Jennifer Aniston says she is taking a break from acting after wrapping production on the comedy The Bounty with Gerard Butler.

Well, she’s taking time off until 2010.

“I’m going to go on an adventure, take myself somewhere,” she says. “I won’t start another job until at least January. I want to take time off.”

In January, production begins on The Goree Girls, a musical that Aniston, 40, is starring in and producing about a country music group of all-female prison inmates. She has even said she’ll sing in the 1940s-era flick.

In addition to brushing up on her singing skills, Aniston (whose new romance Love Happens opens Sept. 19) tells Fox, “I’m going to throw myself into [production company] Echo and just keep plugging away.”

So how does she handle her frenetic personal life?

“It’s all mind over matter,” Aniston says. “You acknowledge it and know that everything could be a lot worse. Remind yourself – gratitude.”

Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler are currently filming a movie together, but the rumor is that the two are heating things up off-camera.

The two were seen “hand in hand” this weekend at The Jane Hotel in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.

“Jen and Gerry went out on Saturday night,” says the source, who, noting that the cozy couple were surrounded by such others as Kirsten Dunst, also said Aniston and Butler “had cocktails and … They were hand in hand.”

According to another source, Aniston, 40, and Butler, 39, were also spotted dining on the Lower East Side at Freemans, another hot spot, before cozying up at the hotel lounge.

We like these two together! Gerard Butler is ten times better than Jen dating John Mayer!

Jennifer Aniston split with ex-husband Brad Pitt four years ago and she is still wearing the ‘lonely girl’ label because of it.

We see Aniston as beautiful, successfull, and perfectly comfortable without a man by her side – and admire her for it!

Aniston acknowledges the label in a very candid interview with Elle magazine:

“I’m not going to ignore the pink elephant in the living room,” the actress, 40, says in the September issue of Elle. “It’s fine. I can take it.”

If I’m the emblem for ‘this is what it looks like to be the lonely girl getting on with her life,’ so be it.” And she’s happy to help others who find themselves in a similar position. “I support women, men, anybody who is in a place that’s not their strongest and who is ready to push forward,” she says.

Aniston has been linked to Bradley Cooper following splits with Vince Vaughn, Paul Sculfor and John Mayer.

That doesn’t exactly sound lonely to us!

Aniston says she’s always uses humor to get her through tough times.

“I remember being 7 and asking my mom if I was as pretty as [my best friend] Monique,” she recalls. “And with all the love in the world, my mom looked at me and said, ‘Oh, honey, you’re so funny.’ So, she doesn’t lie to me . . . She answers the question by not answering and instead tells me what she thinks is my greatest strength.”

Her parents made each other laugh “like nobody’s business,” she says. “I put a lot of value in that at a very young age.”

But that hasn’t always easy: Her father, soap star John, left her mom, Nancy, when she was 9.

Says the actress, “My dad walking out and not seeing him for a year and not knowing where he was . . . Trying to understand, ‘Where did that person go?’”

You know, when people label Aniston as ‘lonely’ it is usually not mentioned that her dad left her family for a year when she was a young girl and then her husband of five years left her for another woman. It is much healthier to be happy with friends, family, and companionship than to cling to relationships that just don’t work. Good for Aniston for being wise enough to know the difference.

At Friday night’s Women in Film Awards in Culver City, Calif., host Chelsea Handler presented Jennifer Aniston, 40, with the Crystal Award for Excellence in Film.

“You have increased the visibility of women in film, and we thank you for that,” Handler said. “You’ve recently decreased the visibility of John Mayer, so we thank you for that.”

How did Jen react to the comic’s joke?

“Jen threw her head in her hands and was laughing so hard,” a witness says. “Her two girlfriends on either side started laughing hysterically.”

Aniston kept the joke going when accepting her award.

“I have a strange parallel with movies I was doing and my life off screen. First, it was The Good Girl…which evolved into Rumor Has It, followed by Derailed,” she said, perhaps making a quip about her marriage with Brad Pitt, who left her for Angelina Jolie.

“Then there was The Breakup,” she continued. “Followed by the lighter side, Friends With Money.

“If anyone has a movie called Everlasting Love With an Adult Stable Man, that would be great!” Aniston joked. “I’m at table six, and my agents are at table 12.”

We think Jen has a healthy attitude about life and we love that she can take a joke!

Brad Pitt has allegedly been making drunken phone calls to ex-wife Jennifer Aniston to apologize for his role in their divorce.

As he should! Brad must be a real coward if he can only apologize to her after he’s had a few drinks.

Sources say the actor, who has 6 children with partner Angelina Jolie, has told Aniston he is sorry and he misses her. “She was initially taken aback – especially as he sounded drunk and sorry for himself. He told her he misses her and that he’s sorry for any hurt caused. Jen being Jen immediately told him she’d never held a grudge against him and would welcome them being friends again, so long as she doesn’t have to be friends with Angelina. He agreed.”

Pitt, 45, and Aniston, 40, were divorced in 2005 after 5 years of marriage.

Do you think Brad has more kids than he bargained for and is a little overwhelmed? When Brad and Angelina hooked up, it was all lust. Only a couple of years later he is sitting in hotel rooms watching the six kids while Angelina makes movies! Yeah, he probably does miss the fun he had with Jen! Plus, Angelina has been looking like a lollipop lately with her big head and anorexic body.

Jennifer Aniston is rumored to be dating hottie Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers, He’s Just Not That Into You, The Hangover).

Stick with Bradley and hang up on Brad, Jen!

During an acoustic set at Hollywood’s Hotel Café Wednesday night, John Mayer told the crowd, “It’s intriguing writing about my life. These songs are about me, my life and everyone in my life.” Does that mean there will be a song or two about Jennifer Aniston?

He then sang a new song called “Friends, Lovers or Nothing.” (Lyrics: “Friends, lovers or nothing/There can only be one/There is never an
in-between/So give it up/You whisper ‘come on over’ ’cause you’re two drinks in/And in the morning it’s ‘goodbye again.’”)

We wonder if that is about Aniston!

Now Jennifer Aniston knows what it’s like to be on the other side…of the desk, that is.

Jennifer was a guest Monday night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and actually got behind Fallon’s desk and hosted the show for a minute.

“I’ve always wondered what’s back here,” she told Fallon . “I gotta tell you, I’m really comfortable here.”

Promoting a pair of upcoming projects, Baster and Management, Aniston said she had long wondered what it was like at the helm of a late night show.

Aniston then asked Fallon to fan her while she asked him a few questions.

“I gotta tell you, I’m really comfortable here … I’m going to pretend like I’m listening to you,” she said. “But I’m reading the next question.”

Later, the two played a game of grapefruit bowling.

Jennifer Aniston’s BFF, Courteney Cox and husband David Arquette spent their Sunday night hanging out with Jen’s ex-hubby, Brad Pitt.

Cox was at the Wiltern Theater in LA with husband David Arquette for the final stop on rocker Chris Cornell’s Scream album tour when Pitt showed up. A source says, “Instead of ignoring him, Courteney chatted away with Brad all night. The three were in great spirits and seemed really happy to see each other.”

How very mature of them. They probably talked about their kids, but we’re wondering if Courteney asked about Angelina!

According to Star magazine, Jennifer Aniston, 40, is planning on adopting.

Jen has already started the paperwork with an agency in California and is planning to take home a baby boy.

“She doesn’t want to wait,” a source says. “Her best friends all have kids, and Jen sees how much motherhood changed their lives for the best.

“She’s dying to have that!

“Jen has already started planning a $250,000 nursery at her home in Beverly Hills, and has even picked out her nanny. Unlike Angelina Jolie, she wants a baby from the USA.

She is getting help from close friends including Sheryl Crow, who adopted a baby boy two years ago. “Sheryl is walking her through the process step by step,” says another insider.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an extra $15 million laying around just to spend on home renovations?

Jennifer Aniston has just shelled out an additional $15 million on her home to make it environmentally-friendly.

So what’s new at the House of Aniston? Jen’s eco-renovations include installing solar panels across the roof of her sprawling mansion to help generate power. She has swapped her gas-guzzling Range Rover for a Toyota Prius, and reportedly intends to kit out her new Malibu pad with eco-friendly devices including drought-resistant plants. And despite installing a swimming pool at the Beverly Hills mansion, the actress insists she’s keen on conserving water.

Prior to the launch of Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts in 2007, she said: “I take a three-minute shower. I even brush my teeth while I shower.

“Every two minutes in the shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything in their life for a whole day.”

The 40-year-old actress added: ‘When you become aware of all the things you do, and the effect those things have, you want to make small changes.”

Jennifer Aniston, who turned 40 on Feb. 11, is having some issues about aging because of her role in The Baster.

She’s having a problem with the fact that her character, who’s trying to get pregnant, ages from 40 to 48 when the movie jumps ahead in time. “She keeps saying it’s not believable because she looks much younger,” says the insider. “She asked the makeup artist what high-tech effects they’re going to use to age her, and she was disappointed to learn there aren’t any.”

Sources on the set say she’s so worried about this that it’s causing her to behave differently than normal.

“She hasn’t been the easiest on set. She’s being controlling and snapping quite a lot. It’s pretty out of character for her.”

In Jennifer’s defense, no woman wants to be told that her looks can pass for being 8 years older than she actually is.

Reports are coming in that Jennifer Aniston is being a bit of a diva on the set of her new movie, “The Baster”.

An insider is claiming that the entire movie has to be scheduled around Jen.

The source says, “In the morning, the cast and crew had to wait to start filming without Jen because she asked for extra time to finishing blow-drying her hair,” adding, “Jen kept mostly to herself. She didn’t talk to anyone during the breaks.”

And what’s more, “Jen refused to walk even a step outside the restaurant during the break for lunch. She had her car pull up right next to the restaurant so she could be driven less than a block to her trailer to avoid photographers.”

We don’t like hearing that people have to wait on her because she is running late doing her hair, but the rest of it sounds like typical A-List behavior. Jen is probably keeping to herself because of all of the John Mayer breakup press recently. Cheer up, Jen!