Marc Anthony was on the Meredith Vieira show Tuesday. From the clips I’ve seen, he was pretty funny and charismatic. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but I don’t pay much attention to him and he often comes across as Jennifer Lopez’s surly ex. Anthony, 46, recently remarried, to a now 27 year-old Venezuelan model named Shannon de Lima. Meredith asked him, in a roundabout way, how he landed a hot woman like that. I’m sure the question was pre-approved because he then launched into a self deprecating story about how his dad told him to work on his personality, since he was lacking in the looks department. (He said that, not me.)
Marc also talked about his ex, Jennifer Lopez, and their relationship. It sounds like they’re successfully co-parenting. While he was praising Jennifer, Marc kind of confirmed that Jennifer is still dating Casper Smart. At least she’s keeping it under cover this go-round. Here’s some of what he said:
On how he landed Shannon de Lima
I’m just great at marketing. I was born with this mug piece and skinny and stuttering and somehow…His dad told him he was ugly
My dad told me early on, he said ‘son, we’re both ugly.’ He says it to this day. He goes ‘You work on your personality. It builds character.’On if that hurt his feelings
Absolutely not, because I was born looking at his face and he was right.On if he’s read Jennifer’s book
I read many iterations of it along the way. We’re close that way and we trust each other. I was proud of her. I know what it takes and I know her very well.On why he thinks his relationship ended
I don’t talk about it much as a whole. I just think that’s private… I’m not sure I ever will [talk about it]. I don’t think it’s for public consumption.On if he feels strange about Jennifer’s book being out there
It’s not my book, but I was really proud of her. I know what it took for her to open up like that.On what his kids know about the divorce
This has been their reality since they’re very young so it’s very normal… It’s very natural for Jennifer to come over the house with Casper… It’s always been that way, or Shannon and I to go over her house.
I didn’t read Jennifer Lopez’s book, True Love, so I’m not able to directly comment on how she addressed the end of her marriage to Marc. Many reviewers on Amazon said that she didn’t dish any details whatsoever and that the book was full of vague platitudes and hokey bits of wisdom. The top rated reviewer, who chose to remain anonymous, wrote this “[Lopez] makes vague statements about not respecting herself, and vague references to verbal and emotional (possibly physical?) abuse, but doesn’t say much beyond that. I don’t want to read a blow-by-blow about her relationships, but she is so vague about everything in her life that you are left wondering what the book is about.” So when Marc says that he read “many iterations” of the book, I take it to mean that she sent it to him for approval several times, maybe because she legally had to as part of their divorce agreement. We heard last year, prior to the book coming out, that Jennifer wrote that she’s felt abused, but she didn’t get into any details whatsoever and she didn’t even name Marc as her abuser. She wrote that she’s “never gotten a black eye or a busted lip, but I’ve felt abused in one way or another: mentally, emotionally, verbally.”
In terms of Anthony making fun of himself for being “ugly,” he’s not a conventionally attractive man, that’s true, and I know he’s nicknamed skeletor and all but I don’t think he’s that bad looking. He’s just a small dude and he looks normal to me. He could be considered “ugly hot,” which is a term usually reserved for skinny men who don’t look like models and who have attitudes. Also, money and fame help considerably.
Anthony is promoting his foundation Maestro Cares, which builds facilities for homeless children and orphans in Latin America. He got choked up talking about it, I was really touched. You can see the video of him discussing that here. He said “to see 48 kids in a 3 bedroom house, it was too much. I knew I could do something about it, and I did.” To replace that facility they built a 5 acre compound with a clinic, classroom, and 100 beds. He said they’re now about to build their seventh orphanage in two years.
Here’s Marc talking about co-parenting with Jennifer:
photo credit: WENN.com
He should have taken his dad’s advice.
For real! He is a nasty piece of work who only ever treated Jennifer respectfully (in public) probably only because she was a more powerful force than he was.
I saw him perform on the tribute to Paul Simon and I saw his hotness then. He was smoking!
LOL, I just said basically the same downthread. See him perform and you’ll understand his appeal.
He’s a wonderful singer, great talent. People make snap judgements based on very little knowledge of him.
I’ve seen him and yes he can be hot.
That’s always been my reaction to him, too. In photos, a little odd-looking. But singing? Suddenly very attractive indeed.
I saw him in The Capeman on Broadway–he was great back then, charismatic, a great singer with such style…
How does he always get these smokin hot women?
He has a good personality..lol
I don’t think he’s ugly. He’s just too skinny, it doesn’t look good on him. Whether you’re naturally thin or you work hard at it, thin doesn’t look good on everyone. Whether you’re naturally fat or work had at it, fat doesn’t look good on everyone. I think he would look great with some fat, especially on his face. Then he won’t look like he just stepped out of a coffin.
That is really funny! He is a big deal outside of the states. In the Caribbean the clubs play his music a lot. I think he is an okay guy.
He is HUGE in Latin America. Bigger than JLo, actually.
He’s talented.
He really is.
And I much prefer to listen to him sing in Spanish than English. He has one song called “Hasta Ayer” that I just love.
+1. His music, at least, is head and shoulders above Jenny from the block.
Let’s Give him that in spades Indeed! I saw him live once and he was Unbelievable
But The snarky side of me was Like Aw look at you helping needy kids but factually abandoning your non famous exes kids… touching
I don’t follow his personal life, it sounds like he’s a douche, but I’m starting to see a pattern with a great many celebs in that aspect, lol.
While this cracks me up big time I wish nite parents were this honest with their children. Some parents should really take the blindfold off their eyes and realize their kids are not simply the best and prepare them to life.
Haha! Ita, too many parents lie to their kids and give them unrealistic expectations about life. Then the kids think the sun shines out of their own ***holes and they can do no wrong. I try to encourage my nine year old in the things she is good at, but Ive never lied to her about things she is not(poor kid can’t sing to save her life).
However, I would never tell my child they are ugly(even if true). When my mom was a little girl my grandma told her she “had a face only a mother could love” , and my poor mother still brings it up! My mom is a beautiful woman(inside and out) so I can’t imagine why my grandma said that. Her own issues I suppose
I don’t get the point of telling one’s kid that he or she is ugly either.
The parent doesn’t have to make the kid as if he’s the best looking person the world has ever seen like Gwyneth’s parents probably did but I don’t think it’s necessary to to tell the kid that they’re ugly. I think the kid will probably figure out on his or her own how the world responds to his looks, which isn’t necessarily consistent. Some people will say you look good; others will say you don’t. The way people respond to looks is so variable — in high school, people gang up and are kind of weird, but after that people have completely different responses to the same face.
I think kids like pleasing their parents more than anyone else. It doesn’t bother me if somebody outside of my family thinks I’m ugly, but I’m sure it would bother me if my mother did. I think Sigourney Weaver said her mother never considered her beautiful, so therefore Weaver doesn’t see herself that way, but the world seems to disagree with her mother, so what if turns out that the parent was hilariously wrong like in Weaver’s case? It’s hard to say what people over time will consider good-looking.
I can see the point of telling kid he or she has no shot at being the winner of American Idol, though. Singing, like ballet dancing, is a kind of art form, and there’s no variable reaction to really terrible singing or ballet dancing.
I too believe we are living in the beginnings of the Age Of Specialness where all these “you are the center of the Universe and extra precious and extra special ” Mileys and Biebers are going to come to fruition and it wont be pretty… BUT that said?.. .My Mom is your grandma.. My mom has said to us EXECRABLE shit as kids about our looks/ our bodies/our self presentation and to say that stuff has been extremely damaging and hurtful not just to ourselves but to all her kids’ relationship with her is the understatement of the century, Like … we do Not trust her with ourselves.. is the best way I can put it… so I guess I can attest that there has to be a Happy medium and a gentleness to how you discuss with your kids their limitations
@QQ-
I just saw your linked facebook page, and you are beautiful. Sheesh. Your mother has some major issues, and not one of them is you. Don’t forget that for a hot minute.
AntiSocialButterfly, oh Thanks so much Love!…. ya know…as we’ve grown and educated ourselves etc we’ve learned to see her for what she is.. a person with a Boatload of issues and self hate, which is also not unheard as a wholesale about Dominican folks just having a full deck of cards of colorism problems ( which were her main points to beat into us about us being black thus less pretty/capable/desirable than we could be and how we had to cater to that and be impeccable and whatnot since we were already… less)
I Know it’s crazy but trust me LOOOOTTTSSSSS of Dominican people operate like that
QQ- I’m sorry your mother was like that. You are gorgeous( seriously dig your hair) . Im glad you grew up to understand your mother for who she was and didn’t put that crap on yourself.
The world will let you know soon enough whether you’re considered attractive, but your parents should have your back.
@ QQ (again!)-
Listen girl, no matter the scripts you lived as a kid, remember this: you have brains & sass. You have looks. And you look like a sweet, sensitive person. You have it all!
Absolutely agree. Not every kid is adorable. Just telling them won’t change it and might let the kids down when they really notice their looks. Plenty of unattractive people like Marc are talented and have good lives, no matter what
How about saying nothing, if you can’t say something nice. Telling a child it’s ugly will not do them any good. Unless you plan to lead them to eating disorders and plastic surgery. Than it’s probably a good idea.
This.
I don’t agree with coddling a kid & telling them everything they do is amazing but a parent shouldn’t tell a kid they are ugly. It’s just not right & can seriously mess with someone’s head. I do think it’s tougher for a girl to hear that though (societies expectation & praise for beauty). I have friends that are still scarred from their mom saying things like “too bad you didn’t get my legs”, “you have cellulite at 12?!”, etc.
I disagree completely. My parents told me I was fat pretty much every day of my life, sometimes in a nice way, sometimes not so much. It made it worse. When even the people who should find you pretty tell you that they don’t, it hurts much more. And I would know I was fat without them saying that, kids in school made sure of that.
I’m really sorry about your parents.
I was fat as a kid/teenager/young adult, and while my parents were never mean about it, even the slightest comment from them hurt much more than the nasty comments I got from other people. My mum saying “are you sure you want to eat that” hurt much more than someone yelling “you fat ugly cow” on a night out. I can only imagine how much it must have hurt you.
I don’t know a lot about him and J-Lo, but it’s nice when famous people seperate and not throw mud at eachother in public.
I still remember to this day my mom looking at me at 11 and sighing, “Well, at least you’re book smart. That’s something I guess.”
That comment probably jacked him up for a bit–maybe not overtly but it’s one of those things that at 2:30am when you hear the cat licking himself you think about and cringe.
I will never forget my dad putting a hand in my shoulder when I was 10 & I was reading a magazine with Milla Jovovich on the cover and he said “you will never look like that. Keep working on the inside”. It might be true but at that age (and being a girl) it was a harsh lesson to learn. P.S.- I totally look like Milla now but with a great personality 😉
You just need to see him perform. He is sexaaaaayyy.
I know very little about him, but he came off well in this interview. I certainly don’t think he’s ugly.
I agree, he is talented – but also, he is SUPER RICH. How does he get (hot – or any) women? Not a difficult question. Money changes (almost) everything.
I do believe JLo had her on money.
Agreed. Most of his women have been Latinas & he is a BIG DEAL in the Latin American world and has been for a long time. So yeah, he is BIG $$$ & has Napoleon syndrome which leads to less intelligent (but often times beautiful) women buying into his hype. I think he only landed Jennifer (who he had been pursuing for years even while married) because she was trying to rebound/recover from the Ben Affleck humiliation. Do you remember that he kept backing out of their wedding and they rescheduled/postponed a few times before he finally peaced out? I do. I felt bad for her but always thought she was stupid for getting with this toad Marc.
But let’s not forget that JLo had known Mark for years before they got together and she said she always had a crush on him. I don’t think it had much to do with ending her relationship with Ben. I think she saw her opportunity and went for it. As for her being stupid for getting with Marc, we could say that about a few men she dated. Then again we don’t know these people. Somebody is probably out there saying I think Marc was stupid for getting with JLo.
Mmmm, I can recall pretty clearly that it was well known (to even his wife) that he was the one with the hots for her, he even wrote a song about loving a woman he couldn’t have while struggling to stay with the sweet girl at home who truly loves him. I can’t remember the name of that damn song!!! Ahhhh! she just said she had a crush on him the whole time AFTER marrying him when people were questioning how quickly she married Marc after Ben called off the wedding. I still remember that it was like, late January when she was wearing a “Mrs. Affleck” t-shirt, and then he got cold feet & by about the first week of March or so she was marrying Marc. I could have the exact months mixed up but I clearly recall that the timeline was that ridiculous. And yes, people did think Marc was dumb for leaving the totally whipped-on-him Miss Universe for Jennifer. Myself included! Haha.
Good lord I know too much of this sh*t, but I do have a legit excuse for it tho!
Funny that he thinks he has personality instead! Delusional much, Marc A?
Well, he’s not that ugly, but if the abuse-thing was about him, he better work on his personality even more.
Jennifer is still with CaspEr??? WTF!!
I suspect the abuse thing was about Ojani Noa, her first husband who looks like a dick. He tried to release an old sex tape and do a tell all. Who knows though…abusers are good at hiding their true selves so it might not be him.
work on your personality…and your bank account
I don’t think he’s ugly. He’s just not Robert Redford, either. He simply looks in-between like everybody else in the regular population.
Is he considered ugly because he’s short? (How tall is he?).
Well, at least his dad said he himself was ugly too, I guess. I always think it’s a little weird when parents tell their kids that they’re ugly, but don’t stop to consider where the kids might have gotten their genes from…at least Marc Antony’s dad had some self-awareness?
Robert Redford?
Or JFK Jr? Or…. Insert whoever you think was considered generally good-looking by the mass public at some point in celebrity history. It can be anyone the general population or the media has gone ga-ga over because they fit some ideal the media holds up as iconic or whatever.
I think Marc Antony is better looking than Casper though, isn’t he?
Why the question? Robert Redford was hoooooooot!
I recently re-watched THE WAY WE WERE….that moment when the camera finds and lingers on Robert Redford’s face…….amazing!!!!
I was always a bit more partial to Paul Newman myself (those eyes!), but there is no question Robert Redford is a handsome man. He was the original Brad Pitt.
Robert Redford in The Way We Were or The Sting or The Natural — OMG that is perfection! I’d even take Robert Redford circa Indecent Proposal.
When I was a kid my Mom used to make this dessert called “The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford”. It was chocolate pudding on top of a graham cracker crust topped with whipped cream. I had no idea who he was at the time but I lusted for that dessert.
He is a big deal in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world. He is not ugly I would say, there’s just something about him. And I’ve heard that behind closed doors, he can be neurotic.
He struck me that way- perched on the edge of his seat, looks like he’s ready to bolt. Physically fidgety, especially, but not limited to his hands, a lip-licker, gaze all over the place, fast speaker, slight stammer. He’s a nervous dude, despite his success and adoration/adulation heaped on him from around the globe. I think that comment from his dad continues to feel like a twisted knife, but also serves as impetus for more and continued success. Pretty sad. Parents can be so damaging to their own kids, ffs.
Ha!! I needed this headline after the Michael Keaton post! 😀
That said, Marc needs to keep working on that personality.
He’s said this before. Last year. He said the exact same thing in an interview. Yawn.
I don’t think he’s ugly, but he is on the scrawny side.
This is hilarious, his dad spoke the truth! Lol. I definitely get creepy vibes from him though, I can see him being emotionally abusive and tearing a woman down over time, maybe not. At least he can co parent with Jennifer, I don’t hear much about his other children, hopefully that’s because their mother isn’t famous and not from him being absent.
Charisma > Looks.
“Ugly hot”
lol. You learn something new everyday.
He’s hot, a creepy serial-killer kind of way… I was trying to think of who he reminds me of – The Ice Truck Killer, maybe?
Bingo!
He’s not ugly, he’s just not conventionally good looking or average-looking. His too-skinniness and his facial features are intriguing in the same way as Mick Jagger’s.
That’s the category I’d put him too. He’s not my cup of tea, but I don’t really think he’s boring looking enough to be considered just average looking either.
Our family nickname for Marc is “Skeletor”. Glad he can be relaxed and joke about his less than conventional looks. I always wondered if he thought he was hot.
He’s still better looking than Benedict Cumberbatch and Jeremy Renner.
The glasses help a LOT. I would say he’s pretty cute looking in them, and I have never ever thought that. He should wear them all the time!
Hilarious. He’s brought this up before. Strange father. There’s got to be a complex lurking underneath somewhere. Even just a little one.
I don’t follow his personal life but I’ve always found him strangely attractive since The Substitute.
men can be ugly yet hot.. Its never the same with women, so unfair.
He’s a complete jerk. My friend went to college with him, and he dated her bff in college. He”s controlling, possessive, unsociable and an outright creep with a lot of singing talent. He was so possessive of my friend’s friend, that he would sit in the corner, and watch her while she socialized with her friends. He never engaged. He would choose what she would wear everyday too. My friend finally said, why are you dating him…he makes you miserable? She said “Because he has an amazing singing voice, and I know he’ll be famous one day.”
Needless to say, she finally couldn’t take it anymore. No one liked him and she finally ditched him.