Seriously, What's the Deal With Jen and Gerard?

They're groping each other at The Bounty Hunter premiere, so are they a thing or what? We talk to body-language experts

The photos from The Bounty Hunter premiere are gross. Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston are practically making a baby on the red carpet. Are they still dating or what?
—Berenice, Illinois via the Answer B!tch inbox

You assume they were dating in the first place. Gerard Butler, for what it's worth, says it never happened, and, even with those paparazzi photos of a bikini vacation in Mexico, there was always a strong whiff of the showmance whenever Butler and Jennifer Aniston were seen together.

So what the heck are they doing in front of the cameras? Let's allow the cynicism to thrive, shall we? And see what the body-language experts have to say, while we're at it:

Jennifer Aniston is well known for her mastery of the black art of media manipulation. Much like mortal tabloid enemy Angelina Jolie, Aniston knows what to say and do to keep her name in the media, even when she has not that much going on.

For years, she was happy to provide incendiary quotes about her ex, Brad Pitt, that kept the love triangle stories alive in the press.

The mere fact that we're speaking about Aniston right now is because of that photo above, right?

Again, she wins.

As for Butler, there's really no smoking gun there, either. Why?

Because he's Gerard Butler, that's why.

He will grope a telephone pole if it has lipstick on it. This is the same Gerard Butler who once made out with a street performer he spotted, because she was cute, and because he's Gerard Butler, and he can do that stuff.

So if a lady who looks like Jennifer Aniston, and with an ass like Jennifer Aniston's, and who is wearing a dress as tight as Jennifer Aniston's, wants to rub her lady lumps up on Butler, he is not going to deny.

Still, I ran the photo above past a pair of body-language analysts.

"It's all posed," author and former military interrogator Greg Hartley says of Aniston. "She's just being playful. I get the feeling there's a bit of playing with the media, a bit of a sarcastic thing going on there."

How about a second opinion?

"This is a no-brainer," says Jim Fannin, creator of a program called The 90-Second Rule. "What Gerard Butler is saying is, 'I don't want to be Mr. Jennifer Aniston. I am my own man, I am not comfortable in this situation.' She's the dominant one in the picture, and he's the apprehensive one in this situation."

All clear?

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Oh, he's just one of many. See The Many Lusts of Jennifer Aniston gallery.