Ten Things You Never Knew About Courteney Cox

She boogied on stage with The Boss, played stroppy Gale Wethers in Scream and became one of the most recognisable faces on TV as Monica in Friends. After taking time out to have a baby and help best pal Jennifer Aniston through her marriage crisis, Courteney Cox shook off her strait-laced image to play a gossip-hungry magazine editor in her very own show. As she mercilessly lampoons certain tabloid-friendly celebs in the second series of Dirt, what could be more fitting than dishing a little dirt of our own? Read on for some tantalising titbits about the Southern belle-turned-small screen star.

1. Courteney Bass Cox grew up in a wealthy suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, where she was known by the nickname CeCe. Her parents separated when she was ten and she and her three older siblings were raised by her mum and stepdad.

2. Courteney's first job was as a saleswoman in a swimming pool store at the age of 15.

3. Courteney was the first person to use the word "period" in a biological sense on US TV while starring in an ad for Tampax. Gosh!

4. Courteney studied architecture and interior design at Mount Vernon College for Women for a year before dropping out to focus on modelling.

5. Interior design has remained one of Courteney’s greatest passions. She has restored four houses in 11 years, living in them during renovating before selling them on. She says: “I like to walk into a house and go, 'Rip up the brown shag carpet and open up that wall with some French doors.'" Could a spot on Changing Rooms be on the cards?

6. Producers originally wanted Courteney to play Rachel in Friends, but she preferred the part of Monica.

7. Courteney underwent laser eye surgery in 1999 to correct her vision. She was previously 20/400, meaning she could see at 20 feet what someone with 20/20 can see at 400 feet.

8. Courteney and hubby David Arquette engraved their wedding rings with the words "A deal is a deal”.

9. Courteney was creator Marc Cherry's first choice to play Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives. She rejected the offer because she was pregnant and a no-doubt grateful Teri Hatcher stepped into the role.

10. Courteney wanted to follow the Southern custom of naming her daughter Courteney after herself and her mum, but half-Jewish David objected on the grounds that it is against Jewish tradition to name a child after a living person. The couple compromised by opting for Coco after Mama Coco, the name Courteney's friends called her mum when she was growing up.