May 23, 2006

You gotta feel for Jennifer Aniston. During every appearance for her last three movies ("Derailed," "Rumor Has It..." and "Friends with Money"), the press has been trying to get the details on how the relationship with her "The Break-Up" co-star Vince Vaughn moved from the big screen to the bedroom. Aniston kept a tight lip on the truly private stuff this time around, but that didn't stop other prickly issues from coming up. For example, just how odd was it to get a script about a break-up right after you've ended your marriage with Brad Pitt?

"Well, yeah, it's pretty ironic," Aniston says laughing it off. "It was in a way, a cathartic thing. I felt very lucky...if this had come to me at any other time in my life I don't know if I would have been able to get it...on that level as I would have wanted to as an actor."

As for Vaughn, Aniston stayed pretty much on message.

"Working with Vince is just like working with a pro tennis player," she says. "He's such a professional. He's so funny and he's such a great actor, I mean aside from being comedic. You get to have those volleys, like I like to say."

The movie itself is a surprisingly effective look at how a couple's relationship deteriorates over that centuries-old problem of miscommunication. Its twist is that the estranged lovers have to share their fantastic condo until it can be quickly sold, even though they both really want to get back together (or so they think). In one scene that's also depicted in the trailer, Aniston's boss (the eternally campy Judy Davis) suggests she get a "Telly Savalas" wax (use your imagination) to remind her beau what's he's been missing during their separation. Thankfully, this allows moviegoers to view a part of Aniston's backside they have never seen before.

"You don't panic that you have to be naked about your physical shape, you just panic that you have to be naked, period," Aniston says.

It also turns out director Peyton Reed ("Bring It On," "Down with Love") didn't offer a stand-in because of the complexity of the shot. Still, Aniston says, "You don't want to do a butt double. That's icky."

The always down-to-earth Aniston may have done everything to protect her privacy (as is her right) during her recent sojourn in front of the journalistic wolves, but she did leave another anecdote worth noting. In the movie, Vince's character uses a charming pick-up technique to win over Aniston's Brooke. It's no surprise that Aniston has had her share of bad pick-up lines during her own single days.

"One guy once came up to me and he said he 'liked my salad' and I didn't know what that meant," Aniston remembers. "And I said, 'What do you mean my salad?' And he goes, 'You know, your salad. Your hair, your makeup.' And I thought, 'Oh, god. That was clever.'"

But, obviously not clever enough.