Poor Jennifer Aniston. She's doing a round of interviews to promote her starring role in the new film The Good Girl, but the only thing reporters want to talk about is her TV show, Friends. She could hardly blame us, though. NBC execs have left the door wide open for the hit sitcom to continue after its upcoming ninth season, and even she isn't quite willing to slam it shut. "I think they're allowed to think that [it could go on], because God knows, actors are fickle," she tells TV Guide Online. "But I'm pretty sure it is [the last year]."With that out of the way, we gave Aniston a break and turned our attention to the day's real order of business: Which of Rachel's guy pals does she think her character should end up with Ross or Joey? "I really have no idea," the Emmy nominee insists, then offers this outcome with a laugh: "Chandler!" All right, we can take a hint Aniston has had enough Friend-ly small talk. We understand. She worked hard on The Good Girl, and it shows. Already, her performance as a woebegone small-town cashier stuck in a dead-end marriage has critics dancing in cineplex aisles. Finally, many suggest, she may have hit upon the vehicle that will turn her from a small-screen celebrity into a big-screen big deal. For her part, she certainly hopes so."I get the sense that something's happening, but you never know what that is," says the leading lady of such middling movies as The Object of My Affection, Office Space and last year's Rock Star. "But I'm [still] just thankful to get a job. I'm not at a point where I can just wave my hand and get one."In fact, Mrs. Brad Pitt had to fight to get cast in The Good Girl. She "wasn't the first person to come to mind" to play downtrodden heroine Justine Last, admits screenwriter Mike White (Chuck & Buck). "But who wouldn't want to see America's sweetheart get blackmailed for sex and cheat on her boyfriend? It just felt like a fresher choice."Tired of playing variations on Rachel, Aniston says that accepting the job once it was offered was a no-brainer. "I was frustrated and feeling a bit stuck as an actor. I kind of put it out there in my mind that I really wanted I needed to do something [different]. If I wanted to do this for a long time which is what I'm hoping to do I can't be put up on a shelf with a label on my head. I needed to prove to myself that I could do something other than sell coffee at a coffee shop."This is what is exciting for me, to get to do something like this and see if it's possible," continues the leading lady, who'll be seen next as Jim Carrey's significant other in Bruce Almighty. "Otherwise, I'll just do another television show."Aniston in another TV show?! Stop the presses she can't drop a bombshell like that and not expect to get asked at least one more Friends question: Should she one day headline her own series, is it safe to say that it wouldn't be a Friends spinoff? "That is safe to say," she replies, smiling graciously. "Or the movie in 20 years. That won't happen."  

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Jennifer Aniston isn't the only member of Friends's coffee-guzzling sextet keeping alive the possibility of a 10th season. Matthew Perry tells TV Guide Online that although he and his fellow castmates are "emotionally preparing ourselves for the very weird, scary moment when this is all going to be over," he concedes that "we thought last year was going to be the last year, too, though, so you can never say never."When the death knell is finally sounded likely at the end of the show's upcoming ninth season don't look to get your Chandler fix from a spinoff. "I feel like I've just been involved in maybe one of the greatest shows of all time, so I don't think I'm going to be too quick to head back into a risky situation, television-wise."Instead, he'll be focusing on his film career, which up to and including his latest effort Serving Sara (in theaters Aug. 23), co-starring Elizabeth Hurley has solely consisted of romantic comedies with a Chandler-like protagonist. Perry argues that the down-and-out process server he plays in Sara is a step in a new direction, however."There certainly is a darker side of me that hasn't really been played out in movies or on television," he laments. "I don't think it's good to go from Chandler to Raging Bull within one movie not that that's been offered to me but you try to make a transition."Perry might be trying for darker roles on-screen, but after spending 2001 in and out of rehab to kick a prescription-drug addiction, he's now hoping to emulate Chandler's newfound stability. "He's becoming much more of a man that's happened with me as well," admits the first-time Emmy nominee, who expects his alter ego's growth spurt to continue in the fall. "I think some of the stories of this season are going to be about possibly having a kid. The sweater vests have been thrown away."And as for the rumors that he's sliding back into self-destructive playboy mode? "If I go according to the tabloids this summer, I've gone off the wagon, I'm the father of Elizabeth Hurley's baby, I've dated 16 women I've never met, I'm married to Jennifer Capriati and that's just in the last three months," he laughs. "At a certain point, you have to sit back and laugh because I know there's not enough time in the day for me to do all those things. Hopefully, the smart people realize that."  

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Not since Dallas nearly knocked off J.R. Ewing in 1980 has a cliffhanger sparked as widespread a guessing game as the one that has erupted in the wake of this season's Friends finale. The $64,000 question: Who impregnated Rachel (Jennifer Aniston)? A recent TV Guide Online poll revealed that most viewers thought that the single gal's ex-husband Ross ought to stock up on cigars. But he is far from the only fellow who might ace a paternity test. In fact, next season the mom-to-be could conceivably find herself reading Dr. Spock with any of these potential fathers.   Charlie Mason Ross (David Schwimmer): Since their breakup, Rachel and her old flame have repeatedly reheated their romance heck, they even got hitched during a lost weekend in Vegas. Plus, just because the one booty call they scheduled on-screen was aborted doesn't mean that there couldn't have been others. Joey (Matt LeBlanc): Rachel's roomie has a rep for chasing anything that moves former flatmate Chandler (Matthew Perry) being the exception (we think). And, in the season ender, she made a crack about sleeping with the horndog in the next bedroom. So, add it up. There is, after all, a kernel of truth in every joke. Tag (Eddie Cahill): As the Geller-Bing nuptials neared, Rachel came to the painful (for the audience) conclusion that her boyish personal assistant wasn't, and never would be, old enough to tell her, "I do." Nonetheless, he certainly was mature enough to now be able to say, "You bet I did!" Paul (Bruce Willis): While dating the father of Ross's college co-ed sweetheart, Rachel had a great time razzing her former beau about his playmate's youth. Now, if she's carrying Paul's child, she can spend nine months kidding Ross that there's a 50/50 chance that she's making him a new girlfriend. Gunther (James Michael Tyler): Central Perk's morose manager could refuse java more easily than Rachel. So, maybe as wedding fever overcame her, she took advantage of his crush to remind herself that she's still desirable. If so, she can forget about withholding the papa's identity; a tuft of platinum-blond peach fuzz will give it away. Ralph Lauren: Although it has been established that Rachel's not exactly likethis with her boss, she did brush up against him in an elevator once. And since some of those new fabrics really breathe, the designing man's fall line could include a selection of mohair onesies. Brad Pitt: When Chandler needed a tuxedo, Rachel gave him his pick of celebrity hand-me-downs, from Val Kilmer's formalwear to Pierce Brosnan's. Therefore, there is no reason in the world why she couldn't also have helped the Tinsel Town sex symbol into or out of a penguin suit. Besides, can you imagine how cute their kids would be?