Former ‘Friends’ co-star supports move behind camera

Courteney Cox has said she supports Jennifer Aniston’s ambition to move into directing. Her former Friends co-star recently spoke of preparing to direct a new project she is working on.

Cox told E! that Aniston would make a great director. “She’s already directed a short film, [Room 10, co-starring Robin Wright and Kris Kristofferson]. She’s amazing. It would be great,” she said.

Aniston had previous spoken to The Sun of her plans to “change direction” in the future.

“I have a project in development I’m going to direct,” she said. “After you get enough movies under your belt you sit back and go, ‘What’s next?’

“It’s getting to a time where creatively I want to turn in a different direction.”

Jennifer Aniston is a very wanted woman over in bestie Courteney Cox’s Cougar Town.

Not only did the hit show’s honcho Bill Lawrence tell our own Watch With Kristin that he’d love to snag Aniston for a guest gig, but now costar Busy Philipps tells us she’d welcome her, too.

“I hope she comes on,” Philipps told us at this weekend’s 31st Annual College Television Awards in Hollywood. “She’s lovely. I’ve hung out with her with Courteney. She seems adorable.”

And what kind of role would Philipps like to see Aniston tackle?

“I think it would be fun to see her be really mean,” Philipps said. “That was what Lisa Kudrow did a little bit. She was mean to Courteney, and it was fun for me to see because I’m a huge Friends fan. Anything [Aniston] would want to do I think would be great.”

Hey, if another Friends reunion doesn’t work out on Cougar Town, how about inviting someone from Dawson’s Creek? Philipps, who played Audrey Liddell on Dawson’s, says she recently spoke to former costar James Van Der Beek. “I just talked to him!” she said. “He called me to tell he’s having a baby…He’s going to be an amazing dad. I’m really happy for him.”

Which would you rather see—more Friends or some Dawson’s Creek on Cougar Town? Leave your comments below.

Jennifer Aniston won’t be seen playing a lesbian on “Cougar Town”. Her representative has come out with a denial to Showbiz Spy’s report that the actress has been set to guest star on the ABC series. “There are no plans for her to be on ‘Cougar Town’,” the rep told Gossip Cop, adding “She has not been asked to do ‘Cougar Town.’ ”

Showbiz Spy earlier came out with the story that star/executive producer Courteney Cox “persuaded Jen to guest star”. It reported a source told U.K.’s the Mail On Sunday, “They have both wanted it to happen for a while, but Jennifer has been too busy. She promised she would do it as soon as she finished promoting her new film, The Bounty Hunter, and it was Jen’s idea to play a lesbian. She wanted to do something different.”

In another news, Jennifer has reportedly told British TV show GMTV that she still opens reconciliation door for Brad Pitt. “Absolutely,” she said as quoted by OK! magazine. “Sometimes you meet each other at a time in your lives when you’re not necessarily ready and you’re not fully formed - you don’t sort of have the maturity it takes to be in a relationship.”

Her friend told OK!, “[Brad] was her only true love; she has always held out hope that they would get back together, and there have even been a few in-person meetings.” The friend added, “In her heart, Jen has always felt that Brad’s relationship with Angelina [Jolie] is just a very passionate fling. It’s lasted a lot longer than she ever expected, but she still thinks it has an expiration date. That’s why she said, ‘Never say never.’ “

There will be something conspicuously missing when Friends costar Lisa Kudrow guests on Courteney Cox’s ABC sitcom, Cougar Town, on Jan. 6: friendship.

“They didn’t want to play friends,” says executive producer Bill Lawrence, who quickly came up with a different role for Kudrow. “She plays a dermatologist who is a horrible, horrible person, but [Cox] goes to her because she’s the best. The [sight] of them playing people who dislike each other intensely was very funny for me to watch.”

If the execution is half as funny as the set-up, I think this is going to be a winner. What do you think? Excited to see the friends morph into enemies? And do you think it’s sad that I interrupted my vacay to post this story? (I have boundary issues.) Sound off below!

LOS ANGELES - Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox have reunited — but don’t expect them to be “Friends.”

The former co-stars will appear back together again on the small screen on Courteney’s new ABC single-camera sitcom “Cougar Town,” with Lisa guest-starring as a mean-spirited dermatologist.

“They didn’t want to play friends,” executive producer Bill Lawrence told Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello. “[Lisa] plays a dermatologist who is a horrible, horrible person, but [Courteney] goes to her because she’s the best.”

And seeing the two face off, he said, should be comedy gold.

“The [sight] of them playing people who dislike each other intensely was very funny for me to watch,” Bill said.

It’s not the first time a former “Friend”, has appeared in a Courteney TV project. In 2007, Jennifer Aniston appeared in a multi-episode arc on the second season of Courteney’s FX drama, “Dirt.”

Lisa’s “Cougar Town” episode is expected to air early next year.