From PEOPLE Magazine
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In a town where even the most solid-seeming partnerships—from Tom and Nicole to Meg and Dennis—are just an irreconcilable difference away from divorce court, Aniston's plan is an ambitious one. Sixteen months after Pitt swore to love, honor and "split the difference on the thermostat" with her till death do them part, friends figure Mrs. Pitt could have upped her stationery order tenfold. "If anyone's going to make it," says their singer pal Melissa Etheridge, "they are." What makes the Pitts, in the context of showbiz couples, extraordinary? According to Aniston's friend Kathy Najimy, their ability to be simply ordinary. "There's no insecurity going on," says Najimy. "They're themselves. They do the things you and I do: go to restaurants, play games, go to work, go on trips. They really, truly are in love with each other."
That was clear to everyone on the set of Friends when Pitt, 37, filmed his much publicized appearance alongside Aniston, 32, in the Thanksgiving episode. While offscreen the couple spent the holiday at the L.A. wedding of Aniston's manager Marc Gurvitz, onscreen they gave NBC's hit show—watched by 13 million households—its No. 1 ranking. Perhaps most tickled by the episode were the mister and missus themselves. Rehearsing the show for four days before taping on Nov. 2, they had "a blast," says a source. Adds producer Douglas Wick, who worked with Pitt on the just released Spy Game: "The chemistry between him and Jennifer is adorable."
And it's the simple gestures that have come to matter most. Witness the way Pitt kept his arm around Aniston's waist, clutching the back of her black leather skirt at the L.A. premiere of Spy Game Nov. 19—and responding immediately when, several hours later, his wife tugged at his sleeve in a silent bid to go home. Little wonder Aniston makes sure to find time on a girls' night out to check in with her husband on her cell phone. "She's very affectionate with him," says Najimy. "He makes her feel grounded and whole and smart." And she makes him feel like Fred Astaire—which is no small feat. At a Jane's Addiction concert at the Hollywood Bowl on a recent Saturday night, Pitt took to the aisles and wowed onlookers with his, well, unusual moves. Says one: "He dances very herky-jerky."
Aniston could not have cared less. "It's very cool when you have your best friend at your side," she says of her life with Pitt, whom she met on a date set up by their reps in 1998. The feeling is mutual. "If you can find someone who can stand you for 24 hours a day," Pitt said of his contentment playing husband, "I highly recommend it." Nor does he pass up a moment to show it: During the Friends rehearsal and shoot, Pitt got to share the dressing room where Aniston has their wedding photo propped up—the same room he filled with roses last Valentine's Day, spelling out "I Love My Wife" in petals on the wall. And during filming of Ocean's Eleven this past spring, "he flew home every time he had off, even for 24 hours, to see her," says producer Jerry Weintraub. When they're together, "they don't take their eyes off each other. They touch and kiss each other."
But it's not, like, you know, gross or anything. "They're not like two 14-year-olds learning to kiss," says their friend, Manhattan-based stylist John Sahag, adding that he is taken by the "mature, intelligent affection" the two show each other—whether working, doing art projects together (Pitt was hands-on in the design and renovation of their Hollywood Hills studio; Aniston draws and sculpts) or just cracking each other up. "They're both funny," says one friend. "They're very, very much alike. They have the same appreciation for aesthetics, a shared love of antiques. They are like the same person, only he's a guy and she's a girl."
Not that things between them are always camera-ready. Pitt, for example, has confided that among matrimony's better privileges is being able to "[pass wind] and eat ice cream in bed." But it seems life for Hollywood's reigning couple (she makes $750,000 per Friends episode; he makes $20 million a film) is a fine blend—one part premieres and Prada, one part "Honey, can you walk the six dogs?"
On a typical day the two wake up and take care of her Corgi mix Norman and Pitt's five mixed-breeds. Then comes the one meal they actually know how to prepare: "I pour a mean bowl of cereal," boasts Pitt. "She makes a mean milk shake." Later in the day Aniston pops into one of her two vehicles—a 1999 Land Rover or a 2000 Jaguar sedan—and drives to the Warner lot, where she spends at least five hours rehearsing and filming Friends. Occasionally Pitt drops by just to eat pizza, watch his wife work and hang with the boys. Says a source on the set: "He'll play video games in David Schwimmer's room or talk cars with Matt LeBlanc."
The work day done, the couple's dinners together also tend to be low-key affairs. A favorite restaurant is the casual Hollywood eatery Marix Tex Mex Cafe. But better yet is the living room couch. As Aniston told Jay Leno in February, "I don't cook. I thaw. And I microwave. And I order in real well." Indeed, the perfect evening chez Pitt is order-in pizza for him, Mexican for her, red wine and an old movie. There will be plenty of space for such cozy get-togethers in the $14 million, six-bedroom French Provincial-style Beverly Hills estate they bought in June. But if they plan to spend a night on the $4 million, 11.5-acre beachfront property they bought last year near Santa Barbara, they might have to skip the movie. There are only three structures on the land, all, in the words of neighbor Leslie Pinkerton, "broken-down surf shacks." Not that Pitt plans to hang 10 anytime soon; says Kerry Mormann, a Realtor who showed the Pitts some land in the area: "He doesn't like sharks."
Still, with its secluded allure atop a craggy bluff over-looking the Pacific, the property is the perfect spot for snuggling—and perhaps a little family planning. Or practice planning. "There's no bun in the oven yet," Aniston recently said. According to one source close to her, that's no accident; the hectic Friends shooting schedule means now is not a good time: "There is no way she is getting pregnant until the show is done." Still, those close to the pair are sure that, when the time comes, they'll be up to the challenge. Says veteran soap actor and grandfather-in-waiting John Aniston, 68: "They seem to thrive on marriage." The Pitt family agrees. "We love Jennifer," says Brad's sister Julie Neal, 32, part of the tight-knit Springfield, Mo.,-based clan that also includes Pitt's mother, Jane, 61, father Bill, 60, grandmother Clara, 91, brother Doug, 35, and several nephews. A longtime Friends fan who admits she had to work on not calling her sister-in-law Rachel, Neal says, "Now I think of her as Jen. She's great with my kids and my brother's kids. It's just Uncle Brad and Aunt Jennifer."
A compliment, no doubt, but also a strange position for Aniston to find herself in. While Pitt has always considered his siblings and parents his "link to sanity," as Neal puts it, Aniston has little experience with close family ties. She was 9 when her father and her mother, onetime model Nancy Aniston, now 65, divorced. Because of initial tension, she had little contact with her father for years. Aniston eventually reconciled with him. But in 1996 she cut off ties with her mother after Nancy talked about her to a tabloid TV show. And in what she called a "torturous" decision, she did not invite her mother to her wedding. Aniston has said there is no talk of a reconciliation now, "but I'm sure that will eventually happen."
For now, though, she has been concentrating on getting used to matrimony, what she and Pitt call "the Adventure." Hardest has been the time spent apart, while he was filming Spy Game in England, Hungary and Morocco and Ocean's in Vegas. Relief came in November when she managed to take a trip to Budapest. And he flew home from Morocco for a week to spend his first married Christmas with Aniston. "In between takes she would come over to Brad and they would chat or have a smoke," says Spy Game director Tony Scott. "They're brilliant together. He's obsessed with her. I think he wakes up every morning and says, 'Damn, am I lucky.' " No need to tell Ocean's producer Weintraub. While filming last spring, he knocked on Pitt's door at the Bellagio hotel to pick him up for dinner with costars George Clooney and Julia Roberts. But Pitt put him off because, Weintraub recalls him saying, " 'I've got a date with my wife.' " And so the love-struck hubby closed his door and settled in for a romantic rendezvous with his wife—on TV. As he had explained to Weintraub, "Friends is coming on. I've got to watch her."
While Brad has seen Friends in so many different foreign hotel rooms he can sing the theme song in German, Aniston had her own distractions—like slow-dancing with Melissa Etheridge's girlfriend, Tammy Lynn Michaels, in a music video for the singer. But since she had less access to her pals Lisa Kudrow (married to Michel Stern and mother to 3-year-old Julian) and Courteney Cox Arquette (married to David Arquette) than she had in their single days, come evening she found company by turning on her computer for some quality e-time with her husband. "We're on the e-mail and got these little cameras that we hooked up where you can see each other," Pitt told reporters of their Webcam connection. "[The picture] freezes every four seconds, but technology is getting better."
Until his cell phone can beam her up, however, their options are few. They can: (A) keep cashing in their frequent-flier miles; or (B) cash in their Actors' Equity cards. Neal thinks her brother or Aniston may eventually quit show business to lead a more normal life. "They take one day at a time," she says. Though NBC has expressed desire to keep Friends going, many believe this could be its final season. Aniston has mixed feelings about the prospect of no longer spending her days with the Friends gang. Walking away, she has said, would be "very, very sad." On the other hand she would have more time to devote to another gang: one who calls her Mom. Pitt has said he wants "a little commune" of seven or so children. She's thinking two or three. One would satisfy the in-laws—for now. "They'll be so great with kids," says Neal. "We'll take 'em whenever we can get 'em."
Karen S. Schneider
Elizabeth Leonard, Rachel Biermann, Mark Dagostino, Michael Fleeman, Alison Singh Gee, Julie Jordan, N.F. Mendoza, Lyndon Stambler, Frank Swertlow and Pamela Warrick in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Elizabeth Leonard,
- Rachel Biermann,
- Mark Dagostino,
- Michael Fleeman,
- Alison Singh Gee,
- Julie Jordan,
- N.F. Mendoza,
- Lyndon Stambler,
- Frank Swertlow,
- Pamela Warrick.
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