Portraying a paparazzi photographer on Saturday Night Live Jan. 10, Jennifer Aniston happily spoofed her own celebrity. "Hey, where's Brad?" she yelled at a Jen stand-in before asking, "When are you gonna have a baby?" To that, she might have also added the other Big Question of the moment: No, not how does she feel about Friends ending, but...how does she feel about landing in the latest issue of Ferrets magazine? "That," says the actress, who shares screen time with one of the critters in her new comedy Along Came Polly, "is very exciting."

Okay, so when you're Jennifer Aniston, maybe "exciting" is a relative term. She and husband Brad Pitt can rattle the red carpet just by unveiling new looks (close-cropped for him; brunette locks for her), as they did at the Hollywood Polly premiere Jan. 12. And yes, with the final episode of Friends set to tape Jan. 23, the frenzy surrounding Aniston, 34, and the rest of the cast is beginning to reach fever pitch. Says the actress: "I didn't think that it would feel this heart-wrenching and sad."

When the series wraps after 10 seasons, Aniston is "going to have diapers to cry into because she'll need that much absorbency," says her pal, actress Kathy Najimy. And she won't be the only one drying her eyes. Her co-stars "are so gonna go down with me," says Aniston. "It is going to be a wet, teary place."

Fortunately, Aniston has an especially nice shoulder to cry on, thanks to Pitt, 40. Having recently moved into the $13.5 million Beverly Hills mansion that they spent two years renovating, "it's just the greatest thing," says Aniston. "It's very symbolic building a foundation. It is our sanctuary."

With marriage, a house and an upcoming career break in place, Aniston is aware that the baby speculation is more rampant than ever. But for now she is simply trying to learn her way around her "really big" new kitchen—Pitt bought them private cooking lessons as a gift—and preparing for life after Friends. In addition to joining her husband on the set of Ocean's Twelve, "I'll do a lot of things—decorate the house, go shopping, go to movies," she says. "I'm going to take a vacation. I've needed that for a long time."

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On Saying Goodbye to Friends
MATT LEBLANC: "I think we're all looking around and maybe thinking we took for granted how much time we get to spend together."

JENNIFER ANISTON: "It's absolutely painful in the weirdest way because this is the most fun and joyful place to be."

COURTENEY COX ARQUETTE: "I'm pregnant, so I think it's good timing for me because I will have something to put my focus on."

LISA KUDROW: "It's a deeper loss than I was expecting. I knew that we'd be sad when the time came, but for me it just kind of hit me over the head."

MATTHEW PERRY: "You just hope that when the door closes, another opens somewhere, and it's our job to go find that door."

DAVID SCHWIMMER: "There's a million things that we could try to say that are inexpressible. It's just going to be really brutal."

Going Head to Head
Scruffy or sleek? The Pitts have run the gamut. Now Jen is "letting it go more natural and wavy," says hairstylist Chris McMillan, while Pitt's shorn do is for his next film, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. "My inspiration was Steve McQueen."