Not that I want to you send you away from our site to read at another but this new Variety cover story with Jennifer Lopez is DELICIOUS. If you’re still here, though, please stay with us until the end of this post at least before you rush off and devour it.
JLo’s new album, This Is Me…Now, and the accompanying musical film will be released on Friday. I was already in, I didn’t need this interview to convince me, but the writer here, Stephen Rodrick, understood the assignment and now I’m even more excited to watch whatever batsh-t love movie JLo’s about to give us because, as is repeated over and over again in the article, it really does sound like the whole thing is bonkers. We’re not the only ones who are thinking this after seeing the trailer, pretty much everyone in JLo’s life was against it and still might be against it, including her manager, her business partner, and yes, her husband, Ben Affleck.
But first, a clarification. This Is Me … Now is a three-part project. There’s the album, there’s the musical film, and a week later, a documentary is coming. JANE FONDA IS IN IT. Not clear to me which part, whether it’s the film or the documentary, but just know that Jane and JLo are friends and JLo wanted Jane to be featured in a film that she was making about her mess of a love life and Jane was like, girl, are you sure you want to do this?
“This” means a lot of things here. It means the music, the movie, and whatever else it is that JLo will be sharing. But “this” also means putting in $20 million of her own money to finance a thing that all the people who are close to her were warning would be a disaster. As we know now, Amazon has now picked it up but I’m pretty sure whatever deal she made with Amazon didn’t recoup her costs. But JLo has always told us that she will bet on herself. And this is what she’s doing here, she wanted to make this so badly, to tell her story of love, that she sank her own money into it. So we should all be thanking her in advance, and also on Friday, and then all weekend as we watch whatever it is we’re about to see, plus the documentary, over and over again.
Because if you love gossip, and I assume you do because you’re here, this was made for us. Once you read this Variety piece you’ll understand why. You’ll know that Ben Affleck shows up suspiciously, giving strong Warren Beatty in Madonna’s Truth or Dare… but then ends up actually shooting part of it himself and kind of interviewing her for the doc?! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS AND WHY CAN’T I WATCH IT NOW?!
Ben’s skepticism, by the way, is everyone’s skepticism – Jane Fonda, Benny Medina, her manager, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, her business partner, and the gossip public (minus me, because I’m a believer!). Jane is the celebrity who’s articulating what everyone’s thinking:
“I want you to know that I don’t entirely know why, but I feel invested in you and Ben, and I really want this to work. However, this is my concern. Like, it feels too much like you’re trying to prove something instead of just living it. You know, every other photograph is the two of you kissing and the two of you hugging.” *
Jane Fonda SAYS THIS ON CAMERA IN THE DOCUMENTARY. Straight up in JLo’s face!
Sorry, sorry, sorry…but who is out there hating and complaining. WHAT is there to complain about when this is what we’ll be getting?!
Well, I’m sure there’ll be someone out there bitching about how JLo is constantly exposing herself, in more ways than one, and advancing the bullsh-t narrative that she’s somehow forcing a life onto him that he doesn’t want for himself. You know what that’s bullsh-t, though? We just saw it at the Super Bowl. His new Dunkin’ ad? She’s featured prominently in it. She is the whole point of it.
He is clowning himself by trying to get on her album. This man is a fool, LOL. And he and Matt Damon even pimped out the “how you like them…” line from Good Will Hunting. It’s hilarious and cringe, by intention. All kinds of intention – personal, professional, AND financial. Dunkin’ sales have gone way up with their Ben Affleck partnership. After Sunday’s commercial aired, many proclaimed Ben’s latest Dunkin’ production to be one of the best, if not the best, of all the Super Bowl commercials. It’s a total win for him….
Why is it a win when he involves his wife in his work, in his deals, but when she puts him in hers people will say it’s desperado and that she’s taking him hostage? Why aren’t we saying that he’s dragging her ass into his Dunkin’ cash grab while she’s literally dumping her own cash into her own art, but she somehow always gets laughed at for it?
Because his work is cooler? Because his work has more gravitas? Who gets to decide?
It’s so interesting to me, the assumption that Ben Affleck, of all people, is getting brainwashed by his diva popstar wife when he shows up for her and none of that when she shows up for him. Isn’t it possible that they show up for each other because they are more alike than they are different?
Isn’t there a similarity here between what I was just writing about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in that, right now, at this point in her life and career, she wants to be outside with a guy who also wants to be outside?
Ben Affleck does not hate his life with his wife. This f-cking Dunkin’ ad is the proof. And yet, the discussion will come up, again, when her film and the documentary are released. But don’t let that ruin the fun.
Now can we get way less serious and talk about the superficial? If I were on JLo’s management team, I’d be PISSED AS F-CK at Variety for how they lit this shoot because… this is NOT giving. The photos are fine but the light in this video is not up to standard.
Click here for the full Variety piece.
* this quote was updated as Variety had initially misquoted Jane Fonda.
