30 Rock: The One with the Cast of Night Court (Episode 303)

Playing into her real-life paparazzi persona, Jennifer Aniston stopped by 30 Rock this week to portray a gorgeous, desperately dressed and slightly nutty man eater.

Jen plays Claire, Liz and Jenna's ex-roomie from their Chicago days.  Claire's fun, but a crazy kind of fun.  She's a non-stop partier and always seems to take things one step too far in the guy department.  Plus, the last time she visited she was making horrible jewelry that the girls were suckered into buying.  Too bad for them, she arrives peddling homemade hats this time around.

As soon as Claire steps off the elevator, she starts making far-fetched plans for their first night out.  Before the horror of guest DJ'ing some party sets in for Liz, Jack walks by and he and Claire are mutually smitten.  This sends Liz into a tailspin of warnings.  She tells Jack Claire's nickname back in Chi-town was "crazy putty" (a nicer, more prime-time version of her real doppleganger).  Nevertheless, Jack's already in too deep--he and Claire sealed the deal in his office moments after her arrival.

Liz insists Jack end the tryst ASAP.  He has no idea the can of worms he's opened.  Claire has a knack for transforming from hot fling to psychotic mess into two seconds flat.  Plus, "she's like a human Macarena," Liz quips, "something everyone did at parties in 1996."  It also seems Liz is harboring a grudge from when Claire stole her clown college professor boyfriend.  Jack shrugs off the war stories, saying he'll take his chances since Claire's only in town for a few days.

Meanwhile, Kenneth is deeply upset about his new page uniform.  Tracy offers to buy him something to cheer him up, and Kenneth confesses he longs for a fulfilling series ending to his favorite NBC show, Night Court.  Canned without warning before it's tenth season, Night Court fans (well, maybe just Kenneth) long to have closure in the form of a wedding.  Tracy, likely more out of boredom than anything, sets about gathering three former Night Court stars and a replica set for Kenneth to pen and direct his own fairytale ending.

Money talks and soon Harry Anderson, Markie Post and Charles Robinson are in the studio, ready to film Kenneth's series ending (and collect a paycheck).  Things quickly go south when Harry mentions John Larroquette wished he could've made it, and Markie becomes upset that John talks to Harry and not her.  Markie storms off the set when Harry points out that everything isn't always about her.

Jack's dream is also going awry when Claire unexpectedly shows up at a charity gala he's hosting and launches into a Marilyn Monroe style serenade.  Naturally, it's not Jack's birthday, and this chick is loony.  Introducing herself to the crowd as Esmerelda, Jack's life coach, Jack's had enough.  But when he tries to tell her to scram, she loudly declares that is she kills herself, it will be all his fault.  Once again, Jack realizes he should have heeded Liz's advice.  This, however, doesn't stop him from sleeping with Claire in the hotel's kitchen.

Jack confesses to Liz that Claire is like a drug.  He knows she's bad for him, but he can't help his attraction to her.  Liz devises a plan to go clubbing with Claire to keep her away from Jack.  Dolled up with Jenna (who's enjoying all the attention she and Liz are getting from a group of Persian businessmen), Liz receives a text message from Claire that leads her to believe she's really with Jack.

And that's exactly where Claire was.  Somehow managing to beat Jack's security system, Claire surprises Jack dressed in a skimpy maid's uniform, complete with a tiara.  Too tired to save Jack once again, Liz says he's on his own.  Plus, she has her own problems to deal with when she catches wind of Kenneth and Tracy's Night Court revival.

After all Tracy's hard work getting Markie and Harry back on set together for the big wedding sequence, Liz busts in and tries to shut things down.  Their pet project is surely infringing on a multitude of copyrights, and Liz wants nothing to do with it.  Jenna's also upset, but for more personal reasons.  Turns out she once guest starred on a three-episode arc of the show (as a werewolf lawyer, the reason many believe the show didn't get picked up for a final season) and is mad she wasn't asked to participate in the reunion.

Jack resolves that he needs Claire, crazy or not.  They head out for a night on the town together (he sporting a ridiculous Claire-created hat), and suddenly without the sneaking around and Liz trying to keep them apart, Claire fears they've become a boring couple--all in the matter of 24 hours, mind you.  She decides to spice things up, stealing a cop's gun, planting it on Jack and alerting the fuzz.  Claire gets a kick out of the excitement, Jack ends up in jail, and Liz naturally has to bail him out.

The drama comes to a conclusion as the three gather in Liz's office and accusations fly.  Claire believes Liz wants to be her (and obviously thrives off of that delusion), and Liz says she's still pissed about her clown boyfriend getting snatched away.  When Claire suggests they settle things with a threesome, it becomes clear that someone's overstayed their welcome.

Something I bet Brad and Angelina are also thinking right about now.  Turns out, after all the hoopla surrounding Jen's Angelina-directed "very uncool" Vogue statement, she failed to draw in ratings for 30 Rock.  But, to be fair, Oprah's gotta be a touch act to follow.