a woman who discovers her family may have been the inspiration for the book and film The Graduate, the story popularised by Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of an angst-ridden college leaver who starts an affair with the wife of his father's business partner before falling in love with her daughter. Aniston says she can identify closely with her character. 'I feel like her. I like watching people go through the process of figuring stuff out and then seeing them come out the other end stronger and wiser and better for it.' And although she speaks admiringly of the support network that has helped her through the past year, Aniston is a great believer in self-discovery. 'I think it's so important to build up an ability to take care of your own, to ask questions of yourself. Because when you group process a lot it just gets so confusing.' She also believes her latest character's plea for forgiveness over an infidelity is more in keeping with the times. 'It's more real, more honest,' she says. 'I think people are a lot more open nowadays. And it's always good to forgive.' While she will be appearing regularly in cinemas in 2006, Aniston is planning to take a break from the movie treadmill next year. 'Next year is going to be about travel for me,' hopefully to Greece, her ancestral homeland, at some point. (Her actor father John changed the family name from Anastassakis to Aniston when he emigrated to the US). 'I lived there for a year when I was five - in Athens and then Crete. I've only been back once since, so it's time for a visit.' Derailed opens on January 6; Rumor Has It ... in March.
