ALL OVER BUT THE CRYING FOR ‘FRIENDS’
For the cast and crew of “Friends,” the walk-up to the taping of the show’s final episode last week was a bittersweet whirlwind.
There were no less than three major parties – an intimate one at star Jennifer Aniston and hubby Brad Pitt’s $13.5 million mansion, another at a trendy L.A. restaurant and a pull-out-the stops blowout at a hotel last Saturday night. “The party was beautiful and sweet,” Aniston tells the latest edition of People magazine, as part of an inside look at the show’s final week. “And sad.”
Other treats included gifts. Diamond earrings from the producers to the female cast members and cuff-links to the men. The cast in turn gave each of the show’s producers inscribed Cartier watches.
The final episode was taped last Friday in front of an audience of about 250 friends and family of the cast and crew. All were sworn to secrecy about how the series ends, and some scenes were taped ahead of time.
As the audience began to applaud during the opening theme song, the entire cast began to cry and had to go back and have their makeup redone.
Emotions on the set continued to run high throughout the taping, which was also filmed on a small video camera by actor David Arquette, husband of cast member Courteney Cox.
When Cox repeatedly flubbed a line, Matthew Perry joked, “Somebody is gonna get fired,” said frequent guest star Maggie Wheeler, who played Janice, Chandler’s kooky ex-girlfriend.
But by the time the show finished taping, most of the cast and crew were openly weeping.
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