PREACH IT! Jennifer Aniston: A star is reborn

File this magazine shoot under What Took 'Em So Long?

Jennifer Aniston channels Barbra Streisand in the new issue of Harper’s Bazaar, all the way from the tips of her winged liquid eyeliner to her beige manicure. People magazine crowned the shoot an “amazing transformation. X17 squealed, “We definitely didn't see this coming!”

Seriously?

Aniston is very much the Babs of the new millennium. Take away the glam squad, the publicity machine, and the hype -- much of it self-made -- and you get a woman who is far from conventionally pretty. No way around it. But, much like Streisand, Aniston has a drive, a talent -- particularly for comedy -- and a sex appeal that cannot be ignored. For lack of a better phrase, both women are born stars and, at least on the surface, unlikely ones.


(They also both have knockout bods, but that’s neither here nor there.)

For the record, the magazine explained the comparison by noting that Aniston is ...

... a huge Babs fan. Aniston told the glossy, "I've loved her since I was a kid, and all of a sudden there she is, and she's just like someone you've always known. You know when you meet people you idolize and then you walk away from the conversation thinking, 'Well, that was a disappointment; they were kinder and more fabulous in my mind'? Well, she was wonderful, and you could talk to her about anything."

— Leslie Gornstein

Photo: Jennifer Aniston at the launch of her fragrance at Harrods in London on July 21. Credit: Stefan Wermuth / Reuters.

Don't forget to tour the Preach It! archives -- recent posts check in on Gisele Bundchen, Justin Bieber and how mean everyone is being to Lindsay Lohan, especially that judge.