Jennifer Aniston will soon be seen co-starring with Reese Witherspoon in “The Morning Show”, a new dramedy for the Apple TV+ streaming service that launches next month.
In the show, Aniston plays the longtime anchor of a network TV morning show whose world is rocked when her co-host (Steve Carell) is fired in a timely #MeToo scandal amid accusations of sexual misconduct.
When Aniston dropped by “The Howard Stern Show” on Monday, Stern addressed the elephant in the room.
“It’s hard for me to believe when I watch the first two episodes that this is not based on what happened to Matt Lauer on the ‘Today’ show,” Stern told Aniston, who insisted that wasn’t the case.
“No,” she replied.
“And by the way, it’s fascinating because it’s about a guy who’s one of the biggest morning star guys and he f**ks up and he gets thrown out,” continued Stern. “Very #MeToo. That’s Matt Lauer.”
However, Aniston insisted that Carell’s character isn’t entirely based on Lauer — only a little bit.
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“It’s a lot of people,” she explained. “He is the archetype for those, unfortunately many men who were — it was more than just Matt.”
“Carrell looks like Matt Lauer a bit, doesn’t he?” asked Stern.
“There is an uncanny resemblance,” the former “Friends” star agreed, while Stern contended that “people are going to say that” Carell’s character is based on Lauer.
“But it’s not,” said Aniston.
Interestingly enough, Aniston’s interview took place the day before the shocking allegations of rape were lodged against Lauer, with Variety outlining the accusations of former NBC News staffer Brooke Nevils in an upcoming book by Ronan Farrow, Catch and Kill.
Meanwhile, “The Morning Show” is set to debut on Friday, Nov. 1, the day that Apple TV+ officially launches.
