MOST people send flowers or a small gift to show their love for a partner – but Jennifer Lopez has spent £16MILLION on an album and bizarre movie for husband Ben Affleck.
The pop-star-turned-actress funded what she describes as a “surrealistic, fantastical journey” that features Jane Fonda in an astrology “love council”, a steampunk heart factory and Ben as a TV commentator.
J-Lo, whose hits include Love Don’t Cost A Thing, plays a character called “The Artist” whose friends ask her whether she’s a “sex addict” as she goes on a quest to find true love.
The film, This Is Me . . . Now: A Love Story, is part of an outlandish three-part project which the pop star says was inspired by Ben, 51.
It is released today, alongside the 54-year-old singer’s first album in ten years, also called This Is Me . . . Now, and will be followed later this month by a documentary titled The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
Jennifer has admitted that Ben, Jane and some other friends raised concerns about the project.
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Oscar-winner Jane wondered if it was a good idea for the singer to make such a public expression of her devotion to her fourth husband.
The couple had originally been due to tie the knot in 2003 but split up — only to rekindle their romance in 2021 and marry in July 2022.
J-Lo said: “What came first, very plainly, was Ben and I got back together.
“We were so happy and in love and couldn’t believe we were getting this second chance that neither of us thought we would ever get.
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“And as an artist, it inspired me to go in and make music again. In a way I hadn’t done since This Is Me . . . Then 20 years ago.”
That album, her third studio collection, released in 2002, had celebrated the couple’s love the first time around, and includes a song titled Dear Ben.
Her new album features a track titled Dear Ben Pt II.
By the end of 2002, Ben had proposed, but their planned wedding in September 2003 was called off following newspaper reports he had partied with strippers — and the couple split the following year.
But J-Lo insists they broke up only because they were not mature enough to deal with the pressure.
She told Zane Lowe on Apple Music: “I knew in my heart that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life, I knew that.
“But it didn’t feel like we were going to make it.”
The couple’s first movie together, 2003 rom-com Gigli, had not worked out well either.
It was such a box office flop that director Martin Brest never worked in Hollywood again despite having previously steered Beverly Hills Cop, Scent Of A Woman and Midnight Run to success.
Ben and Jennifer will be hoping for a better result this time round when This Is Me . . . Now streams on Amazon Prime Video.
Described in the press release as an “odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing”, the film is dividing critics.
One slammed it as not funny enough to be a “camp classic”.
Another dismissed the film — which showcases the album’s songs, including current single Can’t Get Enough — as “a series of music videos”.
I had wondered my whole life as a hopeless romantic, does true love exist?
Jennifer Lopez
But others have hailed it as a “modern-day pop-art tour de force” and praised it for “providing one cuckoo moment after another”.
Those odd instances include rapper Fat Joe holding therapy sessions with J-Lo, a beagle named Fluffy, a self-help group that turns into a dance number and a Singing In The Rain-style sequence.
The film is often self-deprecating, with the actress making fun of her various relationship disasters.
In a nod to the singer’s previous marriages — to actor Ojani Noa in 1997, backing dancer Cris Judd in 2001, and singer-songwriter Marc Anthony in 2004 — a wedding scene has multiple grooms, plus bride J-Lo.
During the ceremony, one guest says: “This guy don’t stand a chance.”
Another quips: “Third time’s a charm.”
During the film there is also a cameo — costing £160,000 — by yoga guru Sadhguru, who founded the Isha Foundation.
The trailer to J-Lo’s film states: “This is her story.”
But we assume that doesn’t include the “zodiac council” in the sky advising “The Artist” on her romantic choices.
Jennifer explained: “I had wondered my whole life as a hopeless romantic, does true love exist?
“I’m looking for it, too. I’ve gotten my heart broken.
“I’ve been through three divorces. I’m trying over and over again, and it doesn’t seem to be working out.
“I realised that I actually believe that true love does exist.”
Jennifer, who got back with Ben just two weeks after announcing her split from baseball legend Alex Rodriguez in April 2021, insists she is past rebound relationships.
Of one track on her new album, she said: “We wrote the song Rebound about relationships and being dysfunctional and running from relationship to relationship and rebounding and rebounding.
“I did it several times . . . you keep making those same mistakes until it gets worse and worse and worse.
“Then you go, ‘OK. Enough of this’.”
Her 65-minute film is directed by Dave Meyers — who also created music videos for several of J-Lo’s hit singles.
It had a financial backer, but when they pulled out, Jennifer, who is worth an estimated £360 million having sold more than 80 million records, decided to fund it herself.
Whether the project pays off will depend on how well the album sells and how often the film streams on Amazon.
Ben, who won Oscars for co- writing 1997 psychological drama Good Will Hunting and directing 2012 thriller Argo, told his wife to keep the production “tight”.
J-Lo said he “didn’t really even understand what I was doing half the time” when he was performing his cameo.
But, having seen the film last year, an impressed Ben told her: “You made a great movie.”
This was something of an adjustment for me
Ben Affleck
Jen’s husband was, however, “taken aback” that his private love letters to the star had been shared with songwriters on her new album.
Variety magazine has revealed that in The Greatest Love Story Never Told, Ben had been surprised J-Lo had given musicians access to them at their home
Later, he comments: “Things that are private I always felt are sacred and special because, in part, they’re private.
“So this was something of an adjustment for me.”
The fly-on-the-wall production which has not yet been shown to critics, will stream on Amazon Prime Video from February 27.
In it, Jane Fonda also wonders out loud whether Jennifer’s latest projects are “trying to prove” the intensity of her and Ben’s love.
Since the couple got back together they have been dogged by rumours the marriage is already in trouble.
Last year they appeared to be arguing during a car ride together in Beverly Hills, and Ben has looked bored while sitting with his wife at awards ceremonies.
But Jennifer insists the claims are “nonsense” and her husband is not a “beleaguered man”.
The busy actress has four movies in the pipeline — including sports drama Unstoppable, which Ben is producing.
He has two other films coming up.
The pair have to juggle their projects with their “blended family”.
Ben has daughters Violet, 18, and Seraphina, 15, plus son Samuel, 11, from his marriage to actress Jennifer Garner, and J-Lo has 15-year-old twins Max and Emme from her time with Marc.
Jennifer, though, insists the big brood works well.
She said: “We have the most colourful, beautiful, kind of complicated household, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We love it.”
This Is Me . . . Now certainly seems to reflect the organised chaos of the singer’s life.
She is sharing her journey with fans in the hope they don’t throw in the towel when it comes to love.
She concluded: “Love is a very special, beautiful thing. It can heal you.
“And it’s the only thing that matters as far as I’m concerned.
“For me, this project was the culmination of all the things that I have been trying to figure out my whole life.
“Putting it all into one thing and saying, this is what I have to offer to you. Don’t give up.”
J-Lo’s exes
- Ojani Noa – Lopez was briefly married to the Cuban waiter in 1997.
- Cris Judd – The singer married the dancer in September 2001 but they divorced less than a year later in June 2002.
- Marc Anthony – Jen married Anthony in June 2004 and the couple announced their split and filed for divorce in April 2012.
- Alex Rodriguez – J-Lo found love with former New York Yankees baseball player Rodriguez in 2017. The couple announced their engagement in March 2019 but called it quits in April 2020.
