JLo doesn’t dodge

Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman opens this Friday which means Jennifer Lopez is doing what JLo does. She’s doing the junket interviews, making the talk show rounds, there are so many outfits, and she’s talking about her musical and Broadway dreams. But also her breakup with Ben Affleck. 

JLo is an experienced celebrity, she knows what this game is and she would have and should have been expecting it to come up. Maybe not in every interview but definitely with the outlets who have the time to ask. Like The Today Show. And they did. 

@todayshow

Jennifer Lopez shares how her new film "Kiss of the Spider Woman" helped her "survive a moment that was difficult in (her) personal life." #TODAYShow

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This is pro. She isn’t dodging, but she’s not indulging either. Craig Melvin gave her an open door to bring it back to the movie, which Ben produced, and she took it, while also addressing “a moment that was difficult in my personal life”. For JLo, the key word here is “moment”. Because moments are fleeting, and she makes them fleeting better than almost anyone else in the business. This is why Duana nicknamed her “Teflon” back when we were still doing the Show Your Work podcast. It’s not that nothing sticks to her, it’s that JLo is so good at bouncing away from whatever’s trying to stick – scandal, heartbreak, and disappointments. 

It was just over a year ago that she filed for divorce. Now she’s back as the Spider Woman, playing three different parts, the role(s) of a lifetime, and taking the conversation in another direction. That conversation might not be all positive, the haters could start clowning her for her vocals or how thirsty she is for an Oscar nomination, sure, because JLo like so many, if not most, of the world’s most famous women will never not be polarising. But the point is, she will not be defined by that relationship. She wasn’t the first time and not the second time either. She also hasn’t let all the noise about her divorce and the backlash against her during most of 2024 on TikTok change the way she performs her celebrity. JLo has always been outside. No one, not Ben nor the trolls, were able to get her to retreat inside.