The internet was all abuzz this past Friday over Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony filing for divorce. And you know, I’m not really all that surprised.
I like J.Lo and everything, she’s flawlessly beautiful and she was the only useful judge on “American Idol” this year. Her little hit single “On The Floor” is even quite cute, but I gotta call a spade a spade. She’s a user, and since she no longer needed Marc Anthony for anything she’s throwing him the deuces. You can read about it here.
Anthony was the rebound after her highly publicized engagement to Ben Affleck blew up. That relationship and it’s over exposure gave most people Bennifer fatigue, and when their universally panned film “Gigli” was released in 2003 they both became huge punchline’s in the industry. And it wasn’t easy for her to recover (being a white male, Ben was alright), so marrying the guy who had been pining for her for years sounded like a good move. Especially since that guy is a HUGE star in the Spanish market. He only waited one week after his divorce from Dayanara Torres, his wife of four years, before getting married to Lopez in 2004 and it lasted a whole 7 years (her longest to date).
Of course, THE Jennifer Lopez isn’t just going to sit down and be a wife, she was going to make great use of her new (now third) husband. After a moderately successful (and actually quite good) album “Rebirth” was released in 2005, she switched gears and went into the Spanish Music market, with an album co-produced entirely by Marc Anthony. Followed by a bio pic “El Cantante” starring Marc in the lead role, yet most of the screen time went to Jennifer herself.
None of this really helped her regain the glory and immense fame she had pre-Bennifer, so I guess she felt it was in her best interest to start a family. Maybe gain some more positive press, or if it sounds like I’m being a little too insensitive to her, sure she had the kids out of that motherly need. Either way for a while there, it did seem like she was content with the family life. She was still a big star (invited to all the top Award shows, and her name could still sell papers) but sort of avoiding the spotlight with just sporadic appearances here and there. She did a few movies, had one flop album “Brave” , and began working a new album (which got shelved at least once).
Things weren’t looking up for Ms. Lopez, until the “American Idol” shake up that resulted from Simon Cowell leaving as a judge. Lopez (along with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith) joined “Idol” pro Randy Jackson and gave the show one of it’s best seasons in years. At the same time, that formerly shelved album got a new opportunity, (albeit with new tracks taken from Lady GaGa, Ciara, and Tami Chynn) and thanks to her newfound TV exposure she was able to parlay that into a huge selling single “On The Floor” (over 400 million views on YouTube and over 3 million in sales).
Yes, 2011 was a great year for J.Lo and even though her album “Love?” was a big flop, she still had a lot to be proud of. In fact hours before the news of the divorce hit, it was announced that she inked a deal to star in 3 upcoming films. So with no real need to appeal to the Spanish audience anymore, and being the star of one of the biggest US shows, looks like Marc was no longer needed.
This may sound unfair to fans. NO, I don’t know the inner-workings of their relationships at all but since celeb news is almost like a daily soap opera this is just what you can surmise about them. And given Lopez’s history (her fling with Puff Daddy, resulting in an album deal and shortly after she ditched him — and her quickly following that relationship up with the quick marriage to dancer Chris Judd which helped soften her image after her jail stint with Diddy — until Affleck showed and interest and she ditched Judd) it’s not totally inconceivable to think of Lopez as a Man-Eater/User.
And on the other side, it’s been said that Marc Anthony is quite controlling. And he’s obviously a bit of a sleaze, he made his pre-J.Lo wife do a quicky divorce in the Dominican Republican and had her settle for a small settlement fee after he completely abandoned her and their children. Even before that, him and his first wife had a rocky relationship thanks to cheating, they separated just two years after their initial nuptials. They ended up reconciling but than just two years later he jumped ship for Lopez. So, Jennifer could have been a great and devoted wife, and Marc just saw some young-thing and decided he wanted to trade up from Jennifer. Since he is still a big star in his community, it’s not out of the question that he would stray. And from her “Behind the Music” special, we know Jennifer doesn’t like a cheater. So maybe blaming her isn’t completely fair.
Anyhow that’s just my two cents on the biggest Celebrity Relationship news of the week. I’ve always said that Lopez’s story would make for a great bio-pic (read my FullBlastMagazine article about it here), it’ll just be interesting to see how long we have to wait for the full truth to come out. I’m not completely heartless though, my heart goes out to their kids because divorce is never pretty. And condolences to another Power Couple being done with. They are both moving on though (check this omg! report out here), and apparently will still be working together on an “American Idol” styled competition show for the Latin market. So maybe that Latin fire is gone, but the money is still a passion for both.