Hey folks, Harry here. I could really give a rat's ass about FRIENDS as a show about a group of whiney yuppie coffee addicts is about as interesting as FULL HOUSE to me. But it's this speculative 'longshot' that the FIG NEWTon let's out that Reese Witherspoon might be wooed to join the show. UGH! I swear to God that had better not happen. Right now, I feel that Reese Witherspoon is this brilliant theatrical actress with an amazing career ahead of her... Even if the blasted Academy didn't see fit to nominate her BRILLIANT turn in ELECTION (about 20 times Meryl Streep's performance in MUSIC OF THE HEART mind you). Sigh. It won't happen. (I have to keep telling myself that)

END OF FRIENDS

A pal on the inside has been telling me that Jennifer Aniston really wants out of Friends at the end of the season and has been vocal about it. Although the latest is that the cast is demanding a half-million dollar raise (to 600k/episode each), Aniston is hoping Warner and NBC both balk at deficiting an additional $3M per episode. Although Friends has been performing well, word is that NBC is still a bit miffed for being "held up" for a staggering license fee of $13M per episode of E.R., especially considering that it's numbers, while still good enough to put it consistantly in the top 3, are still below the last couple of seasons. Another longshot is, if Miss. Aniston decides to leave the show, that they will attempt to bring back Reese Witherspoon as Rachel's sister as the new "friend"... With it's sked in turmoil, NBC has a serious problem over here so it should be interesting to see what happens...

The FIG NEWTon