TORONTO -- Gentlemen, start your engines: J.Lo is headed our way.

Actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, whose bronze bikini-clad body graces the current cover of Rolling Stone, will appear at MuchMusic on Feb. 13.

Lopez will take part in an hour-long chat from 7 to 8 p.m. to promote her recently released sophomore effort, J.Lo.

She'll also speak with fans inside the studio, out on the street and via phone, fax and e-mail.

If you want to be inside the MuchMusic studio during her visit, tune in to the music channel or log on to muchmusic.com for details on how to win a wristband.

Lopez's new movie The Wedding Planner just debuted at the top of the box office this past weekend.

HOLLYWOOD -- Jennifer Lopez had to fight to win the role of the lonely wedding consultant in the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner.

Director Adam Shankman recalls that "the studio had another Jennifer in mind: Jennifer Aniston. They were also talking Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan. Those are the names that automatically come up when a studio is casting a romantic comedy."

Shankman agreed to meet Lopez.

"We met at a restaurant in L.A. The moment Jennifer walked in, heads began twirling. I saw what an effect she has on people and what a huge fan base she has."

Shankman went to battle for Lopez. The studio agreed, but only if he could keep the budget at $8 million US.

"I said I would, but they still were reluctant to sign Jennifer. Unfortunately for them, they waited until after Jennifer's album came out. Within two weeks, her asking price soared -- and so did our budget."

The Wedding Planner ended up costing $35 million US.

HOLLYWOOD -- When she was a starry-eyed girl growing up in the Bronx, Jennifer Lopez wanted it all.

She wanted fame, fortune and celebrity.

She wanted to sing, dance and act, and to have the eyes of the world on her.

It was one of those preposterous little girl dreams that has actually come true.

With the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner, which opens Friday, Lopez's US$9-million salary made her the highest-paid Hispanic woman in the history of film.

Her 1999 debut album On The 6 has sold more than seven million copies, yielding three hit singles, and she is poised to release her follow-up album, J.Lo, on Tuesday.

She has kept her name and her ample figure on the cover of magazines and newspapers since the fall of 1996, when she starred in the bio-pic, Selena.

At the same time the film came out, she announced her marriage to Ojani Noa, an aspiring model and bartender she'd met at the wrap party months earlier for Selena.

Within a year, the couple married, separated and divorced, and not long afterwards, Lopez began her high-profile romance with rap mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs.

From the almost-dress she wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards to the limousine dash from a shootout at a New York nightclub last December, Lopez has made her private life a public affair.

"If anyone can figure out how to balance my celebrity and my dual careers in music and film, it's me. I don't feel frightened or daunted. I feel challenged," Lopez insists.

First on her agenda is J.Lo, which she says is not only named for her fans but is also a homage to them.

"My fans call me J.Lo. Giving the album this title is my way of telling them that this is for them in appreciation of their support."

She says the songs on J.Lo are more personal than those on On The 6.

"The songs reflect a lot of what I've observed and witnessed my sisters and my girlfriends going through.

"The songs are about having a good time and not having a good time, or partying a lot and partying too much.

"Songs don't have to be specifically about me to be highly personal."

Lopez says Combs produced four of the tracks on the album.

"Those are the only four songs that are collaborations between Puff and me. He gives me my space to work with my producer and my vocal coach."

Lopez insists she has been completely vindicated by the success of On The 6 because it was not at the expense of her film career.

"I was able to make Out Of Sight, The Cell and The Wedding Planner at the same time I was producing and releasing an album.

"Many people warned that the album could have delayed the progress of my film career. They pointed out that juggling two careers has had a negative effect on several budding careers."

Lopez says she refused to be daunted by such a prospect because she knew she "had to get credibility in both worlds. It's organic and natural for me. I was trying to get a record deal long before I got into film."

Lopez has committed to film a thriller called Enough in March and then plans to tour for her album in late summer.

"I'm going to do my tour during the actors strike. That's half a joke," she adds quickly.

"I had always planned to tour with this album. It's planning my life so carefully that has allowed me to live it despite the chaos."

Lopez says this penchant for being in control is something she shares with her character in The Wedding Planner.

It's a fluffy romantic comedy in which she plays a San Francisco wedding planner who has no love life of her own until she falls in love with the groom (Matthew McConaughey) of one of her clients.

"When I signed on to star in The Wedding Planner, I hadn't met Puffy yet, so I was a lot like Mary who I play.

"I had put my life on hold for my career. The big difference between Mary and me is that I'm driven from something inside me that needs for me to have a life as well."

In The Wedding Planner when Mary literally bumps into Dr. Steve Edison, she knows he's the man for her.

"Of course, I believe in love at first sight.

"It happened to me with my first husband. It was real and it was intense. It just didn't last.

"Love at first sight is something that happens to both people simultaneously. It's like a lightning bolt."

Last year, Lopez was talking about getting married again soon, but she has put the brakes, at least temporarily, on that plan.

"I want to be married and I want to have kids, but you have to find the right balance in your life before that can happen.

"Right now, my life is so focused on my career that I wouldn't be able to give my husband and children as much of me as they deserve. They would feel cheated.

"I feel marriage and a family will happen for me organically, which means I have to let it happen naturally."

Much has been made of Lopez's status as a pop diva.

She travels with her entourage, demands and receives the perks afforded a star.

According to McConaughey, Lopez "has earned her status as a diva.

"It's one of my favourite things about Jennifer. Not many people can be a diva, even if they want to.

"Jennifer can. She is. She owns her divaness -- and what better place to own and flaunt it than in Hollywood."

The LOPEZ File

The Wedding Planner is Jennifer Lopez's first romantic comedy, and she says it's about time she starred in one.

"I am a die-hard romantic. I love all things romantic.

"Puffy understands that. For my last birthday, he covered my hotel room floor with rose petals and had flowers and candles all over the room.

"I love the idea of spending the whole day in bed with my lover.

"I'm very open with my love. I'm passionate and I feel a lot. I'm never afraid to get close to someone. I'm not afraid of love."

HOLLYWOOD -- Jennifer Lopez is gearing up for one busy month.

The pop diva has a movie coming out, a new album and a high-profile trial to contend with before the end of January.

Her boyfriend, Sean "Puffy" Combs will have his first trial hearing on Jan. 17 for gun possession in New York State Supreme Court, and Lopez will be called as a witness.

"As far as the trial is concerned, I just take it day by day," she told the Sun yesterday. "I can't sit in the house and worry. It's a part of my life, but it isn't my life."

Lopez was far more excited about the prospect of seeing the first cut of her new album, J.Lo, which arrives in stores on Jan. 23.

"I got to see the first copy of it on Saturday with the artwork. It's so exciting. I feel this is going to be even bigger and better than On the 6."

Lopez's 1999 debut album went double platinum, selling more than 6 million copies.

On Jan. 26, Lopez stars opposite Matthew McConaughey in the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner.

"It's my first romantic comedy. I had to beg the studio to let me do it.

"I was determined to do The Wedding Planner to show the industry that I'm capable of doing any role at any time," she said.

"In the past, lots of doors have been closed to me because my last name is Lopez, but I am determined to prove I can go beyond the ethnic."

Following on her turn in the surreal serial killer drama "The Cell," Jennifer Lopez will again step into weighty territory with a film about domestic violence.

Variety says Lopez and Michael Apted, who most recently directed the James Bond movie "The World Is Not Enough," will collaborate on "Enough," about a woman who flees her abusive marriage, and then undertakes martial arts training in order to face off against her husband.

"Enough" is based on a screenplay by "Bicentennial Man" screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, who sold the screenplay to Sony Pictures for $1 million, plus 2% of the film's gross, Variety said.

Lopez's next film, "The Wedding Planner," arrives in theatres in January.

-- JAM! Movies

Francis Ford Coppola will produce singer-actress Jennifer Lopez in a film bio of Mexican artist and activist Frida Kahlo, Variety reports.

The film will be directed by Luis Valdez, who helmed the Ritchie Valens biopic "La Bamba," and will be produced under MGM/UA's 10-picture deal with Coppola's company, American Zoetrope, Variety said.

Over the years, there have been a number of attempts to bring Kahlo's life to the screen, with Madonna at one point agitating to play the artist.

Mexican actress Selma Hayek had also talked of making a movie about Kahlo, and Tim Robbins' movie "Rock The Cradle" included scenes involving Kahlo (played by Corina Katt Ayala) and her partner, Diego Rivera (played by Ruben Blades).

-- JAM! Movies

Jennifer Lopez, the queen of Latin pop, is in talks to portray one of the giants of Latin fine art.

Variety reports that Lopez is in talks to portray Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, in a film that is to be executive-produced by "Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola and directed by "La Bamba" director Luis Valdez, from his screenplay.

Coincidentally, Miramax is already preparing its own biography of Kahlo -- who had a tempestuous relationship with painter Diego Rivera -- starring Salma Hayek, Variety said.

Valdez has been trying to get his screenplay, based on the biography "The Two Fridas," produced for more than a decade. He nearly succeeded in 1991 with "Just Shoot Me's" Laura San Giacomo. But Variety said protests from the Latin community over the casting of San Giacomo -- who is not a Latina -- scuttled the film.

Madonna had warmed to the project as well, but the project fell apart over the same objections, Variety said.

Now, with Lopez and Hayak -- Hollywood's two most bankable Latina stars -- the two films are set to go head-to-head. The coming months will prove whether either will make it to the screen -- or whether the producers of both movies are playing a game of chicken to see who will back down first.

It may be Ricky Martin's mantra, but it's Jennifer Lopez who gives full meaning to Livin' La Vida Loca.

Life couldn't be much crazier for the 30-year-old actress and recording star.

She's almost become more famous for the dress she almost wore to this year's Grammy Awards show and her relationship with rapper Sean Puffy Combs than her films and songs.

She even got to spend a few hours in lock-up after she and Combs were arrested when they fled a New York nightclub shooting.

Nonetheless, Lopez insists she's happy.

"I'm living the life I always dreamed of living. From the time I was a youngster I wanted to be a celebrity," says Lopez.

"It's a great life. The only bad thing is that people are more interested in your personal life than they are in your work.

"That's freaky."

What a personal life it's been for Lopez since the fall of 1996 when she was cast in the title role of the bio-pic Selena.

During the filming of key scenes of Selena in Miami she met aspiring model Ojani Noa, who was waiting tables at Gloria Estefan's Miami Beach restaurant.

She dumped her high school sweetheart David Cruz to marry Noa, who proposed to her at the wrap party for Selena in San Antonio.

They married in February of 1997, separated that fall and divorced in March of 1998.

"I had just gotten married when Selena came out," Lopez recalls.

"It was freaky and scary all at the same time because I lost my anonymity. I had a lot of anxiety attacks."

Lopez blames the Spanish media for the pressures that destroyed her marriage.

"The Spanish media made up these stories about us fighting all the time. He used to watch the TV shows and couldn't deal with the lies because he's a regular guy and never had to deal with this kind of terrible media scrutiny.

"I seem to be attracted to men who haven't gotten their lives together. It's hard for them to live in my shadow, knowing they'll never make the kind of money I do," explained Lopez after the divorce.

Shortly after making this observation, Lopez dated Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola and then began her relationship with Combs.

At first both Lopez and Combs protested that they were just friends, but when he broke up with Kim Porter, the mother of his two-year-old child, the couple admitted they were romantically involved.

"Puff and I have a relationship right now and we'll see what happens in the future. It's a private thing," says Lopez.

"Most of what has been written about us is ridiculous.

"I just read that Puff bought me a house for $4 million. That was funny.

"I also read that I had insured my body for $1 billion. These things made the front pages of newspapers around the world. It's insane the things people will write and read.

"Puff has not given me a house.

"I've never insured myself for even $50. I have life insurance, or at least I hope I do, or I'll be really mad at my business manager."

Lopez says she was also amused to read that Combs forbade her to kiss Matthew McConaughey for any scenes in their film The Wedding Planner.

"Movie love scenes are not difficult to do. They're uncomfortable to watch them with your boyfriend later.

"When I see Puff in a video kissing someone, it's freaky and I know it's freaky for him to see me do a movie love scene, but as far as him forbidding me to do them, that's bull."

Though her life with Combs has become a media circus, Lopez insists it is "easier to be involved with a public figure because they know what to expect. The hard part is that you are both so busy.

"You want to spend more time with each other than you actually can."

Still, Lopez is adamant she is "OK with my life being this juggling act."

She has become one of the new faces for L'Oreal.

Her first album On the 6 sold more than two million copies worldwide and she has three movies ready to be released.

The first is the psychological thriller The Cell, which opens Friday.

Lopez plays Catherine Deane, a therapist who is able to enter the minds of catatonic children.

The FBI need her to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio) to discover where he has hidden a woman intended to be his latest victim.

"The script read like another Silence of the Lambs, but with incredible visual effects.

"I knew it was a pretty freaky idea, but I got to play a very compassionate character and that appealed to me."

Lopez insists making The Cell did not give her nightmares, but watching the finished version was another case altogether.

"It had much more of an impact on me watching it. It is a very scary movie."

Equally scary and unsettling for Lopez are the accusations that she has become a diva.

"I don't know why the press has slapped me with this diva thing.

"There's not that history with me. I've had totally great working relationships with all my directors and co-stars. I've gotten along with everybody.

"It's so weird. One person writes something and the story keeps circulating. The other journalists don't bother checking whether the stories are true or just fabricated.

"Puff is the one who insists I have bodyguards. He's always on about me having more security, but I don't like it.

"I like to be a normal person and do my own thing. I try to go out on my own but sometimes when I'm recognized, things get pretty crazy, so maybe Puff has a good point."

Don't expect to see Lopez wearing her infamous Versace dress again, even though it is still in her closet.

"That was a one-time thing.

"I can't wear it again. It wouldn't have the same effect.

"I'll do something with it eventually. Maybe I'll give it to charity."

Lopez turned 30 last month.

"It wasn't traumatic at all. The party Puff threw me was great. He pulled it together in less than two days, so that no one had time to blow the surprise.

"I don't feel 30. I feel like I'm 21 and I maintain my body to reflect that. I love food, so I eat a lot but I also exercise a lot, so it all evens out.

"I've been on my own since I was 18 and I've known all along that if I'm going to make it in this business I have to take good care of myself."

TORONTO -- What an act.

Jennifer and Her Orbiters. They have left town after wrapping Angel Eyes, and lots of locals who worked on the movie are glad to see them go. Jennifer Lopez, by all accounts, was intense but incredibly friendly while shooting the Luis Mandoki picture here.

It was her flying wedge of assistants and assistants to assistants that drove everybody crazy. Lopez's people came with great expectations on behalf of the the movie star. Accommodations were never quite to their liking. Says one caustic set observer, "Even her coffee had to be stirred counter-clockwise."

If Jennifer Lopez thought her relationship with Puff Daddy had tongues wagging, wait until her next film, "The Cell," opens.

In an interview with the London Express, Lopez admits the kinky film, which casts her as a scientist who climbs inside the mind of a serial killer and sees her decked out in bondage gear and as the Virgin Mary, will cause a stir. "We are going to get a lot of stick for this ... there were days when I'd think, are we going to get away with this? It's very extreme," Lopez told the paper.

The director, Tarsem (the man responsible for R.E.M.'s memorable "Losing My Religion" video clip), recently told Entertainment Weekly that he "wanted the audience to know the edge and slice its hand on it ... People are going to be dead silent or laughing their asses off, or both, when they see it."

Meanwhile, the Mr. Showbiz entertainment website reports the film, which shows the villain, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, playing his victim's intestines like a harp, has earned an R rating in the U.S. for "bizarre, violent and sexual images, nudity and language."

-- JAM! Movies

TORONTO - Jennifer Lopez is keeping her halo on while she suffers from star search.

The singer/actress is shooting the drama Angel Eyes in our city. There are a lot of people paying close attention to her details. The frenzy hasn't created any serious problems but there are concerns.

The Luis Mandoki picture will be here until mid-July, and smooth, uninterrupted filming and a hassle-free Lopez are the aims of all kinds of folks associated with the movie about Lopez's grief-stricken cop who falls for a fellow mourner.

On a happier note, Lopez is back on the film track after doing the music thing.

In August, she's featured in The Cell, a psycho-thriller that has her playing a scientist who finds a way to figuratively get inside the brain of a serial killer.

Meanwhile, Angel Eyes love interest Jim Caviezel is trying to figure out what city he's in. Caviezel is completing Pay It Forward in Las Vegas with Kevin Spacey.

COMING AND GOING: In three weeks, Tim Allen and Christian Slater will be in and around town shooting Cletis Tout. Allen and Slater both need a hit, and are counting on this to get them going ... William H. Macey will be doing Focus here. The movie will begin its six-week shoot starting in mid-June ... Leaving soon is the picture Jason X. The cast and crew for the 10th edition of the Friday The 13th slasher flick have been here since early March, recently working out of the Downsview airport building where UFO spottings were mostly of the Kane Hodder-as-Jason kind ... Semi Chellas earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for her kids movie script, Dead Aviators. Chellas, now in New York for the awards aired Friday on CTV, will be back here on the weekend to edit her short film Three Stories From The End Of Everything.

Expect a bodyguard shortage when major attractions Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey head our way to do films in Toronto.

Both are the famous kind who need no introduction, but want to be kept far from the maddening crowds.

Lopez, the Latin beauty who wore the un-dress at the Grammys, should be here by early May to start shooting the romantic thriller, Angel Eyes.

The other darling diva, Carey, is scheduled to arrive later in the summer to begin her redefinition of the often-made A Star Is Born.

Lopez, these days, takes the security cake, since her involvement with Puff Daddy put her in the intense paparazzi zone. And she gets staked out by shutter bugs more than ever, post-Grammys. You never know when she'll be wearing another undress again.

Carey's media swarm factor is right up there, too.

At least Lopez will be happy in a rich kind of way when she's here. She's getting a record $7.5 million for her Angel Eyes' cop role.

Ironically, Lopez was considering A Star Is Born as a vehicle for her talents, but passed. That left the part open to Carey, who jumped at the chance.

Meanwhile, Carey will sing for her supper at the Air Canada Centre April 7.

Does Jennifer Lopez have a billion dollar butt?

The word from the star herself is no.

Jennifer Lopez denied the The New York Post's story that she'd insured her body for $1 billion, BBC reported.

"I don't know where they got it from," Lopez said Monday. "When I heard the story I thought it was very funny."

The Post's original article cited the London tabloid The Sun, saying Lopez insured her body, including her famous derriere, for $1 billion.

Each of her body parts were supposedly insured for different amounts including $200 million for her breasts, $300 million for her legs and backside and $50 million for her hair.

"She doesn't want to take a chance with her mega-bucks modelling, acting and singing career," the paper said. The New York Post added to the report, saying Lopez's agents insisted she take out the insurance.

"She is the hottest woman in showbiz at the moment ... and she wants the reassurance that if something goes wrong she will be well-covered. She travels around the world all the time and does a lot of her own stunts in films, and she's very conscious of something going wrong," the Post quoted an insider.

Although Lopez denies reports that she's insured her body, she wouldn't be the first screen siren or music star to do so. Betty Grable insured her legs for a million dollars and Bruce Springsteen insured his voice for six million dollars.

Lopez, whose debut album "On The 6" has topped the charts, recently received an $8 million payday for the film 'Angel Eyes."

-- JAM! Movies

Jennifer Lopez's payday just made a big jump with the announcement of her next film, the romantic thriller "Angel Eyes."

Variety says the actress -- who started her career as a "flygirl" dancer on the comedy series "In Living Color," and was paid $2 million to star alongside George Clooney in "Out Of Sight" -- will be paid $7.5 million for "Angel Eyes."

Lopez will star as a female cop with a history of sexual abuse who befriends a man trying to deal with the death of his wife and son.

Luis Mandoki and Gerard DiPego, the team that directed and wrote "Message In A Bottle," will reunite for "Angel Eyes". The movie has a $30 million budget and is set to start filming in the spring, Variety said.

-- JAM! Movies

NEW YORK -- Jennifer Lopez has just been offered $5 million for the lead in the Warner movie Angel Eyes.

Variety says the studio also thinks she could be a match for Will Smith in the remake of A Star Is Born, a move that would capitalize on her singing career. Her Sony album, On The 6, debuted at No. 8 two weeks ago.

She will also star in the sci-fi film The Cell, and is negotiating for the title role in The Wedding Planner for director Adam Schenkman, and has also been in discussions to co-star with Eddie Murphy in Pluto Nash, the action comedy set on the moon, to film early next year.

Angel Eyes is a drama in which Lopez would play a cop reeling from the effects of an abusive childhood. She forms a healing bond with a man who has been traumatized since watching his son and wife die in a car crash.

- Toronto Sun

HOLLYWOOD -- She tried to be a star in the nicest way possible, but Jennifer Lopez might be losing some of her niceness lustre.

Witness a recent poolside scene at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel.

Resplendent in an expensive swimsuit and fashionable sunglasses, Lopez is stretched out on a chaise lounge.

She has a cellphone to her ear, and she's speaking Spanish loudly and clearly into the latest battery-operated Motorola Star Tac.

Lopez is not pleased, apparently.

She is so not pleased that her harsh telephone manner makes some nearby turn toward her.

When the 28-year-old ends her phone conversation abruptly, life poolside resumes. Vanity sunbathers assume their previous posed positions.

Lopez settles in, as well, and slowly simmers under the California sun, a little less anonymous than she was when she first arrived.

Indeed, it's been a very grueling Lopez year, personally.

Her marriage to Miami waiter Ojani Noa is presumably on the rocks after less than 18 months of not-so-heavenly matrimony.

Gossip pages have written about her dating boxer Oscar de la Hoya, and getting cozy with Sony Music boss Tommy Mottola. There have even been reports of her arguing in public with her new husband.

She continues to deny eveything, or continues to be in denial.

On the professional front, however, things couldn't be better.

Lopez is getting great notices for her version of the tough U.S. marshal in Out Of Sight opposite George Clooney. She's fondly remembered for a fine Selena portrayal, and as the frisky scene stealer in Money Train. Some said Lopez was the only reasonable one in the over-the-top Anaconda.

For fun, she's the lead voice in Antz, a fall animation film also starring Sharon Stone, Woody Allen and Sylvester Stallone.

She has an album to release early next year and a film to produce months afterward called Tango, which centres on intrigue and that popular Argentinian dance.

Lopez is definitely living in an ambivalent world.

So the morning after her terse poolside incident, Lopez bursts into a Four Seasons Hotel room full of reporters looking as spunky and sexy as ever.

She also happens to be trailed by a personal publicist, who takes a seat directly behind Lopez.

When the publicist isn't hovering, she's yawning as Lopez fields questions about her career, and how she's changed from her rookie days as a Fly Girl on the syndicated comedy show In Living Color.

"I'm still the same. I'm a workaholic. I get anxious when I don't have something to do," says a perky Lopez. "And I'm a little older."

And richer.

"But money doesn't run my existence. Even when I was poor, I didn't worry about money."

Instead, there is the pressure of maintaining what she has.

"The pressure is worse now than then," confirms Lopez. "It always seemed like a struggle. Now I struggle to figure out what to do next, to keep it going."

That's professionally.

Personally, she's officially entered the no-comment zone.

HOLLYWOOD -- Jennifer Lopez wants to be Hollywood's next IT girl.

Back in the Roaring '20s, Clara Bow was dubbed the IT girl because she had something special that set her apart from the other stars of the day.

"I call it WOW," explains Lopez, the star of Selena, Anaconda, U-Turn and the George Clooney caper movie Out of Sight, which opens Friday.

"It's all about being alive, open, electric and confident. If you have the goods, there's nothing to be afraid of. If somebody doesn't have the goods, they're insecure.

"I don't have that problem. I'm not the best actress that ever lived, but I know I'm pretty good."

Lopez, 27, knew from an early age that she was special.

She was born and raised in New York's tough Bronx district.

By her own admission, she "had a pretty voluptuous body from the time I was 11, but I also had a dream. I was going to be a performer."

She sang and danced in school productions and, in 1991, was cast as one of the Fly Girls on TV's In Living Color.

She quickly stepped out of the chorus line to star in such TV series as Second Chances, South Central and Hotel Malibu, playing a series of seductresses.

Then came supporting roles in feature films such as My Family, Money Train, Jack and Blood and Wine.

She was still just a face among faces until she played the doomed singer in Selena and the heroine in Anaconda.

"Lots of people laughed when I chose to do Anaconda, but it made more than $100 million, so I had the last laugh."

Lopez insists she had even more chemistry with her latest non-reptilian leading man, Clooney.

"It was George and my idea to turn the seduction scene in Out of Sight into a striptease.

"The sex scenes in Out of Sight (including another in a bathtub) are the first time in ages that you see more of the man than the woman."

Lopez says she's confident that she can be sexy without having to disrobe.

"I grew up watching real movie stars like Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth. They knew what was sexy. It was because of them that I wanted to be a movie actress."

Celebrity has its down-side.

Lopez's life is now under the media microscope.

Ojani Noa, the former Cuban model and bartender Lopez married last year, confirmed she asked for a quick divorce two months ago.

He is still managing L.A.'s trendy Cuban Lounge, the bar Lopez bought for him as a wedding present.

Lopez has been linked with Mariah Carey's former husband, record producer Tommy Mottola, and rapper Sean Puff Daddy.

"Every time I'm photographed talking to someone, it's construed as a date," Lopez says.

"I've learned that I can't control what's written about my private life. The only thing I can control is my work on the screen.

"I refuse to be a recluse, so I have to content myself with the knowledge that many more untruths are going to be written about me."

Lopez's next movie will be Thieves from Gary Fleder, the director of Kiss the Girls.

"Right now though, I'm working on an album. It's going to be pop, dance and street music all with a definite Latin influence."

HOLLYWOOD -- Rumors abound that Jennifer Lopez's year-old marriage is on the rocks.

The sultry Lopez met Cuban model Ojnai Noa in a Miami bar and married him after a whirlwind affair.

Lopez has been spotted recently with music producer Tommy Mottola and rapper Puff Daddy, but the actress will not admit or deny anything.

"I was too open and honest about my private life in the past and I've been hurt as a result," insists Lopez.

In fact, she now travels to interviews with her publicist, who blocks all personal questions with the pronouncement that "Jennifer doesn't answer those kind of questions any more."

Lopez laments that she never thought the press would hound her once she got famous.

"I thought I was too ordinary and too open for the paparazzi to care about me, but now the supermarket publications are all over me."

HOLLYWOOD -- Jennifer Lopez's reel life is impacting a bit too much on her real life.

Four years ago, Lopez was just one of the Fly Girl dancers on TV's In Living Color. Now she's one of Hollywood's most popular starlets.

In the past 18 months alone, Lopez has starred in Blood and Wine, Anaconda and Selena, and is one of the stars of Oliver Stone's U-Turn.

She has signed to star opposite George Clooney in the thriller Out of Sight that begins filming next month.

"Selena was a big movie for me. Kids loved the movie and they introduced it to their parents and grandparents. Suddenly I was being recognized everywhere," explains Lopez.

"I love being popular and noticed. That's part of the whole celebrity thing ... as long as it's the truth.

"Now there are all these ridiculous stories being printed about me and it's hard on my family. I get these panic phone calls from my grandmother and my father."

The latest predicament occurred last month. Just weeks before the release of Selena last year, Lopez married Ojani Noa, a Cuban waiter she'd met in Miami. Now there are reports about a public break-up.

"The papers said Ojani and I had a fight in the restaurant at the Le Mondrian hotel in Los Angeles. They said he threw plates and cutlery on the floor and stormed out, leaving me alone and crying."

Lopez says what actually happened was that her husband couldn't find anything he liked on the menu and excused himself from a meeting she was having with her agent.

"Ojani and I had a laugh about the stories, but then when we went to Miami the next week, the paparazzi followed us everywhere, hoping to get a picture of us fighting in public.

"My father phone and asked me to tell Ojani not to yell at me in public. I should have called my father and explained everything before he read it in a newspaper."

Lopez says she will now have regular conferences with her family, and not just when one of her films is about to be released.

"I tell my family if I'm going to be naked in the film or have a sex scene or if I'm going to kill anyone. They don't want to be surprised when they come to my movies."

Lopez will have a lot of explaining to do over her role in U-Turn. She plays the cheating wife of the town's richest man (Nick Nolte).

When a young stranger (Sean Penn) arrives in town, she seduces him and then asks him to kill her husband.

"There is a lot of sex and violence in U-Turn, but it is all justified by the plot. I knew I'd be doing several sex scenes but (director) Oliver Stone said there would be no nudity."

That all changed one day when Stone came to Lopez's trailer and asked if she'd do a nude scene.

"When I objected, Oliver reminded me that I'd done a nude scene for Blood and Wine, but I reminded him it got cut out.

"We talked for a long while before I agreed to do the nudity. Jennifer the actress has nothing against nudity, but Jennifer the person really hates it. The actress always wins out by reminding me this is what I'm paid to do."

Lopez says she learned early that to succeed in Hollywood, she could not be easily intimidated.

"I just tell myself that the director will like me and like my work and then I pray it works out that way."

She is proud to say she has yet to have a director or co-star proposition her.

"I know many actresses who've had that happen to them, but I don't give off the vibe that I'll sleep with them. That ultimately gets their respect."

HOLLYWOOD -- More enthusiasm than ego, more confidence than calculation, the casual but vivacious Jennifer Lopez is still in a state of wonder.

She's finishing up a film year that is turning her peers green with envy and her bank account green with money.

She co-starred with Jack Nicholson in Blood And Wine, she received raves as Selena, and she was forgiven her involvement in Anaconda, the silly Amazon adventure yarn.

In Oliver Stone's U-Turn, opening Friday, Lopez plays a sexy smalltown manipulator who plots her escape from an abusive marriage.

Based on John Ridley's novel Stray Dogs, the film stars Sean Penn, and highlights such illustrious talents as Nick Nolte, Billy Bob Thornton, Claire Danes, Joaquin Phoenix and Jon Voight.

Yet it is Lopez who drives Stone's movie vision, which combines dark comedy with thriller melodrama.

It is also Lopez who gets hot and heavy during some of the sex scenes.

"I hope," says Lopez recently, "I never have to do it again."

That was the daughter and wife in Lopez talking, but she knows the actor in her rises to the occasion if she has to. "I always warn my parents, though," she says of controversial movie moments she's endured.

Indeed, signing on to star in U-Turn came with some beware qualifications.

Yes, the former In Living Color dancer was issued her very own warning. Beware of the mean-spirited Stone.

"I can't be intimidated," Lopez asserts. "I thought to myself, 'Hell, he'll like me.'

"I come in prepared, and that gains respect. And I don't give off the vibe that the director can sleep with me at any moment, and I get respect for that, too."

Lopez might not have to issue a parental advisory, or receive any preparatory guidelines, in her next movie, the film version of Elmore Leonard's Out Of Sight, also starring George Clooney.

"I'm a federal marshal raised by my dad," she says of the straightforward cops 'n' robbers picture fans will get to see next year.

In the meantime, Lopez is doing some U-Turn promotion, then taking a well-deserved break from the work treadmill and the publicity glare.

Surprisingly, Lopez has managed to survive both mostly unscathed. She figures that has a lot to do with her honesty during media interviews, expecially on TV.

She did, however, get worked over briefly last winter by trashy media gossip about fighting with her new husband, Ojani Noa. "That was back in February. They had him throwing plates at me, all this untrue retarded stuff that hurt."

It blew over, and even the upfront Lopez admits that speaking her mind in interviews helped her get the Lopez truth out.

"I come across very bubbly," says the 27-year-old Bronx-born Puerto Rican, "and I have a very funny personality, and I consider myself humble.

"People don't want actors to be too arrogant or sure of themselves.

"I don't have a huge ego. I'm just a regular kind of girl doing good."

NEW YORK -- Jennifer Lopez is tired of sitting on her butt. Like the title character in her latest film, Selena -- about the vivacious, voluptuous 23-year-old Mexican-American singer murdered two years ago -- Lopez is ready to get off and show her Latina genes.

"One of Selena's huge appeals," says the self-confessed "hip-heavy" actress, who dons the singer's signature hip-hugging outfits in the film, "is that she was herself and didn't try to hide that. She was dark, she wore red lipstick and she had a nice-sized butt. She showed what she had and women could look at her and say, `Hey, my body is just like that!'"

But Selena Quintanilla Perez broke barriers deeper than just skin deep.

Killed by a former employee while her much-anticipated "crossover" English-singing album was in the works, the Grammy-winner, dubbed the Queen of Tejano Music, was also the first woman to gain success in that male-dominated field.

Facing similar racial/gender struggles in the acting world, Lopez, 27, identifies.

"Though I'm Puerto Rican from the Bronx and she was a Mexican in Texas we've both been treated the same way as minorities and as women," says Lopez, who felt the lack of role models in movies growing up.

"There weren't any I could identify with," she says, "except for West Side Story. I loved that film. I identified with Rita Moreno."

In the big picture, says Latino director/writer Gregory Nava, the film is the story of someone of their kind who "was accepted and that's what we all want."

"Every Mexican American has a vested interest in her career," says Nava.

Even making the film about her life, says Lopez, just one of several Latina cast and crew members involved in the project, is "most important for the Latin community. If it does well, it shows we can make great movies."

The race card was almost pulled on Lopez after it was announced at a press conference that she won the role following an intensive two-month search. That she wasn't Mexican disturbed fans at first, says co-producer Robert Katz, but "it was never an issue for us."

With help from Selena's still-mourning family, who had script approval, the cast shot for four months around the singer's hometown of Corpus Christi. The story begins with "a poor girl with a dream," says Lopez, of the film's 15-year time span and ends with "a validation that the American Dream is still alive."

Hesitant at first that it was destined to be a movie-of-the-week style sensation, co-producer Moctesuma Esparza resisted Selena's story until his 15-year-old daughter, a Selena wannabe, pestered until he gave in.

"She showed me videos and talked about her," says Esparza, "and I realized it was really a story about a family who struggled a long time and came to realize their dream."

Portraying Selena's father, a frustrated musician who tried to overcome race barriers decades earlier, Edward James Olmos says working closely with family members, and the fact that he had met the singer only months before she died, made it "emotionally, the hardest movie I ever made."

"She was so unpretentious," says Olmos, who gained 60 pounds to play the role of her father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr. who is executive producer of Selena.

"I can only compare the loss to that of James Dean," says the actor. "We'll never know all that she would have given us."

Working alongside relatives at the shoot, "We'd be on set, look up, and the family would be in tears," says Lopez, who became a kind of surrogate Selena to the protective family. "Selena's mother would look out for me. She'd say: `You haven't eaten anything! You haven't drank any water! You're just like Selena."

It felt that way, at least, when Lopez filmed a concert sequence at San Antonio's Astrodome in front of 35,000 frenzied fans, rekindling her own singing and dancing ambitions.

"I almost forgot how much I love to perform on stage," says Lopez. "There's nothing like singing in front of an audience. When we finished, I called up my agent and said: `I gotta record something!'" (She plans to record later this year.)

Similarities between the actress and the singer don't stop there, admits Lopez. While Selena began singing as a child spurred by her music-loving dad, Lopez began dancing lessons at age five thanks to "my mother, a frustrated actress."

Both share "big hearts" and a rebellious streak, Lopez says -- a character trait highlighted in the film.

"We didn't want to make her into a sanctified, perfect person who did everything her dad told her to do," says director Nava.

One aspect not detailed in the film, however, is the actual hotel-room murder.

"We wanted to focus on her life, not her death," Nava says.

The final sequence, instead, is a smiling montage of the real Selena and a candlelight vigil by fans. The images drew hoots and applause from test audiences, many of Latino descent, in New York and Los Angeles last week.

But whether the film will be able to cross over to a wider audience, as Selena's music did, is the challenge.

"We don't need it," says Olmos. "There are enough Latinos in the Western Hemisphere to take care of this movie a hundred times over."

The filmmakers already got one heartfelt review from Selena's father who saw a rough cut of the final version in an editing room weeks ago.

"He was crying," says Katz. "He got up and gave us all a big hug."

Lopez, too, has a certain sense of a job well done.

"I'm a spiritual person," she says. "I believe in God and I believe Selena is in Heaven. I think she is watching over us."

THE SELENA FILE ON GIVING AUTOGRAPHS: "I use Selena as an example," says Lopez. "The way she handled the public was always very gracious."

THE DANGERS OF FAME: "There's always that fear," says Lopez. "But you can't stop living because of it."

THE NON-DIET DIET: "I ate a lot and exercised nothing," says Olmos, of his weight gain for the role. "Losing it wasn't as much fun."

ON THE AMERICAN DREAM: "It means the American Tragedy," says Olmos, "that's the sadness of our society."

HOLLYWOOD -- The second Jennifer Lopez walks into the room, it gets electric. But her postively overwhelming charge comes more from her vitality than her veneer.

Mind you, Lopez is wearing a form fitting cotton-and-lycra dress with a revealing low-cut design. And she's not shy about the look or exploiting the get-up for a quick laugh.

"Yeah, nice dress, but it's not bra friendly," she says tugging at her dress' scooped front as she plops herself on a chair. "Where do you want to start?" she adds grinning.

What about with who is Jennifer Lopez, and why is she the highest paid Latin actor working in movies today?

The first part is easy. The 27-year-old Lopez is a Bronx-born Puerto Rican, who earned her high-profile showbiz start as a Fly Girl dancer on TV's In Living Color. Well-received secondary roles in My Family, Jack and Money Train followed.

But the best is yet to come. She plays opposite Jack Nicholson in Blood And Wine, which opens tomorrow. Next month she'll be seen as Selena, and later in the year Lopez is featured in the Amazon adventure story, Anaconda. Currently she's shooting the Oliver Stone film, U-Turn.

Big year. "Let's hope," says Lopez smiling, "but don't jinx me." Not possible, they say.

That's why Lopez is making a whopping $1 million a picture, more than other Latins who have had more hits and been in the business twice as long. "Yeah, isn't that sad?" she says.

She doesn't have a great deal of time to worry about the pay scale inequities, however. But she does pause to consider her charmed showbiz life. That's from impressing Nicholson to winning the Selena sweepstakes after all the A and B list actresses went after the role of the Latin singer shot and killed two years ago by the president of her fan club.

"I think Selena really got my name out there," admits Lopez, "but Jennifer Lopez didn't do a bad job of that either."

For instance, she recalls that Money Train's Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson were skewered for their performances, "but I was the only one who came out smelling like a rose, baby."

The fact that Nicholson chose her for Blood And Wine aided her profile. In the Bob Rafelson movie, Lopez plays Nicholson's Cuban mistress involved in his heist plans. They even had a few intimate bedroom sequences, which proved more difficult for the rookie than the veteran.

"Jack was great," recalls Lopez of one particularly tough day on the Miami set.

"He saw that I was getting a little jazzed - y'know, too much going on. He told me it's all about controlling that. Then he said, `This is just about us.' It really helped."

As if she doesn't have enough going on in '97, Lopez is also planning two things she's never done before.

"I'm working on a Latin music album," she confirms.

The other? She's getting married to her boyfriend David Cruz in a few months.

"Yeah," she says, recapping, "Selena, an Oliver Stone movie, and in bed with Jack Nicholson."

It's been a very good year.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Not long ago, Jennifer Lopez was a reluctant member of the dancing-fools ensemble The Fly Girls on TV's acerbic In Living Color.

Today, she is poised to become one of Hollywood's hottest stars.

The New York-raised Lopez is making her breakthrough as the Manhattan subway decoy cop who teams up with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in the action thriller Money Train. The movie is a current box office hit.

Young, smart, beautiful and acclaimed for her acting potential, Lopez is just finishing a co-starring role with Robin Williams in the movie Jack here in 'Frisco. Next month, she wings off to Miami to co-star as Jack Nicholson's mistress and Stephen Dorff's lover in the erotic thriller Blood And Wine.

"God is watching over me, that's all I can say," she says in a quiet moment during promoting Money Train, a movie that has generated better criticial reviews for her than for the two stars. "He has a plan for me. I've been really lucky. And I work hard."

The irony is, she says, that she owes so much to her Fly Girls routine. That was a job she was loath to take. But Keenen Ivory Wayans talked her into it with a lucrative salary offer. "It was more than my father makes and that was nothing compared to what people in this business make." But it was more than enough to swing the deal.

"It was a great thing to be a part of, but I was trying to get out of dancing at that time in my life. So I didn't care about the Fly Girls. But it turned out to be a good thing for me."

One of the Fly Girls married a producer. He watched the ensemble closely and ended up casting Lopez in a recurring role on Fox's South Central. CBS's Second Chances followed. Her character was spun off onto Malibu Road when Second Chances didn't get one. The television appearances led to movie work, including a small role in My Family.

"Things rolled really well from there, although there are a lot of things I have auditioned for that I haven't gotten. It hasn't been all roses. But I've been lucky in the stuff I have gotten."

Lucky and enough of a chameleon -- unlike her Bronx pal Rosie Perez -- to convince filmmakers to cast her in roles that were not specifically Latino. Such as in Money Train.

Heck, the character didn't exist at all in the original scipt, says director Joseph Ruben. But he wanted a sexy young thing to drive the two guys crazy -- and found her in Lopez. "That was really important to me, that element," Ruben says. "It gave a focus to the movie with a kind of raw sexual competition between the two guys."

In the movie, Snipes and Harrelson are foster brothers who work together on the decoy team, trapping and arresting punks who attack subway riders. But why a Latino partner? "Why not?" says Ruben. The role did not have to be race specific.

Lopez beat out two black actresses, an Asian-American and a blonde Caucasian for the role. For the plum role as Robin Williams' schoolteacher in Jack -- he plays a child whose body ages to adulthood four times faster than normal -- Lopez beat out Ashley Judd and Lauren Holly.

So forget the Latino stereotyping, she says. "You do get the stereotyping. Playing prostitutes and drug dealers, that sucks. Just now, we're starting to get different kinds of roles that are not negative. So it doesn't matter any more. That's great!"