Jennifer Lopez and Bradley Cooper were spotted out on a “romantic date” over the weekend, and it seems like all the big outlets, the ones that get their stories straight from the publicists, were running the details. First we had TMZ reporting it like they heard it from a source (J.Lo’s people) and then US Weekly ran the story and made it sound like Cooper was chasing after J.Lo. Their “source” claims “It was a date.. [he] has been after her for ages – calling her for a while.” Then after that, People Magazine claimed it was strictly business, not personal, and that they were “in discussions regarding a project.”

So what’s going on? It seemed like some kind of pre-arranged PR stunt at first, and like both J.Lo and Cooper’s people were complicit in it. He’s been linked to enough high profile women to make it seem suspect, and like his people are trying to sell us a ladies’ man image that doesn’t mesh with reality. (I don’t think he plays for the other team, but a lot of you do. I just think he’s kind of bland and metrosexual.) Then the People article happened and it sounded like both parties weren’t on the same page. Well Popeater/Huffpo’s gossip guy, Rob Shuter, claims that J.Lo set Cooper up by inviting him to a business dinner and then leaking the details like they were on a date. That sounds totally likely, and as Shuter reports she did the same thing to Ralph Fiennes when they were filming Maid in Manhattan.

Bradley Cooper was shocked after a private dinner with Jennifer Lopez was leaked to the press as a romantic date, but he isn’t the first or the last celebrity who will fall into the diva’s trap — just ask “Schindler’s List” actor, Ralph Fiennes.

In 2002, Lopez had a casual dinner with Fiennes, around the time they were filming “Maid in Manhattan” together, only to find pictures from their joint meal splashed all over the New York Post saying ‘deny this.’ Fiennes later went on to say, “I had dinner with her and her producer and her manager who’s in the background of the shot as well. That didn’t upset me because it was just so not true and so badly set up.”

“It was a business dinner that’s all,” a media insider tells me of Cooper and Lopez’s “romantic” evening. “They went to Per Se, which is an amazing low key restaurant in New York and the next thing you know it’s in the papers. No one who eats in that restaurant is calling in tips to gossip sites. Most of the people that go there are so rich they wouldn’t couldn’t care less about actors. They are more impressed by business players than Hollywood types.”

[From Huffington Post]

I totally remember those photos of J.Lo and Ralph Fiennes hugging goodbye on the street after having dinner. They looked like friends being nice to each other, not like they were on a date. That was back in 2002 when paparazzi weren’t as common so I can believe that Lopez set Fiennes up, especially since he seems to have said as much. As for Shuter’s story, he could be basing it on People’s report that it was business-only and the fact that the restaurant is generally low-key. He might not have an actual source, is what I’m saying. I believe it, though. Lopez is pulling some tricks to keep her name in the press and to make her ex husband jealous.