Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon have been making the rounds promoting their latest project, The Morning Show on Apple TV Plus. This has likely been exhausting for them, but delightful for all of us—we need these two to work together forever.
In a recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show, he got the duo—along with Sir Ian McKellan and Dame Julie Andrews—to take part in a little Friends trivia. With McKellan asking the questions, Witherspoon predicted that Aniston would ace the quiz. “Oh, she’s gonna win,” she said, to which Aniston replied, “Oh, I don’t know that.”
Aniston got the first question about what Rachel Green was wearing in her first scene. It was, of course, a wedding dress. Next up, Witherspoon answered with her iconic line from the episode where she plays Aniston’s younger sister, Jill: “Can’t have? The only thing I can’t have is dairy!” (The two actresses even recreated the scene recently.)
Remember when Rachel ruined the British trifle by putting beef in it? So does Aniston. And she even sang a few bars of “Baby Got Back” after the audience correctly remembered it as the song that Rachel and Ross used to get baby Emma to fall asleep. Not to be outdone, Witherspoon chimed in with the first line of the famed Friends theme song by The Rembrandts. But it was Andrews who got the final word by correctly answering the final question of the night.
“When Ross dated Rachel, why did he feel it was fine to sleep with other women?” McKellen asked.
“I know it! It’s because he said, ‘We were on a break,’” she replied. Ding, ding, ding! Sadly, there was not a follow-up where Andrews weighed in on whether Ross was right in that belief.
Honestly, everyone was probably just glad they didn’t have to identify Chandler Bing’s job.
Could we be any more excited about the latest way the fashion world is paying tribute to Friends?
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the show first airing on NBC, Ralph Lauren partnered with Warner Bros. Consumer Products to create the Wear-to-Work collection, inspired by one-time Ralph Lauren employee Rachel Green (played, of course, by Jennifer Aniston).
Ralph Lauren
Rachel was always the fashionista of the show. She may have started as a (not-so-great) waitress at the Central Perk, but it wasn’t long before she found her way to a job in the buying department at Bloomingdale’s and then eventually a role at Ralph Lauren. With ’90s and early aughts fashion having a moment right now, it’s the perfect time for an updated version of her chic workwear aesthetic. (As a young woman in starting her career in New York in the late ’90s, I can attest to the fact that Rachel Green was a definite role model for what to wear to the office.)
Ralph Lauren
“The collection, comprised of pieces from Polo and LAUREN Ralph Lauren, encapsulates the polished style synonymous with the iconic brand. The collection calls on tradition through pinstripe suiting, crested blazers, and equestrian- inspired accessories, while enhancing these classic pieces with navy and orange color-blocking and pops of leopard to offer a fresh fall spirit,” the brand said in a statement. The campaign was shot in recreations of Monica and Rachel’s apartment and the Central Perk, which truly hit all of my nostalgia buttons.
The most painfully awkward episode of Friends isn’t the one where Ross gets that God-awful spray tan or Chandler and Rachel eat cheesecake off the floor. Nope, that honor goes to the fifth episode of Season 2, “The One With Five Steaks and an Eggplant,” when the six friends get uncomfortably real about a topic all twenty-somethings think about: money.
If you blocked this cringe-worthy episode from your memory, here’s a quick synopsis: Rachel, Phoebe, and Joey start feeling like Chandler, Monica, and Ross aren’t aware that they make less money than them. What seems like pennies to some—$33 dinners, $50 Hootie and the Blowfish tickets—is actually difficult for the others to swing. They have a terse conversation about this at a restaurant that goes nowhere. Chandler makes awkward jokes.
The Rich Friends’ solution to this drama is to comp the Poor Friends’ Hootie and the Blowfish tickets, which comes off more condescending than sincere. The Poor Friends reject the tickets, so the Rich Friends go without them and have a blast. The next day, the Rich Friends say they “missed” the Poor Friends at the show but won’t feel bad for making more money than them. Everyone starts arguing and then, as if on cue, Monica gets fired, instantly turning her into a Poor Friend.
Why these 27-year-olds morphed into screaming toddlers when they talked about money is still a mystery. They are six highly-functioning, intelligent people, for crying out loud. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to the Rich Friends that Rachel (a waitress who turned down her inheritance), Phoebe (a massage therapist), and Joey (a struggling actor) aren’t exactly rolling in the dough. But, for some reason, it was. There’s a lot to break down about this episode—and not much of it is good. There are some important lessons in here, though, so let’s just get down to it:
How it went—
Joey: “We three feel that sometimes you guys don’t get that we don’t have as much money as you.”
Monica: (Seemingly self-implodes)
Chandler: (Head practically falls off)
Ross: (Winces like he’s getting a root canal)
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How it should’ve gone—
Monica, Chandler, and Ross (in unison, like a choir of angels): Wow, thanks for bringing up that topic, fellow friends and human beings. Let’s have an honest conversation about our financial situations so we can better set our social expectations going forward!
At the end of the episode, Joey says their money fight is “stupid,” and Phoebe notes they shouldn’t let “this kind of stuff” get in the way of the group dynamic. Both of these sentiments are incorrect, though. On the contrary, money isn’t stupid; it’s an important component to how we live our lives and interact with others.
And the only way to make sure it’s not a “thing” is to talk about it. Having an open, nonjudgmental rapport with your friends about money allows you to just straight-up say, “I can’t really afford [XYZ] right now” and have the world not end. In Friends’ instance, though, their awkward, chilly approach to money practically ensures it will always be a problem for them. This doesn’t mean that Chandler, Monica, and Ross have to forego pricey activities, either. It just means they shouldn’t assume that everyone’s on the same playing field as them. Talk first, then ask for cash.
How it went—
Chandler: [Here are] six tickets to Hootie and the Blowfish!
Joey: (Kicks and screams)
Phoebe: (Breathes fire)
Rachel: (Frowns)
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How it should’ve gone—
Phoebe, Rachel, and Joey (in unison, like cheerleaders): Wow, thanks for the gesture, friends and fellow human beings! In the future, could you run something like this past us first? We don’t want you guys to start feeling like you have to pay for everything now.
The Rich Friends weren’t intentionally trying to belittle the Poor Friends here, so Phoebe, Joey, and Rachel didn’t have to respond as aversely as they did. However, the emotions they feel here are certainly valid. If you just told your friends you were struggling with money, and then they turned around and bought you something expensive, that might feel like “charity,” as Joey put it. Again, this all comes back to communication. I’ve had friends spot me for things when I can’t afford them, but we always discuss it prior so it doesn’t feel like a hand-out—and, more often than not, I return the favor down the line. They should’ve just talked about this first—as normal adults do.
How it went—
Chandler: I’m sorry we make more money than you, but we’re not ‘gonna feel guilty about it. We work really hard for it.
Joey: And we don’t work hard?
Chandler: Sometimes we like to do stuff that costs a little more.
Joey: Oh, and you feel like we’re holding you back?
Chandler: Yes.
All the friends except for Monica, who’s about to get fired: (Launch World War III inside Central Perk)
Cut to the 2:48 mark in the video, below, to see this scene.
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How it should’ve gone—
Chandler: I’m sorry that our financial situations are different, friends and fellow human beings! Instead of bragging about it, we’ll be sure to talk the logistics of an outing before all agreeing to go.
Joey, Rachel and Phoebe (in unison): That would be amazing. Thank you!
(Everyone hugs, and Monica doesn’t get fired—because that was some bullshit.)
The most frustrating part about this episode is that the friends’ money awkwardness never gets resolved. Instead, it’s put on the back-burner once Monica tells them she lost her job, and it’s never mentioned again. This episode is 22 minutes long but no one ever faces “the money thing” head on—and that’s the problem.Would that have been as funny? No, which is perhaps why the episode wasn’t arced that way. Friends is a sitcom, after all.
But it would’ve been more realistic. After seeing this episode, I was afraid to talk to my friends about money. I was worried they’d react the same way as Chandler, Ross, and Monica here, but they didn’t. The dialogue I have with my social circle about money is honest and kind, which makes planning things easy, and judgment-free. Had the six friends just done that they probably could’ve gone to that silly concert together. And Phoebe could’ve had her eggplant.
On Jan. 12, a video hit social media that appeared to be from a forthcoming Friends reunion film titled, what else, “Friends: The Movie.” The trailer was a tear-jerker, to say the least, and quickly went viral. After all, who hasn’t wondered what Joey, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe, Ross and Rachel have been up to over the last 14 years?
As the video, which has racked up 9 million views since its posting, described, the film is “a continuation and finale to the hit TV series Friends. This picks up a few years where the final season left off with Ben and Emma grown up. Mike and Phoebe have trouble with marriage, Monica and Chandler are getting a divorce, Joey couldn’t find someone, and Ross and Rachel have trouble after many years of not being together!”
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A dream come true for ’90s kids everywhere, right? Sadly, the trailer is just a fake, created by a clever mix of the Friends actors’ recent TV and movie appearances. Still, both Ross Geller and Phoebe Buffay themselves are here to set the record straight.
During a recent interview on Meghan Kelly Today, David Schwimmer said, “I doubt it—I really doubt it,” about the potential for a Friends reunion ever happening. “Look, the thing is, I just don’t know if I want to see all of us with crutches [and] walkers,” he added. And during an appearance on Conan, Lisa Kudrow added that a show about 50-somethings with the same problems as their 20-something characters would just be “sad.”
“They’re rebooting everything,” the actress said with a laugh. “I don’t know how that works with Friends, though. That was about people in their 20s, 30s. The show isn’t about people in their 40s, 50s. And if we have the same problems, that’s just sad.”
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While the group may never return to television together, you can rest assured the cast does remain friendly in real life. As Kudrow told the Today Show in 2017, “We have convened, privately, for dinner, and it was great.”
