Jennifer Aniston’s birthday frolic with Gerard Butler was actually economic mission

Gerard Butler was behind Jennifer Aniston’s trip to Mexico to celebrate her 41st birthday.

She told “Access Hollywood,” “He said to me, ‘You come to Mexico all the time and Mexico is really hurting right now because of the swine flu and the drug trafficking and all of this sort of stuff but it’s not all of Mexico.’

“These people survive on us coming down and spending money and coming here to these beautiful places. It sort of made sense to say, ‘Hey, let’s help out Mexico.’ Let’s shout out to these kids in Tijuana at El Faro and have a good time. That’s sort of our birthday celebration this year.”

Pals Courteney Cox-Arquette, Jason Bateman, Sheryl Crow and Kathy Najimy joined the peso-passing duo on their trip to the One and Only Palmilla resort in Cabo San Lucas.

Better shout loud to reach Tijuana.