IS Team Aniston losing its sheen?

In 2005, when Jennifer Aniston divorced Brad Pitt in a highly-publicised break-up, everyone's hearts went out to the Friends actress.

Pitt went on to shack up with sexpot Angelina Jolie and her bevy of adopted children.

And Aniston milked scores of sympathy points as the sad, jilted wife whose husband had dumped her for a sexier woman.

These days, the odds are less in the 39-year-old actress' favour.

Desperate, attention-seeking, obsessed - these are some adjectives that have been thrown her way.

Top of the heap is a sexy photo spread Aniston did for the January issue of GQ magazine, where she is wearing nothing but a tie.

The other pictures in the magazine show her - with that same striped tie covering her naughty bits - frolicking with a bevy of semi-naked hunks.

Then there are her recent slew of interviews, where she appears to be having a case of sour grapes.

She told Vogue that it was 'uncool' of Jolie to reveal how she could not wait to see Pitt on the set of the movie Mr & Mrs Smith when he was still married to Aniston.

Aniston later claimed she was misquoted.

Then in GQ, she sarcastically calls the whole mess with Pitt and Jolie as an 'insane Bermuda Triangle'.

Aniston also contradicts herself by slamming the paparazzi for being obsessed with her personal life, then happily gushes about her new boyfriend, singer John Mayer.

What happened to our favourite Friend? The woman who coolly maintained her composure throughout her messy and public divorce?

Do-gooder

To make matters worse, Aniston's frivolous diatribe is a stark contrast to her ex's do-gooder humanitarian work.

Now promoting his latest movie, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Pitt gave an extensive interview with Rolling Stone recently, but never once mentioned his ex-wife.

Entertainment columnists and online bloggers have now come out to criticise Aniston, saying she clearly has not moved on beyond the break-up three years ago.

The Huffington Post's Bonnie Fuller calls Aniston 'the Wendy Whiner of celebrities', saying: 'If you really don't want to be in the headlines, why don't you zip your lips about your ex and his baby momma.'

The Boston Herald also slammed Aniston's GQ picture spread, saying: 'Aniston sues magazines and websites for publishing topless shots of her but shows skin on the cover of Rolling Stone, in the movie The Break-Up and The Good Girl, to name a few naked truths.'

Catty E! Online's gossip columnist Ted Casablanca pulled no punches: 'Whatever happened to getting a damn good role like The Good Girl, Derailed, even, selling the crap out of it without taking your bra off - and showing up Angelina with a buzzworthy flick?'

One studio executive tattled to OK! magazine: 'She is coming across as being bizarrely obsessed with Angelina. It's time for her to stop talking about Angelina and move on.'

Even the American public seems to be getting tired of its favourite girl next door.

On online forums - where the GQ picture is being generously circulated - one online reader sniped: 'It's sad to see her trying to be sexy when she's not.'

Another added: 'Jennifer Aniston might as well walk around with the word 'desperate' stamped on her forehead. She is desperate to remain relevant.

'This is what the nude photoshoot is all about. It's the oldest trick in the Hollywood play book.'

But some observers are seeing Aniston's media offensive as a testament of her PR savvy and star power.

After all, GQ will probably be laughing all the way to the bank when its January issue hits stands in the US this week.

Conveniently, she has a new movie, Marley & Me, out in theatres in the US (it will show in Singapore in February), even as she is stirring up talk with her nude photoshoot.

Remember how her off-screen relationship with co-star Vince Vaughn turned her mediocre 2006 movie The Break-Up into a box-office smash?

Yet, The Huffington Post's Ken Levine believes that even if it is not about ticket sales, Aniston remains a top-seller.

He writes: 'I can't think of a single box-office smash she has starred in. And yet, she receives this much attention. What it says to me is this: Jennifer Aniston is an official movie star.'

And as she is hitting the big 40, Aniston revealed to GQ that the photo shoot was 'empowering'.

She said: 'I feel more comfortable today than I ever did in my 20s or early 30s. I'm healthier. I'm more at peace in my mind and with my body.'

She also said to People magazine: 'You just have to love your life. I have my health, I have my friends, I have my loved ones. I'm extremely lucky.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 23, 2008.