
DATE: Wednesday, July 30, 1997              TAG: 9707300063

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  154 lines

FRIENDLY PERSUASION JENNIFER ANISTON, HOPING TO BE THE FIRST OF THE STARS FROM TV'S ``FRIENDS,''TO MAKE IT BIG IN FILMS, GETS HER CHANCE WITH NEW ROMANCE ``PICTURE PERFECT.''

SHE WANTS TO be more than just a ``Friend.''

Jennifer Aniston, already watched by some 30 million regular ``Friends'' fans each Thursday night, debuts in her first starring movie, ``Picture Perfect,'' on Friday. It's all about how women often pick the wrong guy.

``Starring me?'' she queried, with her best gee-whiz attitude. ``It seems faintly other worldly but, hey, if this is this world, then I'll take it.''

Aniston, when reminded that she has to take the down side as well as the up side of fame, peeked playfully through her tiny oval glasses as she seriously contemplated the next question.

``What is the most outrageous thing the tabloids have printed about me?'' she mused. ``Now that's something to ponder. There have been some doozers. Well, they said I had a cat fight with Sandra Bullock and one or the other of us had to go to the hospital. I forget which one. Then they said I was dating this masked wrestler named The Phantom and that no one knew who he was because he wore the mask. I never met a wrestler in my life.''

She stopped and tossed her hair to give it that tousled, patented-``Friends'' look. ``Then,'' she continued, ``they said I had to go on a crash diet and lose 30 pounds. Maybe 12 pounds, but never 30. Is that enough? That's all I remember. There were others. I don't read them, mind you, but I hear. I have friends who tell me everything.''

Aniston was sitting at the Mark Hotel in Manhattan, about 50 blocks from where she grew up, wanting to be an actress. Now, she makes $100,000 per episode for ``Friends,'' entering her fourth year as Rachel, the slightly befuddled one. Rachel has gone from being a waitress to an upscale job at Bloomingdale's. Last season, she broke up with Ross (played by David Schwimmer), sparking rumors that the romance will be rekindled in the upcoming season.

``They don't tell us anything,'' she said. ``I'm finishing a movie here in New York this week. Then I report for work on `Friends' Aug. 11 and about six scripts will be waiting, but they don't let us read them much further ahead than that - maybe for fear I'll slip and tell someone like you something.''

But what about the ``Friends'' curse? Each of the six ``Friends'' stars have now appeared in big-screen movies, and the popular image seems to be that they were all flops.

``Well, yes. I'm AWARE of that,'' Aniston said with a smile. ``I've heard a lot about it, but the truth is that some of those movies weren't flops at all. It's just that the world seemed to hold those movies up to a glass. It's as if they were held up and people shouted, `Look. A Failure. A Failure.' It's hard not to listen to that, but I don't.''

``It's' just like when we negotiated for a raise, we were pictured as being greedy brats. Do you know how much money they make from a show like `Friends'? I'm glad we, as a cast, stood together on that - and that we won. We deserved it. We did.''

Among the ``Friends'' movie efforts are David Schwimmer in ``The Pallbearer'' (a hit with critics but not at the box office); Matthew Perry in ``Fools Rush In'' (a middling success); Matt Le Blanc in ``Ed'' (the monkey baseball film that was a resounding flop); Lisa Kudrow in ``Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion'' (OK business); and Courtney Cox in ``Scream'' (a huge hit, but she was just one of an ensemble cast).

In contrast, Aniston took it slow, playing a winning supporting role in Ed Burns' ``She's the One'' last year.

``I'd like to say I was smart and planned it this way, but it just happened,'' she said. ``I liked the small role in `She's the One,' and then this large role in `Picture Perfect' came along. My father (actor John Aniston of ``Days of Our Lives'') found the script. A friend of his wrote it and he sent it to me. They were looking for something for me - a starring part - and they went for this. I'm in just about every scene of the movie. It's a little bit scary. It's like I'm jumping out of the plane and hoping the 'chute will open.

``And when they signed Kevin Bacon to do love scenes with me, I flipped. I mean I LOVE Kevin Bacon's work. I felt, `Well, I just won't be able to do those scenes!' ''

She plays Kate, a bright, upscale, pretty Madison Avenue advertising executive. She's got all the material stuff, but she's getting nowhere, either in her career or in romance. She is attracted to the office Romeo, played by Bacon, but he prefers married or engaged women - women who require no long-term commitment.

On the other hand, she's being passed over for promotions because she has no anchors that would tie her down - a husband, a mortgage, children, car payments - the things that bosses like employees to have so they won't be able to quit.

She invents a make-believe fiance, choosing a nice guy she barely met at a recent wedding (Jay Mohr).

``Women have a habit of chasing the one who's not available. That's the challenge,'' she admitted. ``That's a little of what this is about. Of course, men do that too. We tend to want the one who is not right for us when the right one is sitting right there.''

Has she picked the wrong guy often?

``Sometimes, but not often,'' she replied. Her most famous ex is Adam Duritz of the rock band Counting Crows. Her current boyfriend (for over a year) is Tate Donovan, whose own most famous ex is Sandra Bullock.

Donovan is the voice of the title character in Disney's ``Hercules.'' They live - in separate houses - in Los Angeles, and she says, ``I don't talk about our relationship.'' However, she does hold up the Irish ring he gave her. They bought each other identical rings to celebrate their first anniversary.

Glenn Gordon Caron, the director of ``Picture Perfect'' (and creator of ``Moonlighting,'' one of television's smartest romantic duos), says that Aniston ``is good at playing zany, but she never surrenders her gender to be funny. She is a lovable girl who can be human even when she's very flawed. In spite of the questionable things her character, Kate, does in `Picture Perfect,' the audience can always see why she'd do that. She has a very human aspect.''

Indeed, Aniston is not-quite-beautiful, even though the male fans of ``Friends'' would argue the point. She, importantly, also appeals to the females, who don't see her as a threat.

Born in California, she moved to New York when her father got a job on NBC's daytime serial ``Days of Our Lives,'' where he was once the villain Victor Kiriakis. He also, at various times, was on ``Search for Tomorrow'' and ``Love of Life.'' Her parents divorced, though, when she was 9 and she grew up with her mother, Nancy, a former model.

``In school, I was always a little troublemaker,'' she remembered. ``Nothing really criminal, but I'd always get reported for clowning or talking. I'd do things just to get both parents together in the principal's office. It was kind of like `The Parent Trap.' ''

Through her father, and her godfather, Telly Savalas, she was around acting from an early age, but she said she was never encouraged to make it a career.

``My father, knowing what a rough business it is, actually tried to discourage me,'' she said. ``Telly, my godfather, was there. He's been wonderful at taking care of a lot of people through the years, but I was left to make my own choice.''

After graduating in 1987 from the professional acting school, she got a few Off-Broadway roles, but two years later, she decided to try television in California. The result was a series of jobs on such series as ``Herman's Head,'' ``Ferris Bueller'' and ``The Edge.''

The weight problem, so heralded by the tabloids, was also pre-``Friends.''

``I grew up a cheeseburger and fries girl,'' she said. ``That's just a way of life. I did once go on a diet and lost 12 pounds but that was it. What bothered me about the tabloid stories was not what it said about me but that it might encourage young girls to think that they had to be that thin or they were nothing. I don't think we should think that way. We all are valuable.''

Not putting all her hopes in one movie, Aniston is finishing ``The Object of My Affection'' this week in New York.

``I play this woman who falls in love with her best friend, who is gay. She gets pregnant with her boyfriend, but she and the gay guy, played by Paul Rudd, want to raise the child together. It's very human and very compelling, and yet again, I play this woman who wants the wrong guy but comes back to the good one. I hope I don't make a habit of this.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

20TH CENTURY FOX

In ``Picture Perfect'' Jennifer Aniston plays an advertising

executive who is attracted to the office Romeo (Kevin Bacon), above.

Photo

BARRY WETCHER

Jennifer Aniston plays Kate, who introduces her phony fiance, Nick

(Jay Mohr), right, to Sam (Kevin Bacon), the office Romeo, in the

Twentieth Century Fox film ``Picture Perfect,'' opening Friday. KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY MOVIES

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