Lopez and her husband of an unexpectedly long three years, Marc Anthony, were at the premiere of their new film El Cantante at Times Square AMC Theater in New York last night. The film stars Lopez and Anthony as Puerto Rican salsa signer Hector Lavoe and his wife. Lavoe helped shape the future of Latin music in the 60s and 70s, and eventually succumbed to Aids brought on by drug addiction.

This movie is getting mixed reviews, and the prospects don’t look good at the box office. The music is said to be excellent and Lopez and Anthony have good on-screen chemistry, but it’s but not good enough to save the film, which some say has a thin plot and not enough character development. Variety cans the film, and says the visuals are average and seem more suited to television than the big screen.

Here is Variety’s summary:

For “El Cantante,” someone left the salsa out on the counter too long. A virtual template of every imaginable cliche of the musical biopic, pic suffers from a lack of narrative and character focus, partly stemming from the need for producer-star Jennifer Lopez (whose shingle Nuyorican Prods. has nurtured the project) to have a co-leading part with substantial playing time alongside Marc Anthony, who portrays famed, drug-addled salsa star Hector Lavoe. While pic’s assured a few good weeks based on J-Lo’s fan base, this gig is headed South in short order.

I’ve also heard that it’s being called Gigli 2, and Cinemablend says “if someone manages to make a worse film this year that’ll be quite an accomplishment,” but it’s doubtful that it’s really that bad. Everyone has been guessing that even if it does have some redeeming qualities it will tank at the box office, and there’s speculation that J.Lo’s career is in trouble. Her last film which she produced and starred in, Bordertown, was said to give a B movie treatment to the important story of the real-life unsolved murders of hundreds of young women in Mexican border towns. It was met with harsh reviews at the Berlin film festival this year and has not yet been released in theaters after problems securing a distributor.

While Anthony and Lopez look happy in the pictures taken before the premiere, shown below, they look decidedly dejected after the film was shown, as seen in the header image above. All the other pictures I’ve seen of Anthony and Lopez leaving the premiere have them in the same foul mood. It looks as if it didn’t go well as all the pictures from the departure show them looking disappointed and/or upset.

There La Lopez goes again with the bad makeup. Her fashion isn’t terrible, but that bleeding peach lipstick that’s perfectly matched to the color of her Grecian-style dress needs to go. She also went overboard on the spray tan, but at least it’s brown and not orange. Still, she was looking rather pretty until the smile was wiped off her face completely, perhaps by the audience’s reaction to the film.

Maybe she’ll be in a better mood once she goes back to what she does best, music. She’ll be touring with her husband starting in the fall.

El Cantante is out in theaters on August 1 3.

Update: We may have been incorrect in assuming that the premiere did not go well, as a commentor claims to have been in the audience and says:

I was at the premier on Thurs and the audience reaction was incredible. Standing O’s all around. And rightfully so. I’m not saying J Lo is the best actress out there but with El Cantante she has something to really be proud of.

I was certain that J.Lo was the one pressuring her husband Marc Anthony to join Tom Cruise’s Scientology cult, but a recent article in The National Enquirer suggests otherwise. Lopez recently said that she didn’t understand the negative portrayal of the soul-sucking Scientology cult in the media, because it seems benign to her since she’s buddies with so many brainwashed members and given the fact that her dad has been involved with it for 20 years.

It may be the case that if her dad couldn’t convert her that promises of movie roles from Cruise won’t either. The story has it that Lopez and Anthony were arguing at their Miami Superbowl show over whether they would tell an attending Tom Cruise that they were ready to join the cult for real instead of just trying it out and dabbling in the courses. Anthony urged J.Lo to say she was ready, but she told him she wasn’t so sure and that they should wait:

“Marc’s pushed Jennifer to embrace Scientology because he thinks it will boost her career. He also thinks it will benefit him and raise his profile in Hollywood,” revealed a source…

“It’s become a sore point in their marriage. And J.Lo’s unwillingness to accept Marc’s demands led them to fight in Miami, where they argued loudly and she was left in tears…”

“Tom and Katie (Holmes) travelled to Miami to see them perform at a pre-Super Bowl party, and Marc had wanted to tell Tom that night that they were fully committed, but he couldn’t - and that’s what led to the fight.”

[From The National Enquirer print edition, March 12, 2007]

They say that Lopez’s mother Lupe, a devoted Catholic, advised her against joining Scientology and said it could hurt her career. Marc Anthony has been influenced by a Scientology teacher with whom he’s been seen out with lately, and that likely prompted him to pressure his wife into joining.

If this news is true then good for J.Lo, it’s only going to cost her money and common sense if she joins Scientology.

Lopez is set to sing on American Idol on April 11, which is sure to be better for her career than being known as a cult member.

Here are pictures of Lopez and Marc Anthony performing at the Viva Romance concert in Miami on March 3rd. What lovely outfits she’s wearing. Pictures [via]

It turns out that rumor that the head of Scientology accompanied Tom and Katie on their honeymoon in the Maldives was untrue, because the Scientologists denied it and we should just take them at their word. Now there’s news that Tom and Katie are going to follow up their second wedding party with yet another honeymoon. Their first honeymoon on a tugboat yacht was cut short due to bad weather. This time they’re said to be going alone to Tahiti and leaving little Suri at home.

Tom & Katie are indeed planning a second honeymoon for the two of them only … Suri will stay with the family in the US as they head to a romantic & exotic location.
Rumor has it that the couple have booked a holiday in Tahiti, at the $15000 a night Le Taha’a Private Island and Spa.
Hmm … This will definitely be a real honeymoon!

I’m not sure this is true, because they were initially said to be going to Tahiti on their honeymoon, and only a few sources are reporting that they’re planning a second honeymoon there. They were in Tahiti back in February when Katie was pregnant.

Their stateside wedding party will take place this Saturday at the malibu estate of Tom’s business partner. Tom, Katie, Victoria Backham, J.Lo and Marc Anthony were seen out to dinner at a steakhouse last night in what looked like a second-wedding party rehearsal dinner. Pictures from Gossip Rocks.

Marc Anthony hightailed it out of there when he saw his poorly made-up wife getting it on with healthy hottie LL Cool J for a video shoot.

Hey, at least he didn’t freak out, flip anyone off or shove and shout at LL for getting too close to his woman. Marc probably realizes he would lose any fight with buff LL. in about two minutes. Hell, LL is so confident about it he’s telling the story to the papers.

Here are Marc and J.Lo leaving their hotel in Santander, Spain on 10/12. Man I would love to be able to take a private jet to travel. [via]

Jennifer Lopez is supposedly pregnant, and this time it sounds like more than a rumor. Former American Idol star Jesse McCartney, who is said to be a friend of Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony, let the news slip during a radio station interview:

People think J.Lo is pregnant every few months, so this doesn’t seem substantial until she’s showing or it’s officially confirmed. There haven’t been many candids of J.Lo recently, but that only means she hasn’t been hitting the paparazzi spots or going to high profile events. She is due to attend the Toronto Film Festival next month, so we’ll have to scope out the pictures to see if she has a bump.

Meanwhile a British rag claims that J.Lo didn’t quit “Dallas” - she was fired because John Travolta can’t stand her:

If this is true, and I doubt it, Travolta might be so vehemently against J.Lo because she rejected his freaky cult religion, Scientology. Remember all those pictures of J.Lo out shopping with Leah Remini? She undoubtedly tried to convert her to Scientology, and I bet Catholic J.Lo wasn’t having it.

Besides, it was said that J.Lo quit “Dallas” because the production was sinking fast and she thought Travolta wasn’t up to par as a leading man. He may have heard that she didn’t want to star in with him, and leaked the news that it was his decision, not hers. It’s classic.

Here’s an ad for Lopez’ new “Luxe” fragrance line. Some horny art director made an unappreciated designer spend a lot of time getting her to look just naked enough to make allergy-aggravating cheap perfume look sexy. I wonder if her areolas are really this big. Hey - big nipples are a sign of pregnancy, or heartbreakingly ineffective ongoing fertility treatment.

(Read more…)

Marc Anthony may or may not be ill. When we say he’s ailing, we’re referring to an earlier story where we speculated based on scant evidence that the Latin crooner is dying. He may not be verifiably ill, but he sure acts grumpy enough to at least be suffering from an intestinal disorder.

Anthony got in a fight with photographersat the Women in Film awards on Tuesday. When a photographer pushed him back while trying to get a picture of J.Lo he went off on the guy:

Marc has a too-short fuse and is quick to declare his love for his diva wife. Somethings wrong with him!

Meanwhile J.Lo has publically denied that she’s pregnant. People are insisting she is, though, because In Touch says she supposedly bought a diaper bag and told Leah Remini that her boobs are going to get bigger while they were out shopping for clothing. TMZ was there too, and said it’s not true since sales staff swore that Lopez had a flat stomach.

Here is Marc doing his national duty as grand poobah of the Puerto Rican Day parade with J.Lo in tow on Saturday in NY City. [via]

Marc Anthony took out a bizarre ad in Variety, declaring his love for J.Lo in the format of a film script:

This is our theory, and we have reader Angelika to thank for the insight: something is totally wrong with Marc Anthony. He looks deathly ill, with bags under his eyes and a sunken face. We think he’s suffering quietly from an illness and wants to let Lopez know in the most public way possible that he loves her. Doesn’t this seem like the type of thing a dying person would do? He says “Here’s to never waking up, Baby,” in the ad, which could be a dual reference to the dream-like state of love and death. Unless their two year marriage is in trouble, which would be completely uncharacteristic of J.Lo, it seems like the most plausible explanation.

We’re oversensationalizing this story, though, because there were three other ads from studios praising J.Lo in that issue of Variety, and Anthony probably just wanted to add his loving regards.

I’m starting to feel sorry for Marc Anthony. Not only is he married to Jennifer Lopez, he also looks like he’s suffering from an intestinal disorder or is addicted to heroin. He really needs to take some vitamins and do a liver cleanse. Maybe J.Lo feels sorry for him too, which would explain the record-breaking nearly two year length of her latest marriage. Or she could just be such an ambitious woman that she refuses to give up on Anthony’s sperm. She might think that since he already has three children he’s got to have it in him to produce one more, even if he looks like he’s at death’s door.

TMZ quotes a boutique store employee as saying that Lopez still had flat abs when she shopped there with her new friend Leah Remini last week, and The Post Chronicle claims that J.Lo told an insider that the paparrazi are following her constantly because they think she’s pregnant. According to a thinly veiled work of fiction about J.Lo, she deliberately tries to get the press to think she’s pregnant for publicity purposes.

In these latest photos if her leaving the gym with Leah Remini [via] and at the 2006 Crystal & Lucy Awards, [via] she doesn’t look pregnant at all.

A new chick lit book whilch the author claims is based on celebrity in general, not Jennifer Lopez specifically, is so close to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s story that it’s not fooling anyone. The author, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, has the arrogant J.Lo character cheat on Ben Affleck with Marc Anthony in a bid to boost her career:

The lead character periodically puts her hands on her stomach during photocalls to drum up press speculation about her pregnancy status, and tries to train her husband to be more media-savvy and manipulative.

The author, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez admits that “There are some anecdotes in there based on experiences that I or people I knew had with Jennifer Lopez.” No kidding. She also claims that members of J.Lo’s staff approached her and told her that the book was dead-on.

That sounds really juicy and it’s sure to be a best seller!

Here’s her royal highness herself at Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People party yesterday.

Perhaps Jennifer Lopez has stayed with Marc Anthony for so long because she looks so damn good standing next to him. Hell anyone would look good standing next to this man. If she’s having trouble getting pregnant, it’s probably due to Marc, since he’s so obviously deficient of key nutrients. Maybe he has an intestinal disorder which would explain his foul mood and undernurished appearance.

Lest Angelika accuse us of poor research, Lopez and Anthony attended yesterday’s NCLA ALMA awards, which honor “outstanding Latino artistic achievement in television, film, and music and the enhancement of the Latino image in the entertainment industry.” The ALMA awards were hosted by Eva Longoria and will be aired Monday night June 5th at 9:30 EST on ABC. They must be right after David Blaine’s dumb special.

Anthony was honored for excellence in music:

Our friends at yeeeah point out that Lopez has grey hair, but I’m younger than her and have that problem a few days a month, too, so I shouldn’t mock. I also have much less access to professional stylists, so she’s fair game: dye your roots, Jen.

Here are J.Lo and Marc Anthony looking serene and scary.