Horrible Bosses junket press conference, June 25, New York

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• Horrible Bosses

The actors and People behind the scenes of the comedy Horrible Bosses sat at a long table facing rows of seated journalists, nearly all of whom placed their audio recording devices (no Flips) right in front of the golden Jennifer Aniston. She held the Jesus spot dead center between screenwriters Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley and actors Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day on the left and actor Jason Bateman, director Seth Gordon, story and screenwriter Michael Markowitz, and producer Jay Stern on the right.

In the film, Sudeikis, Bateman, and Day play three abused employees looking to kill their three terrible bosses; Aniston plays one of the latter, a dirty dentist pointing her perky tools at Day and threatening to fire him if he won’t drill her. I’d guess 90 percent of the questions were directed at her and focused on her character’s penchant for saying naughty things.

Other questions were equally predictable, although the answers were refreshingly free of hyperbole and circle-jerks: Most of these people didn’t have a “bad boss” or a “bad job” story—Aniston called one “inconsistent and a little complicated”—and, actually, there was little horsing around on the set, no improv, and no, Aniston wasn’t one of the guys behind the scenes because she only filmed with Day and spent their time together off-camera apologizing. Markowitz said he had Bateman and Aniston originally in mind for the sexually harassed employee and dirty dentist parts (Day ended up playing this role while Bateman got the lead). And, no, Aniston didn’t research her role although she did “go to the dentist right beforehand . . . to see how they hold the tools.”

Day got a great question: Is this dirty dentist boss really that bad? “Most men don’t cheat on their wives,” he said. “Not all, but most.”

“Your guy’s engaged, though, so he isn’t even married yet,” Sudeikis cut in.

“Let’s not even speak to this guy here,” Day said, referring to the divorced Sudeikis. “I’m a married man. I’ve gotten that question here and there. I got one earlier from a reporter and he said, ‘I would have slept with her.’ I said, ‘Are you in a relationship?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been dating a girl six years.’ I said, ‘Will you write that in your article?’ And he said, ‘No.’”

The last question, City Paper’s, about how and why Gordon was given the film based on his limited feature film experience provoked a “gee” from Sudeikis and some fawning from Markowitz. What people really wanted to know had already been answered: Aniston wore a sleeveless gray Calvin Klein top and gray Tom Ford pencil skirt with tan and gold skin, hair, earrings, and Michael Kors leather heels—which Bateman claimed were his.

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