Fat, greying and struggling for work - would you be Friends with them now?

By Paul Scott

Aged: Matt LeBlanc, pictured last week, left, looks a far cry from the ladies' man Joey Tribbiani he played in Friends


One recent Saturday morning at an unprepossessing roadside diner in the hills above Malibu, three men are gathered around a small, rickety corner table sharing a low-key late breakfast.
As first impressions go, they make for a rather glum-looking triumvirate, hunched over plates of Danish pastries and nursing half-empty mugs of coffee.

Dressed down in jeans and T-shirts, they are marked out only by the arrival at their table of a procession of nervous fellow diners bearing paper napkins for the three men to sign.

Indeed, were it not for the presence of these impromptu autograph-hunters, the casual observer would be forgiven for thinking they were watching a scene from the fictional Central Perk coffee shop, made famous in the much-loved sitcom Friends.

On this occasion, however, the show's three male stars, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry, are very much off-duty. They are meeting for one of their male-bonding sessions that have become a semi-regular fixture since the series ended nearly six years ago.

More and more, however, these once cosy get-togethers have begun to resemble something more akin to a self-help group than a chance to catch up over a low-fat latte.

Which is hardly surprising, perhaps, given the increasingly parlous state of their respective careers - not to mention the trio's equally disastrous private lives.

Suffice to say that, these days, their meetings are hardly a bundle of laughs. Take, for example, Matt LeBlanc.

After four years during which his career has resembled a tundra-like wasteland and following the humiliating cancellation of his Friends spin-off series, Joey, in 2006, he has at long last landed another acting job.

On the face of it, his new role does not sound like the sort of thing that one might imagine LeBlanc - who played the dim-witted Joey Tribbiani in Friends - would instantly have been attracted to.


Career slump: Matthew Perry has been in two TV shows since Friends - both of which were cancelled - and his films have flopped


In his new comedy series, Episodes, which is being made jointly by U.S. cable channel Showtime and the BBC, LeBlanc will play himself in a fly-on-the-wall-style drama about a downmarket TV reality show.

In one early scene, however, art seems to reflect life rather unflatteringly, as LeBlanc is forced to audition for the role of himself with a group of younger and better-looking actors.

After he tries out for the part, the scene cuts to a member of the show's staff, who asks the producer what he thought of LeBlanc's performance. To which the producer replies: 'I think we've got better.'

This can be seen in one of two ways: as a knowing, post-modern take on the cult of celebrity, or the ritual humiliation of a one-time big shot on the slide, who is so desperate for any starring role he is prepared to demean himself by being the butt of a rather lame gag.

Either way, Hollywood gossip that, following a series of delays and haggling over money, plans are nearing completion to bring Friends back for a big-screen version could not come at a better time for LeBlanc and his co-stars.


Struggling for work: David Schwimmer has failed to land any starring roles


Though given the actor's almost unrecognisable appearance this week when he made a rare public outing, perhaps the joke that he can't even land the role of himself might not seem so improbable.

The 42-year-old one-time heart-throb cut a distinctly portly figure as he left Hollywood's trendy Katsuya Japanese restaurant.

Gone was LeBlanc's trademark dark foppish fringe, replaced by a greying head of salt-and-pepper hair.

Meanwhile, his baggy jeans and lumberjack shirt did little to hide the extra pounds he has clearly gained since disappearing from our screens.

Few could blame him, though, if he has been feeling the urge to comfort eat. The cancellation - because of falling ratings - of Joey, which saw the fictional out-of-work actor from Friends relocating from New York to Hollywood, coincided with the breakup of his marriage to British-born model Melissa McKnight.

The couple, who married in a lavish ceremony in Hawaii in 2003, went on to have a daughter, Marina, now four, and moved into a palatial estate in Santa Barbara, California.


Flop: In Dirt, Courteney Cox played a role completely different to her Friends character Monica, but the show was cancelled over poor ratings


Shortly after her birth, Marina was diagnosed with cortical dysplasia, which causes seizures and affects bones and muscles. The actor and Miss McKnight split after only three years after LeBlanc admitted groping a stripper in a Canadian nightclub in 2006.

There were also rumours he was seeing his co-star in Joey, Andrea Anders. To make matters worse, the stripper, Stephanie Stephens, launched a libel action against LeBlanc after he shamefacedly confessed their liaison to an American newspaper and accused her of egging him on.

At the same time, a former business manager hit him with a $1 million (£600,000) writ for alleged non-payment of commission.

Since then, LeBlanc, who was an out-of-work actor with less than ten dollars to his name when he first landed his role as the womanising Joey in 1994, has become something of a reclusive figure.

One leading American casting director told me this week: 'Matt's career is flatlining. It might seem like he's lowering himself to take this new cable series, but it's a case of needs-must to try to keep his profile up. The simple fact is, he's just not getting offered good parts.'

But he has not been alone in suffering what has become known in Hollywood as 'The Curse of Friends'.

Matthew Perry, who played uptight Chandler Bing, has also seen his career flounder.

Following the final series of the sitcom in 2004, which followed the messy private lives of a group of six New Yorkers, Canadian Perry has watched his once blue-chip stock in Tinseltown slump dramatically.


Forgettable supporting role: Lisa Kudrow, left, pictured with Hilary Swank and Gina Gershon in the PS I Love You


In 2006, he landed the lead role as a TV writer in the much-vaunted Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. But it was dropped by U.S. network NBC after one series because of poor ratings and mixed reviews.

Perry's attempts at a film career have been equally disappointing. He starred as a chronically depressed film writer in the quickly forgotten movie Numb, which was mauled by critics and flopped at the box office.

It was a role that required precious little dramatic invention from 40-year-old Perry.

He has admitted to suffering from depression, and has said he locked himself away for days on end in his Hollywood Hills home to escape the pressure of fame. He has also fought a long battle with addictions to drink and prescription drugs.

His problems began ten years ago when he checked into a Minnesota clinic after he became addicted to the painkiller Vicodin, following a jet-ski accident.

At his lowest ebb, he was drinking two pints of vodka a day and swallowing up to 30 tablets. At the same time, he was admitted to hospital with agonising pancreatitis - an inflammation often caused by drink and drugs abuse.

Then Perry had to abandon filming the box office flop Serving Sara, in which he co-starred with Elizabeth Hurley, to check into rehab again.

His latest film role, in last year's 17 Again, saw him playing second fiddle to High School Musical heart-throb Zac Efron.

Meanwhile, Perry's attempt to make a return to TV last year, as a foulmouthed afternoon radio talk show host in a sitcom called The End Of Steve, ended in disappointment when the series was scrapped after just one pilot episode.

He will next appear on screen in the U.S. this year as a down-on-his-luck sports stadium manager in yet another sitcom, Mr Sunshine.


Exception: Only Jennifer Aniston has managed to have a successful film career and hasn't aged since her time on Friends


Like his co-star LeBlanc, Perry has something of a chequered love life. He has dated Hollywood leading ladies such as Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts. Since 2002, he has been seeing actress Lauren Graham, but it's been an on-off relationship.

Perry's co-star David Schwimmer, who played wimpy paleontologist Ross Geller in Friends, has previously resisted attempts to reunite the cast on the big screen.

He has spent the past six years working with his own small theatre group, the Looking-glass Theatre Company, in Chicago and has been trying to launch a career as a movie director. But he has had only limited success.

Three years ago, he directed Brit-flick Run, Fat Boy, Run, but he is said by friends to be frustrated that he has not been able to land the star acting roles in big budget movies that he had hoped for.

Last year, 43-year-old Schwimmer admitted he has gone back to auditioning for Hollywood parts, but has been turned down for a series of top roles.

He has to make do with a handful of guest appearances on American TV comedies such as 30 Rock and Entourage.

He recently admitted that despite his failure to make the step up from television to movie stardom, he is a self-confessed workaholic whose obsessive tendencies have cost him a string of beautiful girlfriends, including Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia, and actresses Mili Avital and Carla Alapont.

Like his female co-stars, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow, Schwimmer is said to have come around to the idea of making a movie version of the hit series - already christened Friends Reunited - following the success of the big screen adaptation of Sex And The City.


As they were: From left: Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc
According to insiders, it is Miss Aniston who has been most resistant to doing the film.

Until recently, she has been rather grandly declaring she is 'too famous' to return to her part as former waitress Rachel Green.

Of all the ex-Friends, she has had the most success. Last year she appeared in the box office hit Marley And Me, and she also starred in the successful The Break-Up.

But the 40-year-old Miss Aniston's stock has also slipped in recent times following a series of forgettable and lightweight films.

Even so, Jennifer has fared considerably better than 45-year-old Courteney Cox.

In 2008, her TV comeback - playing the editor of a celebrity magazine in Dirt, which was shown on Channel Five - was cancelled by its maker, U.S. cable channel FX, because of poor ratings.

Before signing up last year to another sitcom called Cougar Town, things had become so bad careerwise that Miss Cox, who played Monica Geller, applied for a licence to work as an estate agent.

Likewise, Lisa Kudrow has also seen her career flop since Friends. The 46-year-old blonde, who played Phoebe Buffay, has appeared in a series of forgettable, mostly supporting roles in a string of second rate comedies, including the 2007 turkey P.S. I Love You.

However, none of the former Friends - who are said to have negotiated £10million each with Warner Bros to reform on screen - would end up completely penniless if the film were not made.

They all receive substantial royalties every time re-runs of the series, which aired for ten years, are shown around the world.

By the time the last series ended, they were each being paid £500,000 an episode.

Nonetheless, the Friends in need will be hoping that their upcoming screen reunion revives their flagging Hollywood careers.


source: dailymail