That body—well, as you can see, it defies both time and nature. I ask Jen how she felt about this cover shoot. “There is a moment when you walk in and see the wardrobe—it’s basically a tie—and you think, Where’s the underwear?” she replies with a laugh. “But it felt really good to be that comfortable with myself—and to lie on men as furniture.”
You know, it's great that she feels comfortable enough to be so open. And I can fully admit that she looks amazing! However, it's interesting that she is wearing men's clothes in all of the pictures. If you click on the link to GQ, the other pictures include her just wearing a men's dress shirt, or just men's dress pants. I know the magazine came up with the wardrobe, but it's interesting that she seems all for it because she feels it is empowering.
As we finish lunch, she talks about the project she seems most excited about: a movie she’s developing called Pumas, in which she hopes to star with Elizabeth Banks.
“It’s sort of a female Wedding Crashers,” she says. “It’s these two girls who are aspiring cougars. It is so a comment on the sexual double standard—and what’s been ironic is how hard it’s been to get this movie made. Studios want it, but they’re afraid of Middle America. They’d want to change it; they’re saying, Oh, you can’t do that, people just can’t imagine you…” She’s alluding here to Hollywood’s formula for romantic comedies and her default character within them—offbeat, likable, and unlucky in love. As she talks about Pumas, you get the sense that she’s feeling a little hemmed in by the tabloid über-narrative that frames her life—the one in which her failure to remarry and procreate is a cause of Deep and Lasting Sadness—especially when that false story line gets in the way of her career.
“Look, I think all women at some level just want to rage against the machine,” she says. “There are just too many movies out there that don’t empower women—movies in which their only way of being happy is finding a man. And you know, that’s not my favorite theme.”
I hadn't heard of this project she is working on. It does sound interesting, and I'm not surprised they've had a hard time getting it made. Not many comedies have female leads- there's been a few lately (Juno and Baby Mama), but most are centered around men. But when she says that this will be a movie unlike all the movies out there that don’t empower women—movies in which their only way of being happy is finding a man," I feel like she is lying. If this is a movie about "aspiring cougars," it probably is a romantic comedy with a twist, but still a romantic comedy where people are coupled up by the end of the film.
So what to make of “The One Where Jen Lashes Out for the Second Time in the Six Weeks Leading Up to Her New Film!”? Well, for starters, consider that “what Jen really thinks” is a commodity worth millions in pre-opening box-office publicity.
This quote is talking about things she has said recently about Angelina Jolie and the lead-up to her divorce with Brad Pitt. While it doesn't have anything to do with feminism, it stood out to me because this is what our whole class has been about- learning how pop culture has been a commodity. Therefore, all pop culture icons, like Jennifer Aniston, are commodities as well.
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