Out of Control

They sure pulled this one together fast.

Office Christmas Party, an edgy comedy announced and cast and sent into production this past winter for a release at Christmastime this year, is absolutely gonna meet its deadline.

How do I know? Well, we have a trailer now.

Starring Deadpool’s T.J. Miller, Ghostbusters’ Kate McKinnon (in full cat-lady mode, from the looks of it), and X-Men: Apocalypse’s Olivia Munn, the project also features Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, and Emmy nominee Courtney B. Vance (FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), and chronicles the human-resources nightmare holiday party a group of employees led by Miller throw after his shark of a CEO (L’Aniston) announces the branch of the company they all work for will be closing in the new year.

You can only imagine the shenanigans.

Hope they don’t put a red-band trailer out for this one. Keep a little bit o’ the mystery, knowwhatImean.

Office Christmas Party will be out on Dec. 9.

Photo: Deadline.com.

Not Pregnant and Def Over the Speculation

Jennifer Aniston is not amused.

She is not pregnant. She is not fat. She is not anything she’s not supposed to be at the moment.

And – whaddya know – she would appreciate it if you we would stop dissecting her body and her personal life the way the (tabloid) media have for decades now, thankyouverymuch.

L’Aniston made as much clear when she penned “For the Record,” a well-received and criticized – of course – essay for The Huffington Post published yesterday and written not to address the gossip that surrounds her 24/7/365 but the root of the problem. That is, the objection of women in America.

“The scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing,” the actress said in her op-ed. “The sheer amount of resources being spent right now by press trying to simply uncover whether or not I am pregnant (for the bajillionth time...but who’s counting) points to the perpetuation of this notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they’re not married with children.

“We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child.”

Aniston also smartly noted that this latest round of speculation is but a small component of a much larger s--- sandwich of news the media could have done better to cover instead, and acknowledged that our tabloid culture is not changing any time soon. What we can alter, however, is our perspective.

We civilians get to ask for more, just like she is.

So we better.

Photo: ETOnline.com.

Jen the Beaut

American Sweetheart Jennifer Aniston is the World’s Most Beautiful Woman, this, of course, according to People magazine – a distinction about which the actress feels quite “flattered.”

Bit of an obvious, all-American kind of choice, but, look, L’Aniston – like it or not – is here to stay. Therein lies her power, her beauty.

She can make us laugh, she can make us root for her in film. She can weather a decade of unwitting tabloid presence better than anyone. And, boy, can she serve hair, honey.

If that isn’t beauty, I don’t know what is.

;)

Photo: People.com.

Hollywood’s New It Couple

Rock Hudson, Doris Day.

Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire.

Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman?

Looks another classic movie coupling is very much developing right before our eyes.

The real-life friends and frequent co-stars (hey, Horrible Bosses 2, hey) are set to reunite not only to throw an Office Christmas Party but to play Significant Others, too. Bateman would direct the latter, the story of an on-the-rise type-A businesswoman (L’Aniston, natch) who is the final round of interviews for a big-time CEO position.

The dramatic hijinks kick in when the company asks to vet her husband. Uh oh, indeed.

Both stars would produce the project as well.

Photo: HollywoodNewsSource.com.

Who’s Bringin’ the Punch?

Jennifer Aniston is on a holidays kick.

Not only is she starring in Garry Marshall’s upcoming Mother’s Day, my favorite Friend is also getting ready to throw an Office Christmas Party.

And L’Aniston will reunite with her friend and Horrible Bosses 2 co-star, Jason Bateman, to do so. The pair will be featured in the movie, which is coming together fast for a December premiere, alongside Deadpool’s T.J. Miller and SNL’s Kate McKinnon.

Mmm...does their employer not hire any people of color?

Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Blades of Glory) are directing.

Photo: MarieClaire.com.

All Kinds of (White) Mamas Time!

Director Garry Marshall is back with Mother’s Day, another paycheck job star-studded ensemble.

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts (in a red wig that must get its own Twitter account!), and Race’s Jason Sudeikis, the throwback-y Mother’s Day will center on a bunch of white people doing white-mother-y things because motherhood doesn’t apply to blacks or browns (sorry, Asians, but y’all don’t even seem to register in the current discussion about race that has overtaken Hollywood).

That all of their lives intersect à la New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day and that, on the surface and going from the movie’s first trailer, none of these people appears to come into contact with any minorities, should prove fresh fodder for when you gather ’round the water cooler. Or tweet about this.

Mother’s Day is due out on April 29.

And btw, L’Aniston plays a divorced mother of two while Sudeikis takes on the role of an awesome Mr. Mom who catches her fancy. Hudson portrays a free spirit (what else!) with mommy issues (well, hello there, Margo Martindale). And Marshall’s main girl, Roberts, pops up as a busy media personality with a bit of a secret.

Photo: EW.com.

The Sports Manager

I heart that Jennifer Aniston is dead-set on flirting with character-actress greatness up on that silver screen.

America’s favorite Friend is in The Yellow Birds, a young-boys-and-the-Iraq-war story, and although yes, she’s also in the upcoming ensemble comedy Mother’s Day, she soon will become The Fixer, starring as Denise White, a former Miss USA hopeful who rose to the top of the male-dominated world of professional sports management by fiercely protecting her clients in times of crisis.

To be clear, she is not playing this Denise White, the black news anchor from Tampa, OK. Racial fluidity is not that in, right? (Not that it is. You know what I am saying.)

Anyway. This could be L’Aniston’s Blind Side. At last.

Rock it, Jen!

Photo: Trendencias.com.

There for One Another...and Jimmy

It happened: The Friends got back together.

Well, five of ’em did.

Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer reunited last night, to take part on Must See TV: A Tribute to James Burrows, a celebration of the legendary TV director’s career (and the first sign that NBC is eventually going to turn into TV Land). Matthew Perry was unable to be there for his in person because he is working on a play in London.

As you can see here, the cast of the Emmy-winning show mingled with other stars in attendance, like the cast of The Big Bang Theory.

Must See TV: A Tribute to James Burrows is scheduled to air on Feb. 21.

Photo: EW.com.

Friends Reunited

Friends 4ever, alright.

At long last, the reunion everyone has been clamoring for (especially those tabloids that have had to cut their Jennifer Aniston covers in half since the Cake/Unbroken days – you noticed that something shifted, too, right?) is going to happen.

L’Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer will come together on Feb. 21 to fête Gunther legendary TV comedy director James Burrows and his long and robust helming career. FYI: Burrows recently shot his 1,000th episode of television, and he was behind the Friends pilot.

You know, it simply had to be the right occasion....

Photo: Glamour.com.

Update: Looks like the reunion will not happen quite the way we want it to: Matthew Perry might not make the celebration.

See, Perry is rehearsing his playwriting debut in London (click on his name if ya don’t believe me), and, in any case, the six...pals were never a sure thing to turn for Jimmy Burrows ensemble. Like, Lisa Kudrow might do something with Debra Messing, y’ see.

Oh yeah, the casts of other shows, like Cheers and Will & Grace (which Burrows helmed in its entirety, if memory serves), also will be on hand at the event.

Comedic Gal

Looks like The Comedian is finally ready for its time in the spotlight.

The long-in-the-works comedy starring Robert De Niro has tapped Jennifer Aniston for the leading-lady role that once was set for Kristen Wiig.

Taylor Hackford is directing the story of a past-his-prime TV comic who sees his life get turned upside down by a dazzling and defiant beauty.

Production is set to commence in New York City early next year.

Photo: Express.co.uk.

Not Still Alice

Yo, Jennifer Aniston – Julianne Moore already examined what Alice forgot. She even won an Oscar for it.

Hello.

Why L’Aniston is going to star in a new movie titled What Alice Forgot so soon after Moore.... Oh, wait: This won’t be about a woman who starts losing her mind but about a fortysomething who knocks her head out and, boom, she wakes up thinking she’s her idealistic 25-year-old self, and about how she copes when she realizes that her actual, older self is terribly unhappy?

Well that sounds like a basket of kittens right there. I wonder how much this one will skew toward the drama or the funny.

Photo: AceShowbiz.com.

Her Son Is a Soldier

How very one for the people, one for me!

Jennifer Aniston is set to co-star in The Yellow Birds, the adaptation of Kevin Powers’ war-in-Iraq-set novel. The film was originally meant to serve as a starring vehicle for one Benedict Cumberbatch, but the Cumber-stud has bounced from it, and now Jack Huston is set to mentor the two soldier-buds that Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse’s Tye Sheridan and Will Poulter Alden Ehrenreich (Blue Jasmine) will be portraying.

L’Aniston will play Sheridan’s mother.

The actress is currently shooting Garry Marshall’s Mother’s Day. Ergo my comment as the top of the situation.

Photo: Forbes.com.

Jen’s Therouxly Married!

The wait is over: Jennifer Aniston is finally married again.

Go tell your moms you ain’t got nothing to worry about anymore.

All kidding aside, it’s true: Following a three-year engagement, L’Aniston and her Leftovers star-beau, Justin Theroux, have made honest people out of each other. The couple was married last night – because when you’re Hollywood you can afford to marry in the middle of the week, no big – at their Bel Air home. Her ol’ Friend, Lisa Kudrow, Chelsea Handler, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, and Howard Stern reportedly were among the invited guests.

Yay, congratulations and best wishes to ’em!

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

Update: In case you needed confirmation, Aniston BFF Courteney Cox absolutely was there, too. In fact, she was the maid of honor.

Tattoo artist (and husband to actress Lake Bell) Scott Campbell was Theroux’s best man.

Mama Jen

C’mon!

For real?

Jennifer Aniston has decided to scrub all the good will Cake bought her last year in order to join Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, and her Horrible Bosses 2 co-star Jason Sudeikis in...Mother’s Day, a new star-studded joint to be directed by Garry Marshall.

Well. We knew this was bound to happen, since Marshall already gave us both New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day.

I wonder who else will jump on this bandwagon....

But back to L’Aniston: Fine. Whatever. But then Mean Moms, OKRRR.

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

Another Epic Fail

They’re baaack...and she’s at it again.

They would be Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day, a trio of funnies that hit it big when they played these bumbling buffoons trying to get even with their Horrible Bosses (Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Spacey among them) in 2011 (you know...by killing ’em). And she would be L’Aniston herself, a survivor of the sleeper original black comedy who – thank goodness! – lived to see another day as a horny D.D.S. from hell who still very much would like nothing more than to get into Day’s character’s pants.

They all have reprised their roles for Horrible Bosses 2, a just-alright follow-up to a quite-original and energetic raunchfest.

This time, though, the trio’s characters – Nick, Kurt, and Dale – find themselves in a position of power, in a place where they can behave in deplorable ways. Not that they weren’t in the first movie; murder is not cool, kids. And not that they would (to their employees), anyway.

Directed by Sean (Sex Drive) Anders, who took over for Seth Gordon, the sequel sees them kinda-pathetically trying to make it on their own, as their own bosses, as the inventors of a novelty attachment for the shower called the Shower Buddy (think of the mechanics of a carwash...but for the bathroom!). They are so gung-ho about succeeding that they forget that they are, essentially, a bunch of dummies, and they fall for the too-good-to-be-true offer they get from a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing investor portrayed by two-time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz. Handsoming up things is Chris Pine, who steps into the role of Waltz’s spoiled son, Rex, a rotten man-child in a good suit who desperately wants to impress his careless dada.

Once Nick, Kurt, and Dale realize they’ve been tricked into an unforeseen ruin, they decide to reassemble as this makeshift comeuppance crew and get even with Waltz’s character by kidnapping Rex and holding him for ransom. Just so they don’t go bankrupt and s---.

Things don’t go as planned, though; this, in spite, of the trio having ironed out their plan with their crime consultant, Motherf---er Jones (an also-returning Jamie Foxx), and NicKurtDale – say it three times fast (this is one of the funnier, wrongest jokes in the movie) – soon are saddled with a Rex who wants in on their plan.

Which, of course, spells out doom for them. ’Cause he is hella unhinged.

Horrible Bosses 2 is more of the same, I’m afraid. And while it can be a hoot to watch, I did wish they’d left well enough alone. I mean, yeah, the movie is lots of Bateman serving up that deadpanned frustration he does so incredibly well. It's Sudeikis being a not-so-smart smart aleck, and Day being a frenzy ball of emotion.

And, once again, it’s a great showcase of Aniston’s underappreciated comedic knack; gf can get fan-f---in'-tastically nasty...and I likey.

But, ultimately, you can't help but feel that the money the powers that be spent on Horrible Bosses 2 could have been better spent in something more creative.

Would I welcome a Horrible Bosses 3? Sure, if it must come to that, and it just might. But I will expect a fresher take on things.

My Rating **1/2

Photo: Warner Bros.

Queen of Pain

And Jennifer Aniston’s first serious Oscar-contending turn is just about ready to be seen.

Cake, L’Aniston’s latest vanity-free project, will get an Academy Award-qualifying run next month. For it, America’s favorite Friend eschewed the trappings of traditional movie hair and make-up to play a pills-addicted accident victim experiencing chronic pain who becomes morbidly fascinated by the suicide of a member (Anna Kendrick) of her chronic pain support group.

Sam Worthington portrays Kendrick’s character’s widower, a man with whom Aniston’s Claire forms a sort of bond.

Check out the trailer for the film, which already has proved quite the polarizing subject matter for the good ol’ people of the online community. Som’in’ about how talk of L’Aniston potentially getting a nom is like, silly stuff.

Which I disagree with: Girlfriend can act. She has a Golden Globe and an Emmy that proves, albeit, yes, for a comedy project.

But we all know how much harder than drama comedy can be.

Photo: HollywoodReporter.com.

Cake Lady

Like it or not, Jennifer Aniston is enjoying some strong Oscar buzz following the recent Toronto International Film Festival premiere of her film Cake.

Of course, whether that chatter is warranted – or whether it actually translates into a first nomination for America’s favorite Friend – remains to be seen, but this much is clear: This is gonna another vanity-free turn by the actress, in the vein of her work in The Good Girl or Friends with Money.

L’Aniston plays Claire in the Daniel Barnz-directed ensemble, which also includes Adriana Barraza (Babel), Anna Kendrick, and Sam Worthington, you see. Claire is a literally and figuratively scarred woman who finds herself morbidly fascinated by the suicide of a member of her chronic pain support group (Kendrick).

From the looks of it, she is also a woman who is not above packing up her attitude and going down to Mexico to score some painkillers.

Can’t wait to see more!

Cake, which is still awaiting distribution, could very well sneak into this season’s awards race, so keep your eye for it.

Photo: EW.com.

The (Girl) Friends That Got Back Together

Last night, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!...(half of) the Friends (finally) reunited.

For a little night of fan-fiction.

Huh?

See, Jennifer Aniston, was on her buddy Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show – to promote her latest, Life of Crime – when Kimmel decided to share with the actress how fond of Friends, that good ol’ Must See TV of yore (can you believe Friends premiered almost 20 years ago?!), he was...and is, right.

So, of course, the talk soon turn to this fan-fiction that the host had written....

Cut to Aniston her reprising her signature role as Rachel – and to Courtenex Cox and Lisa Kudrow gamely popping up for the bit, to play Monica and Phoebe one more time.

Hilary ensued.

Watch:



R.I.P. Joey and Chandler.

;)

That Horny D.D.S. Is A-comin’ Back!

Oh, Jennifer Aniston. You nasty!

I say this because that Friendliest of American Sweethearts is going to raunch it up again in, no, not August’s Life of Crime but the upcoming Horrible Bosses 2.

And, from the looks of the sequel’s teaser, she is going to be worst than ever as that horny D.D.S. from hell we met in the original 2011 black comedy.

I mean, the things her character is open to get done!

And I love it because she is a big reason why I LOLd watching the first movie so very much – and it’s not like it even was L’Aniston’s vehicle: She was the sole chick in a male-studded cast, and she more than held her own.

So I cannot wait to see her on screen once more, with Jasons Bateman and Sudeikis and Charlie Day (whose characters are now the ones being shady, but you know...still good at heart), Jamie Foxx (reprising his role as crime consultant Motherf---er Jones), and Kevin Spacey. Not to mention I wanna see just what she will do to new-to-the-franchise Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz.

Want a preview? Then watch:



Horrible Bosses 2 (directed by Seth Gordon Sean Anders) will be in theaters on Nov. 26.