Entertainmentwise is reporting what could be a new quote from Ben Affleck. He’s bitching about how his career tanked after he made the stupid decision to make a terrible movie with J. Lo, have an affair with her (and let’s face, she was married for a few weeks at that point) and show up at multiple events and premieres by her side. You would think he would avoid reminding us about that well publicized period in his life, but he says that showing up in J.Lo’s “Jenny from the Block” video was career-ending for him. Entertainment wise presents this quote from Ben as if it’s something he just said, but it’s probably from an older interview and they’re rehashing it:

He says, “If I have a big regret, it was doing the music video. But that happened years ago. I’ve moved on.”

But Affleck insists he isn’t blaming Lopez for his career nosedive: “It not only makes me look like a petulant fool (to blame Lopez), but it surely qualifies as ungentlemanly? For the record, did she hurt my career? No.”

[From Entertainmentwise]

Affleck appeared in a tank top in the video, with it’s catchy but annoyingly repetitive refrain assuring us that J.Lo is just like us despite the fact that she’s so rich and famous she can get guards to bring her cuticle cream in jail. He rubbed Lopez’s bikini-clad booty and seemed transfixed by it, which helped us understand how he got into that PR mess in the first place.

Ben talked about the effect of his relationship with Lopez on his career back in October when he was doing press for Gone Baby Gone. I hope for his sake that this quote is re-hashed reworded version of stuff he already said in order to promote his movie. He meant well and was just trying to be open about it. He should have released that, like his relationship with Lopez, things never quite end in the media and keep getting recycled and repeated ad naseum. At least he learned from his mistakes and ended up with a woman who made him sell his Bentley and doesn’t ignore her children.

Here’s a link to the video which features Ben and J.Lo generally laying around looking rich.

And here’s J.Lo making sure her twins are well cared for and not promoting the needless killing of animals at the Christian Dior show in NY yesterday, thanks to PRPhotos.

Jennifer Lopez is really spending a lot of time with her newborn twins, judging from all the statements she’s made and the projects she’s taking on. She told People Magazine that she’s training for a triathlon because she wants “her babies to be proud” of her. Now she’s taking on a reality television show for TLC, and she describes it as a “very special journey,” but only mentions her business projects, not her new daughter and son:

The pop diva and new mama made a surprise appearance on Wednesday at the Discovery Network’s Upfront at Jazz at NYC’s Lincoln Center to talk about her new show.

The reality show will debut on TLC, and will be a series about her life. “It will be a special journey,” Lopez said. “I’m launching my fragrance and working on a movie.” J.Lo revealed she went through a very creative process while pregnant, and might even consider running a triathalon now that her babies are born.

[From OK! Magazine]

The press release from TLC says that it “deliver a slice of (Lopez’s) life that audiences have never seen before, as she takes on her career and launches a new fragrance while trying to juggle her new responsibilities as a first time mom,” but it sounds like the network is the only one mentioning her role as a mother.

It’s possible she doesn’t want the focus to be on her children because of the potential risk to them, but why make a reality show at all? Oh that’s right, she needs to keep raking in the bucks so that she can buy the twins the best things in the world, because they would rather have couture fashion and designer toys instead of a mother who dotes on them.

I guess this challenges my assumption that reality shows are a last ditch effort by washed up or relatively low-level celebrities to get back in the public eye, because surely J.Lo is above all that.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are shown outside the Waverly Inn on 4/14/08, thanks to Splash and WENN.

There are few things that are even close to as scary as having Tom Cruise as your dad. Except maybe having Xenu as your dad. But let’s be real – that’s just about the same thing. The next closest approximation would be having Tom Cruise as your godfather. On the one hand, he’s a little further away and probably won’t ground you. But on the other hand, that means your parents actually consciously chose to bring Tom Cruise into your life. It’s not like you were born to him and it’s just a sad twist of fate. Your parents thought so little of you that they decided to make Xenu’s next in command responsible for your spiritual and emotional well-being. Well, if you want to take the old school approach to being a godfather. There’s the chance they just did it to get you some really killer swag.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony – who have long claimed to be Catholic and not Scientologists – supposedly want Tom to be the godfather to twins Max and Emme. But to be fair, Tom has already gifted the babies with more than $200,000 worth of stuff. If that doesn’t buy you a godfathership in this day and age, I’d like to know what does.

Jennifer Lopez wants to Tom Cruise to be godfather to her newborn twins. The ‘Jenny From The Block’ singer — who gave birth to son Max and daughter Emme on February 22 — has convinced husband Marc Anthony to give Tom the role despite their differences in religious beliefs. Tom, a devout follower of the mysterious religion of Scientology; Lopez and Anthony Catholic.

A source said: “Tom is delighted. Marc wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to have a Scientologist as the kids’ godfather, especially as he and Jennifer are both Catholic. But in the end Jennifer managed to convince him to agree.”

Tom — who has a 2-year-old daughter, Suri, with wife Katie Holmes — has already showered the twins with gifts. The actor reportedly spent around $200,000 on designer christening outfits for Max and Emme, ordered a giant fish tank for their nursery and gave them complete Disney DVD box sets.

[From Showbiz Spy]

Supposedly Tom and Katie are going to throw a “star-studded” party for the twins that’s costing them upwards of $200,000. It will have a “Welcome to the World” them. I have to give Tom credit – he certainly knows how to buy someone’s love. I don’t want to sound spineless, but if Tom wants to through $400,000 worth of stuff my way, I can totally be talked into changing my tune.

Jennifer Lopez told People Magazine in the interview that accompanied her $6 million baby pay day that she was training to compete a triathlon in six months. Then she gave the eyebrow raising reason that she wants her “babies to be proud” of her. As if seven month old babies are proud that their mom devoted hours training daily:

Lopez gave birth to wins Emme and Max on 22 February (08) and is already focusing on taking part in a endurance event, in which participants swim, cycle and run, later this year (08).

She reveals her intention in an exclusive new People Magazine interview, prompting journalist Peter Castro to ask her when she plans to enter a triathlon.

She replies, “Probably in October, September/October… I want my babies to be proud of me.”

The singer/actress has rehired celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson to help her get in shape for the grueling challenge.

[From The Post Chronicle via Gossip Rocks]

Jennifer Lopez bugs the shit out of me. She’s getting fit so she can be slim and feel better, so why not admit that? It’s part of her job to maintain her physique and she can certainly train for a triathlon if that’s what she wants to do, but it’s for her, not for her newborn babies.

This week’s National Enquirer had details of Lopez’s exercise regime and says she paid that trainer Gunnar Peterson $75,000 for an emergency shape-up:

“Jennifer called Gunnar, who lives in Beverly Hills, and asked him to get on a plane as soon as possible to come to New York.”

J.Lo flew Gunnar first class and paid him at least $75,000″ for the “exercise emergency,” revealed the insider.

“Gunnar has Jennifer doing different high-cardio workout programs at her home gym for an hour to an hour and a half every day.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, March 31, 2008]

It’s understandable that she wants to get in shape right away, but somehow I see everything through that “J.Lo is a selfish wench” lens and it maddens me that she says her babies will somehow know and be proud when all they want is their mom’s love and care. Compare what Lopez is saying to how her ex’s wife Jennifer Garner did it. Garner got in shape and although it’s hard to tell she claimed she took her time with it and that “I could not motivate myself to work out. I wasn’t going to give up that time with Violet.” [via CBB]

J.Lo on breastfeeding
J.Lo is not breastfeeding her babies, and says of her decision that “My mom didn’t breast feed and I think that was the thing for me. You read and figure out what’s the best thing for them.” Even the formula brochures say breast feeding is best so I don’t know what she’s reading. And that is not a dig at women who don’t breast feed - it’s aimed at J.Lo’s stupid comment about what’s best for babies. There is nothing to figure out.

I thought that motherhood might change Lopez enough to make me see some positive qualities in her. Maybe I shouldn’t judge until I read the whole interview, but from the quotes I’ve found she sounds like the same old person who thinks the world revolves around her and pauses to make sure she has every luxury item her heart desires. She’s not going to give up anything for those babies and she doesn’t think she has to.

The offspring of Jennifer Lopez and her cadaverous mate, Marc Anthony, are this week’s cover babies on People Magazine. The new issue hits newsstands tomorrow, featuring a very made-up and airbrushed Lopez and her two sleeping babies, Max and Emme. Inside the mag are “intimate portraits” of the diva and the newborns in their nursery. I am sorry to report that the two darlings look exactly like their father. But hey– that could change in a matter of weeks, given how quickly newborns change and grow, so no need to panic just yet.

This week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, features 12 pages of new photos of the pop star with husband Marc Anthony and their 1-month-old bundles of joy inside their Long Island home and nursery.

The happy new parents spoke candidly to PEOPLE about the pregnancy, addressing everything from Jennifer’s weight gain to rumors of infertility. For all the details, pick up the new issue, on newsstands Friday.

[From People]

Journalist/kiss-ass to the stars Peter Castro, who interviewed the couple for People, said in a promotional video that JLo gained 45 pounds during the pregnancy and though she has lost a lot of it, she is in no rush to get back to her pre-baby weight and is concentrating on motherhood. Pardon me if I call bullshit on that. Those late-pregnancy photos tend to suggest that JLo gained considerably more than 45 pounds- girlfriend was HUGE! He added that when JLo first took a positive pregnancy test, she didn’t believe it and sent out one of her assistants to the drugstore to buy more pregnancy tests.

Castro also revealed that even though the couple has two nurses, two assistants and a butler, the couple “does a lot of the work themselves” with the babies. Riiiiight. Anyway, the world can breathe a sigh of relief now that the twins have been revealed. Congrats to the new parents.

Jennifer Lopez’s manager has revealed the baby names chosen for her twins with husband Marc Anthony, born early in the morning on February 22. The boy and girl twins are named Max and Emme, which TMZ points out are coincidentally the names of the brother and sister on the PBS Kids cartoon Dragon Tales. The show also includes some snippets in Spanish to help children learn the second most spoken language in the US. When I heard that they had the same names as the characters in a bilingual children’s show it occurred to me that at least they didn’t call them Dora and Diego. Max and Emme are cute names that are original while not potentially embarrassing, and sound like a good choice.

More details are coming out about Jennifer Lopez’s exclusive birth at North Shore University hospital on Long Island. The tabloids are reporting that the hospital stay cost an estimated $1.4 million and that her party was loud and prevented another woman who had just given birth from sleeping. What’s more is that another woman who had her baby a few hours before Lopez came was kicked out of the room slated for the singer when she arrived a little earlier than expected. J.Lo had gone into labor before her scheduled c-section. Security was also super tight on the maternity ward when she was there:

Cynthia Leon, of Kew Gardens, NY, says she was resting comfortably just hours after giving birth to her fifth child, a son named Horatio, when she was told to pack her bags by the staff.

“I was just thinking how lucky I was because the room was so much prettier than the regular rooms; it even had a plasma-screen TV,” says Leon. “Then I find out I’m moving to make room for J.Lo!…”

According to first-time dad Tom Sheehan of Lindenhurst, NY, his exhausted wife, Elizabeth, who labored from 20 hours, had a restless night of sleep because of all the cheering coming from J.Lo’s suite.

“It sounded like a crowd of people, and they were up all night,” says Sheehan. “They were making so much noise, you would have thought they were the only ones on the floor. We’re happy for them, but my wife could barely get any sleep…”

According to one source, “J.Lo’s guards had the whole place blocked off… It’s the most security I’ve ever seen, especially for a maternity ward!”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, March 10, 2008]

And here’s In Touch’s breakdown of the cost of the birth, which they put at a whopping $1.4 million:

Hospital suite: $700,000
Private doctors and nurses: $300,000
Security: $300,000
Personal assistants: $100,000
Total: $1.4 million

[From In Touch, print edition, March 10, 2008]

A lot of people were bashing J.Lo for making such elaborate plans for the birth of her first babies, but can you blame her? I was very careful about everything before I gave birth, and even switched ob/gyns and decided to use a birth center on the day I was due as I got a bad feeling from one of the midwives. It’s only natural to want to set up a secure environment for your birth.

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that Lopez has hired six new bodyguards and has closed-circuit cameras in every room in her mansions because she’s afraid of a potential kidnapping. She also has “a lifetime supply” of surgical masks that people must wear around the babies and has hand sanitizing liquid dispensers installed around the house. Again, I would have done that. I hated when people, namely strangers, would touch my son’s hands and face when he was just a newborn. They’re susceptible to a lot of germs at that age. When they get to be a few months it’s fine, but you understand mothers being protective of their newborns.

Jennifer Lopez had twins early this morning, with her rep releasing the details to the public. She had a girl weighing in at 5 lbs. 7 oz. at 12:12 am, and a boy at 12:23 am who weighed 6 lbs.

There is no word yet on what their names are of if they’ve already been named.

The newborns are the first for Lopez, 38, and the fourth and fifth for Anthony, 39, who has three children two boys from his first marriage, Cristian, 6, and Ryan, 4 and 1/2, and one daughter, Arianna, 13, from a girlfriend before his first wife.

The news came out on Wednesday that Lopez had checked into her suite at Northshore Hospital in Long Island. It sounds like she was in labor and had the twins naturally considering that they were born ten minutes apart very late at night. I thought that a lot of OB/GYNs recommended c-sections for twins.

6 and over 5 pounds is a very healthy weight for twins! No wonder she was so big. My son was nearly 9 pounds and I was huge at the end too.

Congratulations to Anthony and Lopez! We’re excited to see your 6 million dollar babies.

Update: I’m Not Obsessed has information from an insider who says that Lopez went in for an emergency c-section last night after going into labor.

[Some Details from People.com]

Speculation is rife that Christina Aguilera and that guy she’s married to were paid $1.5 million for the first pictures of new son Max. Harlow Winter Madden is worth about half that, although no figure has been put on what the price might have been if the babies had appeared on the cover together.

Jennifer Lopez is set to make $4-6 million for her twins, which is similar to the high sum paid for Shiloh Jolie-Pitt’s debut, which earned a whopping $4.1 million. Her adopted sibling was not considered as cute at age four as a baby, and was worth about half that.

Why do babies make so much money for magazine covers? Is it because celebrities demand that much compensation for losing their private life? (Not that this stops them complaining later when paparazzi try to take pictures of the same child.) It’s because their covers sell.

“We just do tremendously well on the newsstand when we’ve got celebrity babies on the cover,” says Caperton (Kate, OK! magazine deputy editor), “because people love being with their favorite stars in these really important moments in their lives.”

Setting up a safe shoot with a guaranteed paycheck works out well for the parents, too.

“It’s more beneficial for celebrities to cooperate with a company like us to do their baby pictures versus not doing it, because then paparazzi will chase them and will not stop until they get the picture of that celebrity with the baby,” (Roxanne, Getty Images) Motamedi says. “But once the pictures are out, there is really no value of paparazzi chasing them and trying to get the baby shot.”

New York Daily News

Is it because we love to see how mum’s looking post-birth? They usually look way better than anyone else. There is a reason new mothers rarely send out pictures of mother and baby together in those first few days – the baby looks cute and they look like they’ve been through Hell. Probably because they have.

Or is it just because we all love babies?

Of course, babies don’t have to be fodder for checkbook journalism. Vanity Fair didn’t pay anything for rights to the first photos of Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. But that September 2006 issue still sold 60% more copies on newsstands than the average for that half of the year. The sell-through was such an anomaly that the title was forced to warn against comparing September 2006 sales with the abnormally successful issue a year prior.

Plenty of editors say paying up will pay you back. “It depends on what the cost is, but it’s a nice positive antidote to the more crazy celebrity stories that go on,” said Sarah Ivens, editor in chief of OK, part of Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell empire.

AdAge

Oh, I like that idea. I’d much rather see a baby than Britney Spears looking like a train wreck. Interestingly, Britney the train wreck must sell more magazines than her son Sean Preston, when he featured on the cover of People sales were down 15%.

Interestingly, I love babies more than ice cream, but actually couldn’t care less about a picture of one. That could be anyone’s child, one baby is pretty hard to tell from another. That’s why they are so careful putting name tags on them in the hospital. Partly because they can’t talk, but mostly due to the fact it’s hard to tell them apart.

So, I’m sensing a business opportunity here. I have a particularly cute baby at my place. Blue eyed, smiles lots, has a reasonable amount of dark hair, but not like the crazy mop Suri Cruise had. Wanna hire her? Just in case your ugly celebrity baby isn’t up to the pictures. The bidding starts at $1 million – that should pay for her and her siblings to go to college.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Remember these baby pictures of Shiloh? They were a big deal when they came out in June, 2006 and were featured in People and Hello!.

Jennifer Lopez is as big as a house right now. I guess she kind of is a house for babies right now. Anyway, the very-soon-to-be-mommy is doing what many of us do when we’re feeling less than fab about our figure – we shop. And not for clothes!

J.Lo has apparently splashed out on a $120,000 nursery for the twins.

Sources tell PageSix.com that the nursery awaiting the forthcoming fraternal twins is an ocean-themed room stocked in English furniture and French-made cribs decked out in hand-embroidered bedding.

The tiny pair will also gaze upon 18-karat gilded trim and chandeliers in Jennifer and Marc Anthony’s Long Island home, as well as in the nurseries in their Bel Air and Fisher Island homes. The total cost of digs for two adorable babes? Over $120,000.

For other parents an ‘ocean theme’ means that you put up a couple of Finding Nemo posters.

I say, why not splurge on a gorgeous nursery for your babies if you cannot afford it. Jennifer has long wanted babies, and now they’re finally coming, and she’s understandably excited. Sure, non-celeb parents would probably use that money to, er, buy a mini van, or make house payments, or educate their children, but a glam nursery is what a successful music career can buy you, as well as a Mercedes mini van, mansion, and private school education.

You know, if I had unlimited funds for a nursery, I think the first thing I’d put in it (besides a nanny) would be some cradles that rock electronically. And the Wiggles, as in, the band themselves. Maybe they could be my nannies? And something that changes the kids diapers for me. Oh, I guess that would be a nanny. Hmmn, I’m getting a little Jennifer Lopez envy here! I’d probably get the kid some cool toys that I could play with too, like really elaborate Lego, and a slide.

Anyway, now that we know J.Lo will be having twins, we are basically just waiting for her to pop them out. And some people suggest Valentine’s Day would be a nice day to have a baby.

The very pregnant actress has been out on the town of late showing off a very sizable baby bump. She and hubby and dad to be Marc Anthony just this week attended a reception to benefit UNICEF hosted by Gucci during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2008 at The Salon at Bryant Park on February 6th in New York City.

So how did she know she wasn’t headed to the hospital that night? She is scheduled to give birth on Valentine’s Day! J Lo has reportedly scheduled a C-section for next Thursday at New York North Shore University Medical Center.

National Ledger

Here’s another reason for the J.Lo envy – scheduled delivery. I begged, almost on my knees but it was too hard to get down on the floor, for a c-section when I was pregnant with my last child. I simply could not stand to be pregnant a second longer, but I got told no way. How do people get these scheduled sections when they’re not pregnant with twins like J.Lo? Do you bribe the hospital staff? I was never offered the opportunity to have an elective cesarean, but people keep talking about them. What secret do they know that I don’t? Maybe she has to have the babies on a certain day because of the kidnap protection plan in place.

Note by Celebitchy: This week’s Enquirer has details of the baby items Lopez registered for at elite boutique Petit Tresor, and they include a bassinet at $800, an Enchanted Forest highchair to the tune of $485, Simplicity crib linen at $535, a Monogram crib bedding set at $950, and a black Baby Jogger stroller at $560.

The Enquirer also states that Lopez will hire a nanny that costs $100,000 a year and “several” baby nurses at $150 an hour, who will work in 12 hour shifts.

Lopez and Anthony are shown at Madonna’s Kabbalah fundraiser last week, thanks to PRPhotos.

Thank God Jennifer Lopez is not such a self-absorbed diva that she thinks the world actually revolves around her. Wait, what? TMZ is reporting that the hospital where J-Lo is expected to give birth has been running anti-kidnapping drills in anticipation of her twins’ arrival. Though they don’t come out and actually say it, I’m pretty sure they’re doing it on J-Lo’s orders.

TMZ has learned that the Long Island hospital where J.Lo will probably give birth to her twins is practicing “pink drills” — code for thwarting a possible kidnapping.

Sources at North Shore Medical Center tell TMZ the hospital conducted a “Code Pink” drill last Friday — “Code Pink” is code for locking down the hospital to prevent a kidnapping attempt.

A rep for North Shore confirmed that the pink drill did indeed go down, but said that the timing is just a coincidence, but that’s not what our sources are saying.

[From TMZ]

Code Pink doesn’t sound nearly as effective as Code Black or even Code Blue. They need to pick scarier sounding colors to thwart kidnappers, that’s step number one. Something tells me that J-Lo and Skeltor will probably have their own private security at the hospital anyway… and the odds are pretty good they’re sticking the kids with little GPS chips as soon as they cut the cord.

I have no idea if this is normal for hospitals when famous people have babies. Maybe they all do it. One would hope that they all run drills consistently for the sake of all their patients, since no one baby is more valuable than the other. Though to be fair, J-Lo is having two babies, so I guess by that logic they’re twice as valuable. Seriously though, are her kids at any greater risk of being kidnapped than other celeb babies? You know at least one of them is going to be born all inside-out looking like their father. That’s a good crime deterrent right there.

Here’s J-Lo and Marc Anthony at Madonna’s “Raising Malawai” event on February 6th.