Some of you disagreed with me when I called Jennifer Aniston’s interview on Letterman awkward, and thought she did fine and countered that was a typical interview. Other people agreed that it was kind of a stilted exchange but were split on whether it was Aniston or Letterman’s fault.

This morning Aniston appeared on “The Early Show.” The Huffington Post has analysis of the interview, which they call “awkward,” but in this case if you agree with them you can see that the blame can squarely be placed on interviewer Harry Smith, who acted like a total fanboy around the star, gushing over how great she looked and asking goofy questions:

Smith didn’t talk at all about Aniston’s movie “Marley & Me,” other than playing a clip to introduce the segment, instead spending four minutes talking to Aniston about her appearance, her workout regimen and her life.

Holding up her naked-but-for-a-tie GQ cover, Smith said, “You take a pretty good picture. How old are you now?”

He then gifted her unprompted with an even-smaller bowtie for the next time.

In the minutes that followed Harry’s questions and comments included but were not limited to:

– How do you stay in shape?
– How many hours of yoga a day?
– You wear it well (told she was 39)
– It’s like this is your, Jennifer Aniston time
– You look great, I just, it, mm. It bears mentioning
– I’m blushing

[From The Huffington Post]

Aniston did get the chance to make some decent statements. Smith told her it was “her time,” referring to all the magazine covers and press she’s been getting, and she smartly turned it around into a more personal question and talked about how great she was doing:

“It is my time. I just feel like, you know, every woman that’s ever said… it just gets better. I just agree. You don’t know as much as you know in your 20s as you do in your 30s… I’m startin’ to live.”

As for her tabloid persona, she said that she thinks it’s humorous but kind of tries not to pay attention:

“I honestly see it as a different person… the headlines are just outrageous, so you usually get a kick out of that… You try to walk past it as fast as you possibly can.”

Maybe she’s just trying to get through these interviews as fast as she can too, and who can blame her with the way some of these people are acting. I think I understand now what she was telling Letterman about how journalists ask her ridiculous and strange questions.

What’s more is that there were paparazzi taking pictures of her right outside the window when she was doing that interview. You can tell from one of the paparazzi videos (link leads to video) that it was distracting her and that she was annoyed by it.

It’s got to be a royal pain in the ass to do all that press for a movie.

[quotes via Us Magazine]