Courteney Cox Gulf Beaches PSA

Hometown gal Courteney Cox-Arquette is throwing her support behind the oil-soaked stretches of beach along America’s Gulf Coast.

In a bid to boost lagging tourism in the region, the Birmingham, Alabama-born actress has signed on to lend her famous face to an ad touting the state beaches hardest hit by oil from the BP debacle in the Gulf, Alabama Tourism Department president Lee Sentell told The Huntsville Times Thusday.

Courteney is scheduled to film the PSA for the Tourism Department once she wraps shooting on her current movie, Scream 4. The former Friends star is determined to remind Americans about the area’s scenic coastline, which has been blighted by bad publicity following the explosion of an underwater BP rig in April.

“Her mother is looking for some old home movies and we’ve given her several scripts. She’ll be talking about her memories of going to Gulf Shores,” Sentell said. “This is something we’d like to get on the air during the transition period as people get more comfortable going back to the beach.”

Sentell says Courteney’s ad will air before next spring — but after state beaches are deemed completely clear of oil.