Jennifer Aniston’s AppleTV+ series The Morning Show is returning next month, which explains why she landed on the cover of the September issue of Vanity Fair.
Inside, her multi-page spread is full of saucy photos and nuggets about how she gossips with Gwyneth Paltrow about their shared ex Brad Pitt, her strange relationship with Jimmy Kimmel and Jason Bateman, and, of course, how much she hates tabloids.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Maureen Callahan, host of MK Media’s The Nerve, to discuss Aniston’s decades-long pity party.
The Fawning Profile
In the profile titled “Zen and the Art of Being Jennifer Aniston,” writer Julie Miller calls the 56 year old an “exquisitely maintained… monument to self care” and waxes poetic about the “towering front doors of her $21 million home” in the Los Angeles hills where there is a “security guard handing out NDAs to visitors.”
The piece touches on the former Friends actress’ friendship with Paltrow, with whom she apparently trades wellness intel and thoughts about Pitt. It also references weekly dinners she has with Jimmy Kimmel, which Megyn said is ironic given the comedian’s past.
“Who could forget Jennifer Aniston’s attack on J.D. Vance during the run up to the November 2024 election for his ‘childless cat lady‘ comment. She acted like the victim… [and] a big women’s rights supporter,” Megyn noted. “Jimmy Kimmel literally starred in The Man Show, which, for years, was doing segments like… women in bikinis on trampolines jumping up and down… That’s the man she is having weekly dinners with.”
Those dinners also often include actor Jason Bateman and his wife Amanda Anka. Bateman participated in the profile and shared a very bizarre anecdote about how his teenage daughters view the star.
“She almost makes us parents look bad because she’s so incredibly attentive and consistent with their curiosity and warmth,” Bateman told Vanity Fair. “She is the first one to call or text about big dates in the girls’ lives. She has questions about boyfriends.”
When asked if she would “qualify as an aunt,” he said Aniston is “closer to a co-mom” with Anka. “What in the actual eff,” Megyn asked. “That is quite the comment that he is making about his own wife in an effort to lick the blessed boot of Jennifer Aniston.”
Aniston’s Complaints
But the real kicker came, in Megyn’s view, when Aniston griped about tabloid media for the one millionth time. “She still complaining about her press coverage, notwithstanding the fawning ‘she’s exquisitely maintained,’ and ‘she parties with Jimmy Kimmel,’ and ‘she’s Like a co-mom,'” Megyn noted. “She’s still whining. And [it gets] back to the ultimate whine that we heard from her back in 2005.”
As Callahan explained, Aniston granted Vanity Fair her first big interview in 2005 following her split with Pitt and that splashy tell-all was revisited 20 years later. When asked about the height of the Brad-Angie-Jen love triangle and the subsequent fallout, Aniston said, “It was such juicy reading for people. If they didn’t have their soap operas, they had their tabloids.”
“That, to me, is just such an F-you to American audiences who have followed this woman, and loved her, and taken up for her, and made her wealthy and famous beyond her wildest dreams and, frankly, beyond her limited talents,” Callahan said. “We’re not talking Elizabeth Taylor over here in terms of looks. Or Meryl Streep over here in terms of acting talent. She lucked into the greatest pot of gold one could luck into. Just shut up and be grateful.”
Aniston went on to compare herself to a piñata. “It’s a shame that it had to happen, but it happened. And boy, did I take it personally. They were sort of building us up and then tearing you down,” she claimed to Miller. “They think you signed up for it, so you take it. But we really didn’t sign up for that.”
Megyn wasn’t buying it. “She was on the cover of Vanity Fair without her pants on… and she was often without her pants on in the photo shoots she’s done over the years and has coveted attention and publicity with the best of them,” she said. “You did sign up for it. This is America. You take the good with the bad when you willingly become a public figure.”
“You are the one who put yourself in the public eye and cultivated and chased after this kind of attention. No one would be talking about you if you hadn’t put yourself in the public eye,” Megyn continued. “She gave tons of interviews,,, but gets upset when the media coverage goes beyond what she has authorized. That’s not the way it works. Just be grateful there’s interest. That interest is why you have several multimillion dollars, and cars, and this luxury wardrobe, and why you keep getting cast in these movies.”
“So, shut the f-ck up,” Megyn concluded. “No one wants to hear your complaints about how people like their tabloids and their soap operas. You are damn lucky they do. That’s why they find you interesting.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Callahan by tuning in to episode 1,133 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.