"Everything's real," Courteney Cox says of "Cougar Town" character

Entertainment Tonight, Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 12:20am (PDT)

Courteney Cox returns to comedy in "Cougar Town," a new series about a 40-something woman trying to get on with her life following an ugly divorce. In the first episode, her character, Jules, hooks up with a guy not much older than her 17-year-old son.

"What I love about this character is everything's real," says Courteney, whose real-life husband, David Arquette, is seven years her junior. "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. It's a hard world, and I think that they deal with it beautifully [on the series]."

Happily for Courteney, she and David have been married for a decade, so she is not out there trying to find Mr. Right. He is right at home. And as for being a real-life cougar ,she says, "We have been married 10 years so [the gap is not so great], because our history has grown together, but there is a gap. There are things I know about that he doesn't remember. But David is such an old soul, so it is not a big deal. Besides, he likes older women."

As for comparisons between Jules and Monica, her character on "Friends," she says, "Monica is much more neurotic and uptight. Jules is kookier."

"Cougar Town" opens with Jules just out of the shower examining her body, checking out her arm flab and the skin on her tummy.

"That is me," she admits, "and I've been doing that forever. 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. People don't look the way they do on TV in real life."

The "Cougar Town" cast also includes Christa Miller as Elle, Busy Philipps as Laurie, Dan Byrd as Travis, Brian Van Holt as Bobby, Josh Hopkins as Grayson and Ian Gomez as Andy.

"Cougar Town" premieres Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.

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