Singer Jennifer Lopez, who recently quit the reality TV show American Idol to focus more on her acting career, turned 43 today. Who'd believe it?
Singer Jennifer Lopez, who recently quit the reality TV show American Idol to focus more on her acting career, turned 43 today. Who'd believe it?
The sexy singer showed off her famous curves at a concert in Panama recently. The mother of two wore a shiny, sheer nude catsuit with stones on it to cover her modesty.
The pop star has never shied away from outre outfits. In May this year she wore a bodycon dress with a bejewelled snake around the neck. The jewelled snake was attached to her black and peach Lanvin mini dress from the hips and coiled round her neck.
Coming up: JLo's life in pictures.
Listed as an actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, fashion designer and television producer, Jennifer Lopez redefines showbiz multitasking.
She has her own fashion line, with plans to launch another one soon, a successful music career as well as a movie career that's shaping up again (at one point of time, she was the highest paid actress in Hollywood).
She started out her career as a backup dancer on television, even appearing in videos for bands like New Kids On The Block and performers like Janet Jackson.
But her real break came when she was signed as a regular dancer called "Fly Girl", in the popular television series In Living Colour.
Soon after In Living Colour, she became a regular back-up dancer for Janet Jackson, touring with her around the world for various concerts. Obviously, though, Jennifer was meant for bigger things.
After almost six years of struggling to make a mark for herself, she burst onto the music scene. Her first album, titled On The 6, peaked amongst the top ten albums of 1999, charting with it the single If You Had My Love, which peaked at number one.
On The 6, which was a reference to the subway line she used to take as a child, also featured possibly her biggest song to date, Waiting For Tonight.
The album was special for another reason, because it featured the song No Me Ames, a collaboration with singer Marc Anthony who would later become her husband.
Jennifer's second album, simply titled J.Lo, released in 2003 and was deemed an instant success.
One of the hit songs it spawned was Love Don't Cost A Thing, which became her first number one hit in the UK, amongst achieving other such milestones.
That same year, Jennifer also starred in the film The Wedding Planner, which debuted and stayed at number one, thus making her the only person in history to have a number one film and number one song running simultaneously.
During and before her fledgling music career, JLo was dabbling in performing arts and television, where she was mostly sidelined with minor roles.
Her film debut was in the 1995 film Money Train, starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. The film was a commercial and critical bomb, but Lopez managed to turn some heads, and getting work was never a problem after that.
The next year, she beat out competition from A-list actresses to star in Francis Ford Coppola's Jack, opposite Robin Williams.
At the time, reviews of the film were scathing, effectively ending Coppola's magnificent career. Today, however, opinions are polarized. JLo's performance is generally praised, though she didn't really have much to do.
Indian audiences might recognize the film, because it was the sole inspiration for Amitabh Bachchan film Paa.
1997 was a great year for her, since she had three big releases. First up was Selena, a biopic of Latin American popstar of the same name and the role that established her as a serious actress . The film earned her rave reviews, even getting her nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.
Next up was the cheesy horror/adventure Ananconda, which was a decent success commercially.
She ended the year with the Sean Penn-Nick Nolte starrer, U-Turn, which grabbed eyeballs for JLo's bold sex scene. Even with the scene, however, the film tanked miserably.
The next year, she starred in Steven Soderbergh's Out Of Sight, which earned her lavish praise from the critics.
Playing a tough cop who falls for smooth criminal George Clooney, she won audiences the world over with her phenomenal performance.
She also became the first actress to earn more than $1 million for a movie, making her the highest paid actress in Hollywood, at the time.
Things picked up once again with Maid In Manhattan, where she starred opposite Ralph Fiennes. Maid In Manhattan was given blockbuster status once it completed its run.
2004's Shall We Dance continued her soaring affair with the box office, where her turn as a dance instructor to Richard Gere's earnest character brought her praise from all around. The Unfinished Letter was another one of her critical successes, as was her English language film El Cantante, which was another one of her collaborations with Marc Anthony.
Relationships have always formed a huge part of JLo's public profile. With no less than three marriages behind her, it's easy to see why.
Her first marriage was to back-up dancer Ojani Noa, in 1997. The two had barely dated when they announced that they had gotten married. However, the union ended bitterly the next year. Recently, Noa's been in the news again, trying to sell off a sex tape featuring JLo and himself. JLo's representatives won a stay order against Noa and forced him to hand over any other potentially embarrassing material related to her.
She next dated Sean "P. Diddy" Combs for two-and-a-half years, ending the romance when Combs was arrested for felony arms possession. Sources close to Lopez said the arrest and subsequent injunction took their toll on her.
In 2001, she married back-up dancer Cris Judd, whom she met while recording a video for Love Don't Cost A Thing. Despite the lack of visible cracks, the marriage dissolved in 2003 when Lopez started dating Ben Affleck.
Her most torrid, tempestuous affair came in the form of Ben Affleck. The two got along famously and were dubbed "Bennifer", in popular media. In fact, things got so heated up, that Jennifer proclaimed to one and all that Affleck was "the one" and that they were looking forward to having children in the future.
However, just hours before the marriage was to take place, it was called off for reasons still unknown. While Affleck moved on to another Jennifer (Garner, this time), Lopez was seen in Marc Anthony's arms, with whom she had collaborated a number of times and even dated for a brief period.
She married singer Marc Anthony in 2004, in a private wedding ceremony, where the guests weren't even told the two were getting married.
Famously secretive, Anthony refused to divulge details of the nuptials, while Jennifer maintained a tight-lipped "everyone knows, it's no secret" stance.
Seven years and a pair of twins later, this marriage of Lopez's, too, dissolved. Citing irreconcilable differences, JLo and Mark Anthony's representatives announced that the marriage was over, despite the pain and anguish the decision obviously caused.
