JENNIFER ANISTON: DO WE REALLY NEED TO FEEL SORRY FOR AMERICA'S LATEST SWEETHEART?

One of the worst parts of supermarkets is the checkout counter. This is the area where shoppers come face to face with every sleazy tabloid magazine printed for the clinically stupid. The headlines churn out an endless supply of celebrity gossip that may or may not contain accurate information.

The truth is rarely the point of the exercise, but it is an unintentional bonus if some accurate information is thrown into the mix.

One of the favorite topics is the life and times of Jennifer Aniston, an actress who has spent well past fifteen minutes in the fame spotlight.

She is the current title-holder for America’s Sweetheart after she took away the title from Meg Ryan, who probably took it away from somebody else, who took it away from Doris Day back in the day. There will always be a favorite female celebrity who captures the hearts and minds of the public until they get too old for the title, or fall out of favor with their fans.

The one thing that jumps out at me about Jennifer Aniston is a sympathetic public that views her as kind of a loser who can’t find a decent guy in her life. I am confident that  Jenny would beg to differ with this assessment of her life.

Too many things work against the notion that Jennifer Aniston is a loser in life. For one thing, she is an over 40 hottie who will never be short of male admirers. The line would form on the left and extend a block or two- make that a million blocks or two. Quite frankly, I know very little about Jennifer. We’re not friends and I didn’t watch ‘Friends’, but I have seen a few of her movies like 'The Breakup’ and ‘Marley and Me’. They were pretty good movies.

This woman gets a lot of movies at a mega-star salary rate, so poor is not applicable to her income level either; several million dollars per picture have cured that problem. So it gets a little difficult to spot the loser part of her life.

The main area of sympathy seems to be her failed marriage with Brad Pitt. Again, I have to beg to differ with this angle: Marriages are pretty disposable in today’s world and Hollywood marriages have a much shorter shelf life. She had a long marriage by Hollywood standards, and maybe she didn’t feel like adopting every available orphan in the Third World to keep her marriage out of the scrap heap. I don’t know, I can’t speak for the girl.

But I can say that she likely leads a great life and gets a few laughs out of the loser notion that hovers around her public persona. She is clearly in a powerful position to pick her own comfort zone for romance. Fame, wealth, and hotness have given her many great options in life.

Even if the tabloids disagree.