Dear Gossips,
The big story yesterday was Madonna and the announcement of the upcoming Celebration tour. And the ticket scramble begins. There will be another ticket scramble in a couple of weeks because word is, Her Majesty Beyoncé will finally make her tour announcement in February, which tracks for her. February is Black History Month and she has in the past made some major drops during Black History Month, including the confirmation that she was pregnant with twins.
Back to Madonna though, who dominated entertainment headlines and social media yesterday – and conveniently there was another story about her making the rounds because Jennifer Lopez, during an interview to promote Shotgun Wedding, was asked to confirm whether or not it was true that she was supposed to be on stage with Madonna and Britney Spears at the MTV VMAs in 2003 for the infamous kiss.
The 20th anniversary of that moment is coming in August. As for the movie that JLo would have been shooting in Canada at the time, I think it’s Shall We Dance, which was filmed in Winnipeg. In the end, that kiss ended up involving exactly who it should have involved, but if it had been JLo, it would have been even more fire on a situation that was already, at that point, in flames.
Summer 2003 was rough for Bennifer. Gigli came out and bombed. And then Ben was in Vancouver and got busted for going to a strip club. All of this happened before their wedding, which was planned for September 2003 which, of course, ended up getting called off. Had JLo joined Madonna and Britney onstage and been the second bride kissed by Madge, given the chaos surrounding Bennifer at that time, it would have been nuclear.
But when’s the last time you watched that performance? There is SO MUCH gossip in these five minutes. From what was happening onstage to what was happening OFFstage. Vivica A Fox and 50 Cent were still together. Guy Ritchie was in the audience looking on proudly, it would be another five years until he and Madge finally divorced. Then, of course, there was the cutaway, one of the most notorious cutaways in award show history. I don’t have to tell you who it was. But in retrospect, putting the camera on that f-cker deprived us of the beginning of Madonna and Christina Aguilera’s kiss.
This moment in Gossip Nostalgia was brought to you by Justin Timberlake, somehow always making it about himself.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
