Courteney Cox close to co-star, Brian Van Holt, sources claim (Update)

[HMG Celebrity News] — Just a day after news broke that Courteney Cox and David Arquette called a time-out on their marriage, details of what may be the cause are emerging (naturally) that Courteney is very close to her ‘Cougar Town’ co-star, Brian Van Holt.

Tongues have been wagging about the pair’s friendship since April, and sources now say the tales might be true; Apparently Courteney enjoys being with Brian so much, she once sent her car home so they could share a night together on the ‘Cougar Town’ set.

“The driver went there to take her home but Brian came out instead,” an insider tells Radar. “Brian dismissed the driver, telling him she’d be staying there and he didn’t need to come back.”

The source says the pair then adjourned to Courteney’s bungalow on the ABC lot and spent the evening together.

“The talk on the set was that she and David had an open marriage,” says the snitch. “David came to the Cougar Town set maybe four or five times, but Courteney spent a lot of time with Brian.”

Married since June 12th of ’99, the former pair also have a 6-year old daughter, Coco. But yesterday they announced they’d been separated for some time and had now decided to make it official.

And her friends at ‘Cougar Town’ were not even vaguely surprised; “It was clear to us that something was going on with her marriage,” the source confirms.

On one occasion, Cox and Van Holt even went on a joy-ride in a golf cart on the ABC set, and took off to a bar;

“They basically stole it, and took off to meet friends across the street for drinks,” another source shares. “They seemed to have a lot of fun together… they were always chummy.”

The two have also been spotted dining together — four times — with David nowhere in sight.

Reports of cracks in Courteney’s marriage began in in 2007 when the pair admitted getting therapy to deal with the stress. Two years later she and Brian were spied dining — alone – at the Coral Beach Cantina in Malibu, then sharing drinks at a Venice Beach bar.

Update: The Brian Van Halt side of this separation story is now catching on.  Allegedly Courteney’s decision to chase after the junior co-star followed a turbulent time with David. The pair had battled a series of miscarriages and grueling fertility treatments, in their hope of producing another child to add to their six-year-old, Coco. The  Van Halt relationship was “kept far from the spotlight”, one of her closet acquaintances tells RadarOnline.

“Courteney doesn’t believe she was cheating on David because they had been leading separate lives for some time,” the business pal said.

“But she is smitten and in love with this man, almost besotted… he seems to be providing something that David didn’t during the marriage.

“They’ve been secretly dating for some time, and now the split with David is official, time will tell if the relationship may well get even more serious.”