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Exclusive! Our shoot with Jen and Vince | 11229__breakup3_l
VAUGHN & ANISTON PHOTOGRAPHS BY GAVIN BOND

As ironic titles go, The Break-Up is a doozy. It's a story about a man and woman who fall out of love...and it stars a woman coming off one of the most publicized divorces in history. Aniston's split from her husband of five years, Brad Pitt, and his concurrent union with Angelina Jolie were all anybody seemed to be talking about when The Break-Up began shooting last summer. Paparazzi followed Aniston's every move. But when it grew clear that she and Vaughn were becoming more than mere colleagues, the media turned up the heat full blast. To this day, the actors are trying to keep their relationship quiet. But their unmitigated failure to do so has made The Break-Up one of the most buzzed-about films of the summer.

And yet, even without all the artistic imitations of life, The Break-Up — about a Chicago odd couple who split but refuse to leave the condominium they jointly own — would have been news: Opening June 2, it's one of Hollywood's few hopes for a breakout romantic comedy this summer, and it features two big stars with a lot to prove.

Aniston, 37, is two years removed from her jackpot-striking 10-year run on Friends, and despite the box office success of Bruce Almighty three years ago, her film career has yet to soar. Derailed, Rumor Has It, and Friends With Money all failed to announce her arrival as a movie star, and The Break-Up (for which she's earning $7 million — what she once made in just seven episodes on TV) will go a long way in helping Hollywood determine whether she can be counted on to draw the legions that she once commanded on the tube. ''I'm not sitting there trying to figure out ways to get people to go in and see movies,'' she says. ''The last couple I've done have not been successful, but I didn't do them thinking they would be a success or not. You never know.''


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