I used to hate romantic comedies starring Jennifer Aniston. Jennifer is beautiful, funny and has a winning personality – if the premise of a movie was “Jennifer Aniston has trouble finding a man,” then what kind of shot did the rest of us have?
Over the course of her career, Jennifer Aniston has experienced high-profile heartbreak after heartbreak. And now – conveniently hooked to her upcoming movie, “Love Happens” – she’s making the rounds as a relationship expert of sorts, telling us why relationships fail.

“I think a good relationship is about collaboration. I think you just need to talk to each other. Say what you need. Say what you want. That way it’s not threatening. You just need to say, ‘This is important to me.’ Don’t expect your mate to read your mind.”
She also puts some blame on women who don’t expect enough of their men from the beginning.
“I think that’s because it’s just instinctual as a woman to be the caretaker of your home. Women complain that men don’t do enough, but it’s your own fault,” she said. “You train your man to do nothing. You can’t blame someone for not knowing what his or her job should be if you don’t ask for it right off the bat.”

While I agree with her about the importance of communication – and my relationship track record isn’t at all that expertifying – the idea of “training your man” seems a little 1950s to me. And from what I’ve seen, men don’t like to be trained.
Having a relationship – and sharing living space – with anyone is hard. Having someone living in your environment means you’re giving up control of what that space looks like on any given day. You could mop the floor, and have a roommate traipse in with a bike right afterwards. Communication is hard, but makes it easier to relate to someone, whether they’re from Mars or Venus or any other planet.
Still, maybe we should just listen to Jennifer. She knows some secrets of relationships that she could teach us…for instance, to let the world know you’re in a happy relationship? Just release a statement through your lawyers.
Down-home, relatable dating advice, to be sure.

Of course, on-screen and off-screen aren’t the same thing–until that line was blurred by “The Break-Up,” a refreshingly ambivalent relationship movie with some laughs, but featuring real relationship drama, likely a smaller, more Hollywood version of Jennifer’s breakup during that time from husband Brad, who left her for Angelina (no last names necessary). During “The Break-Up,” there was co-star Vince Vaughn–while we love Vince and approved of him as a fun rebound for the former Rachel Green, we knew he wasn’t really the relationship material Jen was looking for. And this whole John Mayer thing, followed by the Bradley Cooper thing? Maybe she should choose a man who’s less pretty than she is.