{alltv} Aniston can't escape baby questions

LOS ANGELES -- Yes, she wants to have a child. No, she won't be using a sperm bank like the character she plays in The Switch (in theatres Friday).

Jennifer Aniston plays a new twist on the modern woman in this romantic comedy modelled on reality, a role she defends to the hilt.

There's a slight feeling of unease in the news conference room as the 41-year-old actress is bombarded with questions about her personal life. When you play a woman your own age who goes to a sperm bank in desperation after not finding a man, it opens the door to some indiscreet questions. Especially when your personal life is on display every day in the tabloids.

Does she want a child? "Yes, and I always said so, there's nothing new there," Aniston replied. Will she be using a sperm bank? "I haven't thought about it," she said, adding that she isn't ruling out the option.

Is it possible to stay friends with an ex? "Yes, it's possible," she said quickly.

Does she find similarities to herself in her character? "Yes, but through my friends who are having the same sort of problem."

The film's directors, Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Blades of Glory) seem exasperated as they sat beside her.

Aniston's life since her divorce from Brad Pitt has been endless fodder for gossip magazines.

Each week brings new stories about a breakup with yet another eligible Hollywood bachelor (Vince Vaughn, John Mayer, the model Paul Sculfor) or her supposed pregnancies whenever she's photographed with her hand near her stomach. "I've had 13 kids," she said jokingly.

Today is Aniston's birthday and she still looks like Rachel from Friends fame. She took the opportunity to quash some rumours about the show that made her famous. "No, there are no plans for a Friends movie," she announced.

With her impeccable smile and hair (her loyal hairstylist Christopher McMillan follows her everywhere, bags filled to the brim with styling products), Aniston sat before a sea of inquisitive journalists in a brown dress by Alexander McQueen. Bottles of SmartWater, a brand she promotes, sit on the table in front of her.

The actress is without a doubt the reigning queen of American rom-coms. The last few years have seen her star in The Bounty Hunter with Gerard Butler, He's Just Not That Into You, Management, The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn, Love Happens, Marley and Me, and the upcoming Just Go With It alongside Adam Sandler and Nicole Kidman.

Aniston says she was taken with the role of Kassie in The Switch, a story about a single New Yorker in her mid-forties who resorts to the services of a sperm bank to get pregnant.

"The women in my life who have gone through the struggles and frustrations of fertility, adoption and all of that, it jumped out at me immediately," she explained. "It's something that hadn't been really discussed in films."

Aniston vehemently stands behind this new incarnation of the modern woman.

"Women are realizing it more and more, knowing that they don't have to settle with a man just to have that child. Times have changed and that is also what is amazing, is that we do have so many options these days, as opposed to our parents' days when you can't have children because you waited too long," she said about the film's central theme. The story is based on the novel Baster by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides.

Asked by a journalist if it isn't egocentric for a woman to decide to have a child alone, Aniston got down to brass tacks.

"The point of the movie is, 'What is it that defines family?' It isn't necessarily the traditional mother, father, two children and a dog named Spot. Love is love and family is what is around you and who is in your immediate sphere. I don't think it's selfish, I think it's actually quite beautiful."

Her co-star Jason Bateman, who plays her best friends Wally, came to Aniston's defence.

"This is something you would have to label as progressive but it seems to be a little overdone because women have been making the better decisions for our planet for quite some time," he said.

"And of course they can have a child without the clumsy man around. A lot of people are doing this now."

The character Wally is a prosperous, nervous, egotistical, pessimistic banker who is above all secretly in love with Kassie. It's the kind of passion that leads him, while drunk, to switch the sperm sample with his own.

When asked if it's possible to be friends without falling in love, the two actors, who are good friends, seemed to have different ideas on friendship between the sexes.

"Yes, I mean I have," Aniston said.

"No," Bateman said at the same time.

"That's funny, because I think women are having an easier time than men do," the actress added.

"I'm about to make a horrible generalization -- but a lot of guys will sleep with pretty much any girl they meet, and if you actually are really good friends with that girl, too, that's a homerun," Bateman said.

"A guy and a girl can remain best friends and not have something physical as long as one of them is in a relationship. As soon as both are single you can just start the clock."

You have to wonder if that applies to Brad Pitt.

Just an observation

Why does Jen often play a waitress?

Friends (1994)

Office Space (1999)

The Iron Giant (1999)

Along Came Polly (2004)