Cameron Diaz’s Career Comeback ‘Ruffling a Lot of Feathers’ in Hollywood: ‘People Are Resentful’

Cameron Diaz is getting back in the saddle for a new role — and sources tell Globe she’s got rom-com rivals looking nervously over their shoulders as she vies to be queen of 50-something American Sweethearts.

The 52-year-old mother of two is set to star in the action-comedy Bad Day, in which she plays “a single mom fighting to keep one little promise to her daughter on the absolute worst day of her life,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The news comes just months after Cameron broke her 10-year hiatus and returned to the big screen in January for Back in Action opposite her old pal Jamie Foxx.

“This is ruffling a lot of feathers,” reveals an insider of Cameron’s rekindled ambitions. “Cameron made such a big deal about retiring and saying she was done with acting.”

The actress is married to Good Charlotte rocker Benji Madden, with whom she has daughter Raddix, 5, and son Cardinal, 2.

“Now here she is backtracking and doing this big comeback thing and getting so much attention for it,” says the source. “People are resentful and accusing her of gaming the system since she’s suddenly the new flavor in town all over again.”

“She’s always been a favorite of the studio bosses, so this is being seen as bad news by a lot of her peers, since there are only so many roles for women in general and even fewer for women in that age bracket. Everyone’s worried she’s going to get all the plum roles.”

According to our insider, Cameron’s bold new career moves have stoked her old feud with Jennifer Aniston; the two were friends until they realized they were going after the same roles and losing out to each other.

Our source says they even dated the same guy — British model Paul Sculfor.

Though Jen’s rep says talk of tension between the actresses is “100 percent false,” the insider adds: “Jen is definitely feeling the heat. She and Cameron have always gone up for the same parts. There’s a lot of history between them.”