She turned 40 earlier this month. And her life, says actress Jennifer Aniston, has never been better.
'I feel better than I have ever felt in my life. Physically, I feel the best, and I'm the happiest I have ever been. I'm working and I love my career. I get to work with great people and I feel fortunate.'
Why shouldn't she? She is on a roll. She has landed her first major hit with Marley & Me, a family comedy about the 'worst dog in the world', and her other film, the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You, is also beating up the competition.
Marley opened on Dec 25 last year in the United States, grabbing the top spot at the box office.
The simple tale of a rambunctious, untrainable labrador retriever and its exasperated owners trounced big-budget prestige dramas such as The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, which stars Aniston's ex-husband Brad Pitt, and the Tom Cruise-led thriller Valkyrie.
The dog tale's US$14.7-million (S$22.4-million) one-day haul on its opening day set an all-time record for a Christmas release in the US.
Likewise, He's Just Not That Into You was the biggest opener in the US on Feb 7 at US$27.7 million, edging out the Steve Martin-led The Pink Panther 2, the thriller Push and the dark children's fable Coraline.
The successes must come as a relief to the actress. She has appeared in a string of movies since she stopped playing Rachel Green in the decade-long hit sitcom Friends in 2004, with none able to match her massive TV popularity.
Speaking at a press conference for Marley & Me at the Casa Del Mar hotel in Los Angeles in early December, Aniston seemed at ease, if wary of questions that strayed too closely into her personal life.
Wearing a close-fitting black dress by British-based designer Roland Mouret and sporting a deep tan, the actress said her role as Jenny Grogan, the aspiring journalist-turned-housewife who has to give up her meticulously planned ambitions of career success, stood in contrast to her own attitudes.
'I am not a planner. I did not think, 'I am going to grow up and be married and have kids'. I was just, 'Get me out of the house',' she said with a laugh.
'I thought, 'Just let me survive long enough to get my own apartment'. I have always been an 'in-the-moment' person.'
The film is based on the 2005 New York Times best-selling book of the same title, written by newspaper columnist John Grogan. The book chronicles the 13 years that Marley spent with him, his wife Jenny and their children.
The movie calls for Aniston's character to embark on a journey of anger and loss as she sees opportunities shrivel with the birth of one child after another.
'My character gets to the point where she learns to throw her expectations away because that is not the road she is going to go down,' she said. This is when she finds peace, she added.
Luckily, as an actress, she would never be forced to choose between her career and family.
She said: 'I am lucky enough not to have to make that choice. As actors, we have the luxury of taking a couple of years off if we need to. That is the luxury of our careers. And we have the luxury of being able to ask for help at home.'
Her comments about career and children echo events which swirled around her after her split with husband Pitt. Their divorce in 2005 after five years of what seemed to be a fairy-tale marriage took place amid media reports that she had told the actor she would never have children as long as she could have a career.
She has since denied the allegations, saying that she does want to have children of her own eventually.
Musician John Mayer is her current boyfriend. They attended the Academy Awards together on Sunday.
'I don't have an ideal relationship and I don't think there is such a thing,' she said.
Also speaking to the press was her Marley co-star Owen Wilson, who was looking relaxed and happy a year after he was rushed to hospital following a suicide attempt. The movie is the first he has made since the incident on which he has kept quiet.
Like Aniston, the 40-year-old actor said he was not much of a planner. He had a vague ambition of wanting to be a movie star when he was young, but growing up in Dallas, Texas, meant that such dreams seemed foolhardy.
'My brothers and I saw every movie that came out, but it did not seem possible to be an actor. If I had said, 'I am going to Hollywood', people would have said I was putting on airs.'
His career blossomed after Bottle Rocket, his 1996 writing-acting breakthrough feature film with indie director and frequent collaborator Wes Anderson.
From there on, his easy-going charm has been used to good effect in several successful comedies (Shanghai Noon, 2000; Starsky And Hutch, 2004).
With his Hollywood break coming so easily, it is no surprise that he would rather let things happen. He said he has become 'superstitious' about avoiding planning.
His affable nature does not appear to be a put-on, judging from his response to critics who find the movie's unquestioning acceptance of destructive dog behaviour hard to swallow.
Wilson said that difficult and destructive pets, like the hyperactive Marley, often become the most valued because of what they teach owners about themselves.
In the film, the dog wrecks furniture, swallows jewellery and frequently runs off on his own, leading his owners on a merry chase around town.
Wilson said his own pet, an Australian cattle dog named Garcia, was 'super high energy and rambunctious' as a puppy.
'It was work getting through the phase. But those trying times ended and you appreciate your pet more when it finally settles down,' he said.
While admitting that some dogs can be trying for their owners, he said there were others that were just the opposite, which could also be a problem.
When he first came to Los Angeles to make a living as an actor, he stayed with his younger brother Luke, also an actor, in a seedy part of town with a labrador, Blue.
'We were robbed three times. Twice, with our dog there and the cop was like, 'You need to get a new dog'. Labradors are so friendly, even to criminals,' he said.
Aniston, too, admitted to personal dog issues - but for her, it is because her own dogs have become paparazzi-attracting celebrities in their own right.
Norman, a corgi-terrier mix, and Dolly, a German shepherd, are now famous because of their appearances with her on television chat shows and in magazine shoots. She is now stopped on the street by people who want to talk to her dogs, she said.
'It's weird that they are recognised. But I am cutting them off. No more Oprah. No more Vogue,' she joked.
This article was first published in The Straits Times.