Jennifer Aniston GQ Cover

I have to say that the cover of the January issue of GQ (hits stands Dec. 23) has tipped it in for me: I love Jennifer Aniston. There. I said it. Feels good to get it out. While Aniston will never be fully extricated from her association with Ross, Chandler, "Pheebs," and the gang, over the past decade or so she's certainly built enough of a post-Friends persona for me to step forth and pledge my love. Here are the Top 5 reasons I love Jennifer Aniston, despite hating Friends, that do NOT have to do with the fact that I enjoy seeing her naked:

1. Office Space (natch)
2. Her reasoned response to the career-over-baby accusations that had people running around with "I'll have your baby, Brad!" t-shirts during her divorce to Brad Pitt. "A man divorcing would never be accused of choosing career over children....That really pissed me off. I've never in my life said I didn't want to have children," she told Vanity Fair in 2005.
3. Her dig this year at Angelina Jolie, who had publicly talked about falling for Pitt while he was still married to Aniston. "That stuff about how she couldn't wait to get to work every day [while filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith]? That was really uncool," she told Vogue.
4. She's got a thing for rock-n-roll dudes -- first Adam Duritz, and now John Mayer (who's eight years her junior, I might add, which I think is kinda hot...for some reason. I know, I know, pervy old man).
5. The Good Girl, when I first realized there was more to Aniston than "Rach."

Jennifer Aniston & John Mayer Arm in Arm

Jennifer Aniston made it very clear that she and on/off beau John Mayer are very much together as the pair strolled arm-in-arm, in a rare public display of affection in New York last night.

Smiling broadly as she snuggled up to her musician beau, the couple - both dressed in matching blue jeans and black jackets - strolled back to the 31-year-old's New York home after enjoying a dinner date with friends.

The 39-year-old actress looked every inch a woman in love as she enjoyed a break from promotional duties for new film Marley & Me.

Jennifer swapped her thigh-high mini dresses for jeans and a biker jacket as she and John enjoyed a romantic night out.

And it was certainly a lot less revealing than the outfit she wore on the previous night when the actress's thigh-high mini dress revealed plenty of her toned flesh when she appeared on David Letterman's U.S. chat show.

Perhaps having just posed naked for a men's magazine, she thought her outfit rather demure.

Jennifer Aniston's 40th Birthday Party

Jennifer Aniston got John Mayer warmed up for his Grammys performance at her 40th birthday party Saturday night.

Sources tell E! News exclusively that Aniston and Mayer danced and huddled close all night at the bash, which Aniston hosted at her new Beverly Hills home. "She looked hot, and she and John looked really happy," says a source.

The affair was a star-studded one. Among the guests were Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Crow, David Arquette and wife Courteney Cox, Tobey Maguire and wife Jen Meyer, Laura Dern, Kevin Nealon, E!'s Chelsea Handler, and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. (Brangelina, predictably, were not in attendance.)

Revelers partied inside and outside of the sprawling hillside estate, beginning shortly after 7 p.m. until well past 2 a.m.

Another bonus for Aniston: She kept the media at bay. "The police kicked all the paparazzi out of the neighborhood," says a source.