When you think about perfect Hollywood love stories, certain names spring to mind: Hawn and Russell, Newman and Woodward, even Hanks and Wilson.
As of right now, add two more names to that list because if there’s a couple more destined for each other than Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, I would be hard pressed to name them.
A-Rod and J.Lo are MFEO (made for each other).
A tabloid dream from the moment she first hit it big with Selena two decades ago, Jennifer Lopez has never been less than an A-List attention getter. Her plunging green Versace dress, major movie star boyfriend (Ben Affleck), over the top jewellery and hair, the messy break-ups, the hurried weddings and insane diva demands all put her in an Elizabeth Taylor-like stratosphere. This is after all the woman who favors £5000 mink eyelashes—and that’s per eye.
As the Richard Burton to her Taylor, Rodriguez is a legendary talent, egomaniacal bad boy and remains an all around headline writer’s dream. To be sure, this good-looking pair shares a love of family, a Latin heritage, a fondness for Miami, and tremendous wealth, talent and success. They are both native New Yorkers.
But that just scratches the surface of what this power couple have in common.
Jennifer frequently shakes her head in wonder when asked about her reputation as a diva in an “I don’t know where the media gets this” kind of way.
Here’s how. In 2010, J.Lo joined a star-studded list of celebrities for an celebrity charity remake of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On benefiting AIDS victims. Her 8 seconds of screen time required a 45-foot trailer, white drapes, candles, white couches, white lilies, white tablecloths and apple pie (à la mode).
She once asked the BBC to have rooms decorated only in white flowers for a quick one-on-one interview. And according to reports, Lopez needed nine dressing rooms to accommodate an entourage of 90—yes 90—at a taping in 2001.
Also, much like her new paramour, Lopez has a way of twisting reality to suit her purpose.
Following the birth of twins Max and Emme in 2008, the new mom opted not to breast feed—as is her right. However rather than just leaving it at that, Lopez promptly declared to People magazine, “My mom didn’t breastfeed, and I think that was the thing for me. You read and figure out what’s the best thing for them” [her babies]. Implying that she chose not to breast feed not because it was right for her, but that after careful research she found that formula was best for babies. Breastfeeding advocates went ballistic, citing a wide body of scientific research that points to breast milk as the best source of nutrition which even formula companies concede.
And who can forget the infamous 1998 Movieline interview in which she called Cameron Diaz “a lucky model who’s been given a lot of opportunities I just wish she would have done more with,’. Gwyneth Paltrow; “Some people get hot by association. I heard more about her and Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work.” And lastly Madonna: “Do I think she’s a great performer? Yeah. Do I think she’s a great actress? No.” And this: “Acting is what I do, so I’m harder on people when they say, ‘Oh, I can do that—I can act.’ I’m like, ‘Hey, don’t spit on my craft.’”
Speaking of spitting on her craft—intriguingly both Cameron Diaz and Madonna happen to be former girlfriends of her new love.
Recently retired, and currently trying to re-invent himself as a sportscaster, Rodriguez ended his career as one of the best ever baseball players but one whose reputation has been hugely tarnished by doping, lies about doping, bad behavior on the field and a string of broken hearts.
There are few athletes as polarizing and publicly scorned as Rodriguez—as famous for the lengths he went to to try and cheat with performance enhancing drugs as he is for his sheer talent.
And he has his own diva reputation. In his book The Yankee Years, former coach Joe Torre called him out for being a “diva” and a “pretty boy” who didn’t fit in with his teammates, citing an incident in which Rodriguez wanted his own personal clubhouse attendant when there were four or five assigned to the whole team.
Torre went on to write that when it came to pressure situations, A-Rod was not able to “concern himself with getting the job done.” Instead, he was more focused, Torre noted, on“how it looks.”
During his playing career Rodriguez was regularly spotted flirting with female fans from the bench (instead of watching the game or cheering on his teammates). Doping and unsportsmanlike conduct aside, the most salacious stories surround his ego.
Whether it was kissing a mirror in a 2009 magazine shoot (yes he really did this!) getting himself papped running shirtless in Central Park or claims by a former gal pal that he is in possession of not one but two painted portraits of himself as a centaur—one of them hangs over the bed, naturally.
Not surprisingly he has a penchant for blonde, athletic-looking strippers and, in addition to Madonna and Diaz, he has been linked to former pro wrestler Torrie Wilson and most recently, Anne Wojcicki, the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
J.Lo is no slouch in the controversial love life department herself. Married three times, famously engaged to Ben Affleck, she also had a long-term relationship with Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs, dated her backup dancer Casper Smart and was recently linked to Drake. Just like her new man, Lopez is never without a husband or lover.
It was even claimed that her concerned husband Marc Anthony told the superstar to see a psychiatrist to find out the reason she is incapable of being alone. She herself has admitted she has recorded more than 60 songs with the word love in the title.
When it comes to relationships, then both A-Rod and J.Lo have terrible track records. But as Lopez’s long term manager and best friend Benny Medina says, ‘She never half does anything. When she commits to anything in her work, her life, or her relationships, she is in it.”
It remains to be seen how this will play out with the sexy centaur. Destined to be together—yes. But can they actually live with each other? Will they end up marrying lavishly and divorcing just as spectacularly Is there enough oxygen in the universe?
Drawn together because of similar background and egos, driven by talent, narcissism, chemistry and like-minded thinking. it’s a formula that makes perfect sense.
But they are ultimately fated to combust like two stars that collide and explode. Brangelina anyone?
