( CNN ) -- Jennifer Aniston is getting married and this seems to be a matter of intense interest to women around the world . Why do we care ? To begin , there is the incredible proliferation of mass media , the huge amount of coverage on celebrities and the self-exposure stars are willing to endure -- even prefer -- these days . `` Stars '' have changed from glamorous , unfathomables , to `` friends '' we follow on Twitter , in intimate , unguarded photos in entertainment magazines ( which we do n't even have to buy ; the headlines and pictures capture us in our doctors ' offices and at the check out counter ) . We turn on the TV talk shows and learn more than we should as heartbroken or apologetic celebrity guests share details of their romantic misadventures . Women like Jennifer Aniston become girlfriends , or friends of friends , who we listen to , judge , identify with and commiserate with . The wall separating us from stardom has been replaced by a penetrable surface , with celebrities just one tweet or book group away . She is no longer Jennifer Aniston , the star ; she is Jennifer , a friend once removed and we talk about her among friends as if she were one of us . News : Jennifer Aniston engaged to actor Justin Theroux . She is not , though , so why do we feel so strongly about what happens to a movie star who has no apparent connection to our lives ? Two reasons . First , we know enough about her travail to identity with her and project ourselves into her situation . Here is a woman , who , like many of us , has wanted someone very badly , made mutual vows of fidelity and loyalty , and had that person leave for another lover -- in this case , an exceptionally talented and gorgeous woman , who now lays claim to everything she ( or we ) ever wanted . There are few women who have n't lost someone they loved -- and they immediately take up her cause , and her feelings , as their own . Secondly , we follow her life because in a strange way , it comforts us . If a man could be unfaithful to such a lovely , successful and nice woman , we can know that perhaps we were n't left because we were n't pretty enough or sexy enough or witty enough , but because some men just fall in love with someone else . We can see that regardless of why our own mate left , there was nothing about it that should wipe out our self-esteem and there was n't necessarily anything we could have done that would have saved our relationship . Peering into various celebrity real melodramas rather perversely cheers us up ! In 2008 , millions of women were riveted to the divorce trial of Christie Brinkley , whose husband , Peter Cook , betrayed her with a teenage employee . Well , we thought , if a man could do that to Christie Brinkley , of course we should n't feel that a husband or boyfriend left us for not being pretty enough or sexy enough . Look what happened to one of the most gloriously gorgeous women on Earth ! Jennifer Aniston 's men . Then there is an additional twist in Aniston 's story that reassures us . Her failed marriage says to us that someone even more glorious than ourselves can be left , but her engagement tells us that there can be a Cinderella story at the end of the road : a mate who truly loves us , who wants to create a family , who will deliver security and unconditional love at last . Sure , it may last as long as the next headline , but we deeply hope love stays the course for her , because we want to believe that our own dreams will result in triumph over disappointment . This is why we care in a seemingly unreasonable way about what happens to Jennifer Aniston . Nice girls might not finish last . Justice might prevail . Sure , we care about Jennifer , but we follow her life , and the life of other celebrities , mostly because they are now in our `` friendship circle , '' however illusory this perception is . Aniston 's `` fairy tale ending '' is a stand-in for the fairly tale ending we want for ourselves . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Pepper Schwartz .
Ruth Schwartz : Many are interested that Jennifer Aniston is gay . Why ? She says after years of tabloid scrutiny of her marital travail , many women relate to her . She says that Aniston is finding love and other scorned women feel they can find it , too . Schwartz : We follow her story , delight in her story because it gives hope for our own .