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Mike's biography of Jennifer Aniston
is now available from Barnes&Noble.com!
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FROM JENNIFER ANISTON:
From late spring through the summer of 2000, a season of excitement beckoned for Jennifer
Aniston. In May, Jennifer and her five co-stars on the hit television comedy FRIENDS won raises that boosted their salaries
to $750,000 per show over two years. All told, the young actress enjoyed a $20 million payday.
Two months
later, Jennifer appeared at the end of a long aisle, wearing a beautiful wedding dress. The bright California sunshine drew
eyes to the floor length silk and satin bridal gown that clung to her slender figure. In her hands, Jennifer carried a fragrant
bouquet of Dutch Vendela roses.
Step by step, Jennifer followed behind gaily dressed flower girls, happily strewing
petals and blowing bubbles. One of them was Jennifer's niece, the daughter of her brother John and his wife Shannon. Smiles
went all around the wedding party. Never before had Jennifer experienced a more poignant moment in her life. Today, July 29,
2000, Jennifer Aniston was marrying the intense, handsome film star Brad Pitt!
The media had buzzed about possibility
of a Pitt-Aniston wedding for months. The press coverage grew particularly frenzied after Jennifer flashed a glittering engagement
ring at a Sting concert just before Thanksgiving, 1999. Although Jennifer was a rich and successful American actress, the
romantic love she had always craved in her life had been missing.
Until now.
The couple had
selected an elegant venue for their wedding. Perched on a hillside overlooking Malibu, the lush garden setting was heady with
the scent of colorful sprays containing 50,000 flowers. Celebrity watchers estimated that the cost for the festivities was
in excess of one million dollars.
As a six-piece band struck up the classic song, "Love Is the Greatest
Thing," Jennifer's father John Aniston, a distinguished-looking man in his 60s, smiled and took his daughter's arm. For
12 years, John Aniston had played the part of Victor Kiriakis on the long-running daytime soap series, DAYS OF OUR LIVES.
Now he perfectly filled his role as father of the bride.
The guests in front caught their first glimpse of
Jennifer as she approached the canopied altar. They oohed and aahed over her stunning gown, handmade by Lawrence Steele, a
dress designer to the stars. It was cut low in the back and decorated with scads of tiny glass beads.
Besides
the gorgeous gown, Jennifer's hair was another object of much whispered comment. Her long, naturally flowing locks fell below
her shoulders in a sun-kissed cascade.
When Jennifer first appeared on the scene in the mid-1990s as one of
the exciting new stars of the popular television comedy FRIENDS, women across the country immediately started copying her
unique hairstyle. Because the way Jennifer wore her hair on her wedding day would surely be imitated, careful attention had
been paid to her look.
Jennifer had called on a special man to dress her hair for the ceremony. He was the noted
stylist Chris McMillan, inventor of the original "Rachel Shag" that had been so vastly admired. A couple of days
before the wedding, McMillan trimmed Jennifer's long tresses with a sharp razor. This removed the split ends that often spoil
long hair and gave it a soft, full look. Then, on the afternoon of the wedding, McMillan applied a volumizing spray and blow
dried it, using a large round brush to give it better lift at the roots.
Next, McMillan curled the underneath
layers, to help improve the body. Once that was done, he tied some of the strands in tiny knots, to keep the hair away from
Jennifer's face during the ceremony.
It wasn't all for show. Despite the emphasis on outward appearances, the
wedding clearly highlighted Jennifer Aniston's steely self determination. She had always insisted on being her own person
and made many sacrifices to succeed at her profession. Now she was joining hands with the man she loved. Together, they would
create the warm and loving family life they both dreamed about.
Jennifer wanted to show the world there was
more to her than mere appearances. She often resented it when people focused on her hair and ignored the effort that went
into her acting. She had risen from a modest background to make herself an instantly recognized star. Like her fabulously
successful husband, Jennifer had been lucky, but she had also worked very hard.
As her FRIENDS character Chandler
Bing (played by Matthew Perry) might have said: "Could life GET any better?"
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Photo by
Michael Thompson
VANITY FAIR
May, 2001
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