If you ask Jennifer Lopez, she'll tell you she's not a diva.
But that doesn't mean it's easy to coexist with her.
Though the star has undeniably earned her place at the top, here's why people don't
want to work with J.Lo.
Talking smack about actresses
When a reporter from Movieline turned up at Lopez's swanky Beverly Hills mansion to conduct
an interview in 1998, he was greeted with what he described as a, quote, "orchestrated
[and] deliberate" scene - J.Lo was lounging by her swimming pool, mid-massage, as countless
cronies buzzed around the place doing her bidding.
The rub-down clearly didn't relieve Lopez of all her stress, however, because the actress
seemingly felt the need to let loose during the interview, taking swipes at a number of
her industry rivals.
When she was asked what she thought about the actresses with whom she was competing
for roles, J.Lo said,
"[Claire Danes] does the same thing with every character she does."
The pair had just worked together on Oliver Stone's neo-noir crime thriller U Turn.
Lopez went on to say that she was, quote, "never a big fan" of two-time Oscar nominee
Winona Ryder, and she also went off on Gwyneth Paltrow, who would win best actress at the
Academy Awards the following year.
Lopez said,
"Tell me what she's been in?
I swear to God, I don't remember anything she was in.
Some people get hot by association.
I heard more about her and Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work."
Insulting other musicians
Lopez also offered her opinion on fellow pop star and actress Madonna during the candid
Movieline interview, claiming Madge was good at one of her jobs, but not so good at the
other.
Lopez explained,
"Do I think she's a great performer?
Yeah.
Do I think she's a great actress?
No.
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.'"
Some would agree that the "Material Girl" wasn't cut out for acting, but at the time
of Lopez's interview, Madonna was still riding the Evita wave - and the 1996 musical biopic
was reviewed positively by the majority of critics.
The Queen of Pop isn't the only musician Lopez has shaded.
There's been speculation that J.Lo's short-lived relationship with Drake in 2016 was nothing
but a publicity stunt.
However, according to Elle, the fact that Rihanna - who's had a somewhat complicated
relationship with the Canadian rapper over the years - unfollowed Lopez on Instagram
after she posted a pic cozying up to the Grammy-winner seems to suggest that there was, indeed, some
truth to that coupling.
Lopez revealed that she and Drake were working on a song together, but working with J.Lo
doesn't always end well - she later dissed Drake during a live show in Las Vegas, telling
the audience that he was nothing but a "booty call" for her, according to Inquisitr.
Driving co-stars 'crazy'
You can add Cameron Diaz to the list of actresses who have felt Jennifer Lopez' wrath.
J.Lo went after Diaz in her no-holds-barred Movieline interview, calling the There's Something
About Mary star:
"A lucky model who's been given a lot of opportunities I just wish she would have done more with."
Yikes!
Lopez's brutal assessment of Diaz's career trajectory reportedly made things a tad awkward
when the actresses were both cast in 2012's What to Expect When You're Expecting.
On-set sources claimed these two did not get along during the shoot.
According to Now, Lopez didn't endear herself to Diaz, who allegedly said the pop star was
a nightmare to work with.
An insider claimed,
"She's even said that Jen should stick to her day job, meaning American Idol and singing.
She demands to eat at specific times, no matter what… she stops work and has an assistant
run over to her with a small protein and veg-based meal.
It's driving Cameron crazy."
Details of the apparent feud also appeared in Star magazine, whose source claimed that
the co-stars actively avoided one another.
The whistleblower said,
"They don't interact much, but when they do, the tension is thick.
[Lopez] just acts as if Cam doesn't exist."
Both actresses denied there was a rift when they appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
to promote the movie, which was ultimately panned by critics.
Apology needed?
Lopez and celebrity makeup artist Scott Barnes go way back.
They met in 2000 at a cover shoot for InStyle magazine and immediately hit it off.
Barnes recalled to Refinery29 in 2019,
"She just goes, 'I like you,' I said, 'I like you too.'
Then she was like, 'What are you doing on Friday?'
Even though I was supposed to be working with Kim Cattrall, I said, 'Nothing,' because I
just thought, 'This woman is so beautiful, I have to work with her.'
She said, 'I'm shooting my album cover, wanna do it?'
Two days later, we're on a plane to Stockholm."
The two became close friends in the years that followed, with Barnes becoming a trusted
member of her inner circle.
"The reality is you have to be in love with the person you're working on, that makes everything."
It wasn't all fun and games, however.
During an appearance on The Jeff Probst Show, Barnes revealed that J.Lo once fired him because
she thought he'd leaked info about her to the press.
"Yeah it was like nobody would talk to me, it was like I had the plague.
Fun."
When the true source of the leak was discovered, Barnes said he was swiftly rehired, and they
didn't speak about it again - but he never got an apology from J.Lo.
Fired for an autograph
According to one United Airlines employee, J.Lo's reputation as an impossible diva is
100 percent warranted.
Speaking to Star magazine, the flight attendant alleged that Lopez was super rude to him after
he simply asked the famous songstress if she would like a beverage.
He explained,
"I just said, 'What can I get you to drink?'
But Jennifer refused to even acknowledge me.
She turned her head away and told her personal assistant, 'Please tell him I'd like a Diet
Coke and lime.'
She wouldn't even look at me.
It was sad, she seems so sweet in her movies."
As far as we know the scorned flight attendant didn't get in any trouble, but that reportedly
wasn't the case for one German hotel maid who had the nerve to ask J.Lo for an autograph
in 2012.
The employee explained to The Sun,
"I am an incredibly big fan so I took all my courage and rang the bell to get an autograph,
but I was rejected by two assistants at the door.
A day later the cleaning company that employed me at the hotel called and said that Ms Lopez
had complained.
I was fired right there on the phone."
Lopez called the story "hurtful" and refuted that she got anyone fired, though she didn't
deny complaining about the maid.
Forgetting Ryan
Lopez got to know American Idol host Ryan Seacrest during her tenure as a judge on the
long-running show, but their friendship may not be as close as we thought.
The "Dance Again" singer celebrated her 50th birthday in 2019, and she organized a suitably
swanky party to mark the occasion.
Harper's Bazaar described the bash as:
"The most lavish birthday party in the history of birthday parties."
It took place at Gloria and Emilio Estefan's private home on Star Island in Miami.
Seacrest reportedly flew to Miami from New York for the party, only to discover that
Lopez hadn't bothered to put him on the list.
When he tried to enter, the door staff turned him down.
"She invited me personally, can I see the list?
Well, sure enough, there's Ryan T, and Ryan Z, There's no Ryan Seacrest."
A few phone calls were made and Seacrest - after being told to, quote, "wait under the fan"
- was finally given permission to go inside.
Was this an honest mistake, or a shady move?
'Went off' on Rosie
J.Lo and Rosie Perez met in the early '90s when the latter was working as a choreographer
on the sketch-comedy show In Living Color.
A 20-year-old Lopez was one of the numerous dancers who attended an open casting call
for the show's dance group, The Fly Girls.
Creator Keenan Ivory Wayans reportedly wasn't interested in hiring Lopez, but Perez supposedly
vouched for the curly-haired New Yorker.
Before long, Perez began to wonder if she'd made a mistake.
She wrote about J.Lo in her memoir, Handbook for an Unpredictable Life, saying,
"All of the girls were coming into my office complaining how she was manipulating wardrobe,
makeup, and me, all to her advantage."
Perez claimed that when she confronted Lopez about what she'd been told,
"[Lopez] went off [like] some ghetto biatch, screaming and pounding her chest."
According to Perez, Lopez believed that she was the best dancer there.
J.Lo reportedly yelled at Perez:
"I know I'm good, I'm better than any of these girls and you know it."
The feisty pair talked it out and eventually buried the hatchet - or so Perez thought.
When Lopez later made it big in Hollywood, J.Lo supposedly made negative comments about
Perez, who claims that Lopez ghosted her.
Perez said,
"I was blindsided.
I'd thought we were cool.
I called her up.
She wouldn't pick up."
Ridiculous demands
According to The Huffington Post, J.Lo was all set to perform at the opening ceremony
of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament - which has a TV audience of about
60 million - in 2013, but she apparently lost the gig when IPL bosses found out that she
was asking for a private plane and numerous hotel rooms to accommodate all of her stylists
and handlers.
The organizers wouldn't play ball and replaced Lopez with Pitbull.
This demand was nothing, however, compared to the nearly impossible requests J.Lo reportedly
made ahead of her medley performance at the World Music Awards in 2010.
The Mirror reported that the singer's rider allegedly requested a helicopter to be kept
on stand-by, as well as a custom-fitted speed boat and a pair of diamond-encrusted headphones
to drown out the sound of the boat's motor.
An insider told the tab,
"Her people requested that she have an entire floor of the hotel to herself to ensure she
wasn't hassled.
Privacy was a main concern so she had a piece of beach roped off, too."
Confidence vs. arrogance
There's confidence, and then there's arrogance, and according to those who've worked with
her, Lopez has walked a dangerous tightrope between the two for years.
During her highly contrived poolside interview with Movieline in 1998, J.Lo declared herself
an A-lister.
She was probably feeling supported by the critical reception to her turn as murdered
pop star Selena in 1997's Selena - but positive reviews appeared to go straight to Lopez's
head.
When Movieline asked Lopez why she was a hot property in Hollywood at the time, she delivered
an immodest answer, saying,
"Because I'm the best.
I feel I can do anything, any kind of role.
I'm fearless."
This kind of honesty can be refreshing, but having too much belief in your own abilities
will inevitably get under the skin of colleagues and viewers alike.
Lopez claimed to have something called "the stardom glow," but not everyone saw it that
way.
While 1998 was a good year for her, she certainly fell out of favor with the critics in 2003,
when Gigli managed an embarrassing 6 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and landed Lopez
the worst actress title at the Golden Raspberry Awards.
"There's worse movies than Gigli out there."
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