This week’s National Enquirer features Brad and Angelina’s supposed custody battle for Shiloh on the cover along with an inset photo of Courteney Cox and David Arquette with the headline “Split: Courteney Cox’s marriage falls apart.” Just like the Brad and Angelina non-story, which we covered on Monday, the Courteney Cox and David Arquette split is a whole lot of speculation based on known facts about the couple.

Courteney is working on her show Dirt, and the Enquirer says that David must be pissed because she’s focusing on her career, and they haven’t had another baby yet. It’s also supposedly a big deal that they show up to events without each other. Courteney’s old admission that they sought therapy for their marriage is repeated several times, even though it’s a quote from last summer. All this speculation is done tabloid-style in the guise of nasty insider quotes. There hasn’t been one public fight, one staff member who blabbed, or any other detail to back up this story. It’s all “experts” and “insiders” saying they must be having trouble.

What’s more is that their vacation in Hawaii with Jennifer Aniston, in which they were seen kayaking with their daughter and having fun, is used as some kind of twisted evidence that they’re doomed, since Aniston and Pitt broke up right after a vacation with Cox and Arquette back in 2005.

In a recent effort to work on their relationship, they took a trip to Hawaii together – but it was hardly a second honeymoon because Courteney’s best friend Jennifer Aniston traveled with them!

Ironically, Jen and Brad Pitt announced their split just days after taking a tropical vacation with Courteney and David in 2005. And insiders don’t expect Courteney and David’s trip to work miracles for their relationship, either.

Long considered an odd couple because of their contrasting personalities – Courteney, 43, is a self-described perfectionist, and David, 35, is known for being laid-back and kooky – they were once believed to have one of Hollywood’s most loving marriages.

But sources say David and Courteney appeared to have grown apart in recent years – spending a substantial amount of time away from one another.

“They seem to be living separate lives,” said the insider.

While Courteney is hard at work on the second season of her TV series “Dirt” – and although David is involved in the production – she spends a lot of free time with the other cast members.

I think David wanted Courteney to shlow down after the first season ended, so they could work on getting pregnant with their second child, “but she went straight into pre-production for the second season,” added the insider.

“Courteney’s first child had to be conceived in vitro, so if she wants another, she has to really stop what she’s doing and focus on getting pregnant.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 3, 2007]

The article goes on to say that Courteney “must… feel like she just married a big kid who will never be as mature as her,” and that they “are hanging on right now, but it’s by a thread.”

Can you imagine being a celebrity and having to read shit like that? It’s the nastiest kind of gossip, stuff that declares your relationship is doomed based on your careers, your personalities, and the fact that you brought a friend along on a family vacation.

Reading those “insider” quotes makes me picture a bitter old housewife sitting in her 1970s kitchen wearing a housedress and smoking a cigarette. She’s bitching to her meek neighbor, who just hangs around for the lousy company, about all their other neighbors who are much happier than she is and don’t think about her much. Everyone knows her husband is cheating on her with his secretary, but she’s so busy focusing on other people that she’s oblivious.

Back in November Courteney said she wasn’t trying to have a sibling for Coco yet as she wanted to wait until she was old enough to help with the baby, but that they were considering another child. It doesn’t sound like she’s desperate for another one or anything. Maybe she should just give vague quotes to the press from now on instead of letting us know anything about her life, because it’s bound to be used to generate any type of story they want to. You can see how the celebrities flip out at the paparazzi. They get the pictures that are used for obnoxious stories like this one, and they’re always buzzing around like flies.

Header image is of Courteney and David at Il Sole back in May. Thanks to Splash News.