'Like, that guy over there – isn't he gorgeous?' Cox says, pointing to what appears to be an anorexic leprechaun preening at the bar. She sees my horrified look, and I confess my tastes are more Sydney Greenstreet than Sid Vicious. 'Oh, for me, the scrawnier the better,' she says with satisfaction, taking a final swig from her glass and asking Dimitri, her favourite maître d', for just one more.
I wish I could tell this fellow that, were she not married – and make no mistake, Courteney Cox is very, very married – one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood could be his.
But get this: the Friends stunner with the Snow White colouring (black hair, alabaster skin, eyes almost purple), has her doubts. The guy at the bar, she thinks, wouldn't want her.
The big A, you know. Ageing. It gets to all of us. It really gets to Cox.
'As I get older, I find myself going, Wow, I can't believe I'm not the youngest any more! I can't believe that that guy over there [she points at our friend] wouldn't be attracted. I'm married; it's a non-issue. But I'm kind of like, Whoa! If I were single, that person wouldn't want to hang out with me.'
I give her what I hope is my best 'Don't screw with me' look, but she's on a roll.
'Let me tell you, there's a lot of pressure,' she continues. 'Which is why I always think women should be totally open with other women about what they do to make themselves look better.'
Without being high-maintenance in her soul, Cox's outer carapace is very well cared for. There are the weekly chiropractor appointments, the massage, the hair, the therapist, the facialist, the trainer. (Cardio five times a week, weekend tennis: 'I'd feel better about myself if I did stomach crunches, but I don't.') She is a generous creature, giving props to each and every person on Team Cox.
But how about the Beauty Treatment That Dare Not Speak Its Name? I'm shy about asking, but I'm squinting not too subtly at her forehead, trying to see if it moves. I don't even have to ask.
'Botox? I think it's fantastic and also horrible. I mean, they've come up with stuff that can make you not look angry. But I have to use it sparingly. I went to this doctor once, and he was like, "Oh, let me do it just here and here and here." And I was miserable. I mean I'm an actor, I've got to be able to move my face. When people start messing with their foreheads and can't lift their eyebrows, that's weird. It's not that I haven't tried Botox – but I hated it. You know you've messed up when people who are close to you say, "Whoa, what are you doing?"'
People like Cox's younger husband, David Arquette, who is adamantly against her getting any kind of plastic surgery. 'It's really important to him,' she says.
'He loves the ageing process. He thinks it's beautiful.' (Those rumours a few years back about breast implants, when she was filming The Longest Yard? I'm staring at her Libertine T-shirt with Steve McQueen on the front. My verdict? No way. 'At the time I had these huge boobs because I was breast-feeding,' she says.)
At the mere mention of Arquette's name, her entire face softens. There are a lot of things you can fake. This isn't one of them. 'I'm so in love with David right now,' Cox says. 'I'm really appreciating how "there" he is for me. But, in any relationship, there are times that you're disconnected. You can see how relationships end if you don't work through it.'
One thing Cox has figured out is motherhood, and its centrality to her life. 'I was a shy child, and Coco is so confident,' she says of her four-year-old daughter. 'She has a lot of people loving her.' It took Cox a while to get pregnant, so without asking, I launch into my 'Why it's great to be an only child' speech, presuming she is not interested in providing Coco with a sibling at this stage in her life. I'm wrong – she's going to try again, saying that she and Arquette have a few high-tech options up their sleeves (or, more accurately, in the deep freeze).
But in the meantime, while she frets, like the rest of us, about the advancing years, she is startled every day by the discrepancy between what our culture tells us we're supposed to feel about our inner selves and what she actually feels. 'You start picking yourself apart. But the weird thing is, I've never felt better physically,' she adds, with a note of wonder. 'I mean don't get me wrong; I've had a baby, so there are certain things that will never be the same. But I don't have to wear a bikini. I don't have to wear a miniskirt.'
'But you could,' I insist.
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Celebrity Interview
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