Courteney Cox's new show Cougar Town opens with the former Friend pulling at her belly and arm flab in the bathroom mirror. Cox was willing to let it all hang out in the new comedy about a 40-year-old woman re-entering the dating pool.

"That is me, and I've been doing that forever," Cox said. "David is always saying to me, 'Courteney, please put your shirt down, and stop showing everybody your belly.' For some reason, once I had a kid, I was fascinated by that whole thing. So I do do that, and I do have that skin."

Later in the show, you see Cox at her best. She flashes the neighbors and looks totally firm and ripped. Both are the real Courtney Cox, she said.

"When I flashed, I was lit really well. People don't look the way they do on TV in real life."

Cougar Town toys with the idea of women dating younger men, a subject with which Cox is familiar. "I've been blazing that trail for 10 years. David is much younger than me. I think it's great to be a cougar if that's what they are called. I just don't know what the term is for a man who dates a younger woman. A manther?"

40 was a tough transition for the actor, but she's better now. "I love playing this character because getting older is hard anyway, but living in Hollywood's exceptionally hard doing it. What I love about this character is everything's real. It would be really scary if I wasn't married and I had to go back out there again. It is true most men date women that are younger. Or I could go out with someone older. It's a hard world, and I think that they deal with it beautifully.

Cougar Town premieres September 23 on ABC.




Story/Interview by Fred Topel

Starpulse contributing writer

(Starpulse in Hollywood): Every week, Hollywood's biggest stars are meeting in the hot spots and Starpulse is there.