JENNIFER Aniston: washed-up old shrew?

So you’d think, given the public’s enthusiastic thumbs-up on Brad and Angelina.

Apparently, the former “Friends” star – who last year made her fourth appearance on People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” list – is chopped liver compared to Jolie.

Let me get this straight: America’s onetime TV sweetheart is now getting bad-mouthed for not being enough of a vixen?

Give me a break. Enough with all the Jen-bashing!

First of all, in case anyone’s forgotten, Mrs. Pitt is the victim here.

Her golden-boy husband sneakily took up with someone else while he was away making a movie – and yet all anyone seems to be able to say is “she’s no Angelina.”

As if Jen brought this on herself by not being a sex-crazed U.N. ambassador with an adorable Cambodian orphan.

OK, I get it: Angelina Jolie is very, very hot.

And a very, very good mother.

And a very, very good spokeswoman for starving third-world countries.

She’s also a drama queen whose interests include knife-play, feeding pumpkin pie to her pet rat and procuring vials of her lovers’ blood to wear around her neck.

Jen, on the other hand, seems like someone I might actually want to know. Like a normal person – only richer and with a really good nose job.

Plus, she generally stars in decent movies like “Office Space” and “The Good Girl” – instead of B-movie crap like “Lara Croft” and “Gia.”

And here’s a newsflash: just because she never alarmed an entire hotel staff with animalistic howls of passion does not make her a neglectful wife.

Just because she said she wanted to make movies instead of having a baby – even Brad Pitt’s baby! – does not make her a heartless witch.

Oh, she’s tried to make this marriage work. She played along with the US Weekly “bump watch.” She gamely posed for the cameras while strolling hand-in-back-pocket with Brad on the beach on a “reconciliation” trip.

And we all saw how well that worked out.

Still, even now, Jen’s oh-so-nicely cutting Brad a break, lying low while he promotes his new movie and frolics with Angie and her son, Maddox.

And what does she get for it?

A lot more down time, that’s what.

“Rumor Has It,” a romantic comedy starring Aniston and Mark Ruffalo, was originally slated to open this spring – but has now been pushed to December.

Because nothing says “sorry your husband left you for an actress everyone thinks is the perfect woman” like delaying the release of your new film.

(Which, while I’m on the subject, looks likely to be far better than “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”)

But when Brad gets dumped by Angie once she starts shooting her next movie, with Matt Damon, I’ll be laughing along with Jen.