Let’s travel back in time to the year 2002.
Love is in the air for two good looking and multi-talented A-List celebrities.
Oscar-winner Ben Affleck is coming off several high-profile leading roles (Pearl Harbor, The Sum Of All Fears, Daredevil) and looks poised to be the next Tom Cruise.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez is hotter than molten lava, balancing a thriving film career with a burgeoning one in music. Her movies Maid in Manhattan and The Wedding Planner are box office smashes and her first two albums (1999’s On The 6 and 2001’s J.Lo) ship a combined 7 million.
So, when they get together in 2002 (right as Lopez’s marriage to second husband Cris Judd was ending), it’s a dream come true for one of the strongest pillars of the entertainment industry: the tabloid press.
The paparazzi are obsessed with this new powerhouse couple and come up with a precedent-setting nickname to describe this coupling: Bennifer. This portmanteau becomes influential in the coming years, as we also get the likes of Brangelina, TomKat, Kimye, Speidi and for Manchester United fans: Roonaldo.
Of course, like many fairy tales, this one wasn’t meant to be. After making one of the worst reviewed and viewed box office flops of all time (Gigli), the couple wilted under the spotlight and went their separate ways. The tabloid press simply moved on to their next obsession, as did both Ben and Jen. Lopez rekindled things with an old flame, singer Marc Anthony and made him Hubby #3, while Affleck evidently liked the Bennifer thing so much he married another beautiful Hollywood actress named Jennifer (Garner).
But America loves a comeback, and when Affleck and Lopez got back together in 2021, we got our Loffleck reunion (yeah, Bennifer works better). This time, they seemed older, wiser and more mature. They were also more established in their careers, giving them a more solid and stable foundation compared to the first time.
For instance, Lopez’s career had undergone its ups and downs, but going into Bennifer 2.0, her fortunes were on the rise. Her performance at the Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show was well-received — although she was, arguably, second-best to her co-headliner, Shakira — and she delivered a career-best performance in 2019’s Hustlers that probably should have netted her an Oscar nomination. Affleck, meanwhile, has thrived as a director and producer in the years since his first romance with J.Lo crashed and burned, and has even received some praise for his acting chops, which have never been first-rate. Surely, this time around, they were better poised to withstand all of the negativity that had submarined their romance the first time.
In fact, Lopez felt so strongly that she even sank $20 million of her own money into recording her first album in 10 years, as well as creating a movie and documentary about her new/old love. That’s a lot of money for anyone, but surely she would make it all back and more once her efforts bore fruit — especially when she undertook her summer 2024 stadium tour (unfortunately, not named “Bennifest”). Heck, the tabloids and entertainment press would be so happy (to say nothing of TMZ and social media, which didn’t really exist the last time Ben and Jen dated), she would barely have to promote her glorified vanity project — they’d do it for her.
Just one problem — almost no one was asking for Jenny and Benny from the Block 2.0, much less an album, movie and documentary about it.
Jennifer Lopez has been a star for so long, it’s kind of hard to envision her as anything less than an A-Lister. She’s a good actress, a bankable movie star, a great dancer (perhaps one of the best of all time) and seems to be aging backwards — looking as good or even better than she did 10 or 20 years ago.
As a singer, though? That one has always been tricky. By any objective measure, she’s undoubtedly been one of the biggest hitmakers since her debut in 1999. Her first album, On The 6, went triple platinum in the U.S. and her sophomore effort, J.Lo, went quadruple platinum. This Is Me… Then, her 2002 effort that serves as the prequel for her latest effort, went double platinum.
Her album numbers are pretty good, but she’s always excelled as a singles artist — and those figures are pretty impressive. Her first single, “If You Had My Love” went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and her follow-up, “Waiting for Tonight” reached #8. She’s had three more #1 singles since then, plus a few more that were Top 5 smashes (including the polarizing “Jenny From the Block“). One of her most well-known and best-selling singles, “Let’s Get Loud,” didn’t even chart in the U.S. but still went platinum.
But she also hasn’t won much respect or admiration for her singing, which, let’s be honest, is decidedly hit or miss. She’s good at certain types of songs, like upbeat dance numbers where she doesn’t have to show much vocal range. But if she has to do a ballad or any song where she has to venture out of middle register, then the results can be shaky. Even songs in her wheelhouse tend to rely on lots of production, Autotune and studio magic — and possibly even ghost singers.
Ultimately, that doesn’t really matter — at least not when it comes to stardom or success. After all, Mick Jagger is not a good singer and has limited range. But he has charisma, stage presence, charm and showmanship. And he’s smart — he knows what he’s good at and what he’s not and stays in his comfort zone.
And he understands what most Rolling Stones fans want — a new album every few years so the band has an excuse to undertake a massive stadium tour where they’ll sprinkle some of their new songs into their standard setlist of hits. They don’t want bizarre concept albums or experimental songs or ridiculous vanity projects. If they want to hear Keith Richards talk about his relationship (or lack thereof) with Mick for hours then they’ll buy his book (Meith? Kick? Jaggards?).
Lopez had no such restraint or compunction. Despite admitting that “It’s not like anybody was clamoring for the next J.Lo record, you know what I mean?” Lopez was evidently inspired by her rekindled relationship with Affleck enough to deliver her first studio album in almost 10 years. Lopez introduces herself on the title track and album opener as a girl who grew up just wanting to be loved and spends much of the record focused on three R’s: reunion, reconciliation and romance. And by reigniting her brightest flame, Lopez obviously believes she’s finally reached that goal and spends much of the record basking in her newfound happiness.
It goes without saying that Affleck features heavily on this album. In fact, the album could have easily been called “This Is Me… With Ben (Again)” Most of the references to him are oblique or indirect, such as “Time apart brought us right right here’s where we are (Where we’re meant to be)” on the title track. Or: “Took a minute, took a break, but it’s our time now” on “To Be Yours.” Or: “Two decades later and it still hit the same/ Won’t lose you, won’t lose you, won’t lose you” on “Mad In Love.” Or: “This time around, we gon’ make it real/ We don’t givе a fuck ’bout how they feel” on “This Time Around.” Or: “Twenty years ago, feels like time has froze (Time froze)/ We’re living in the greatest love story ever told,” from “Greatest Love Story Never Told.”
That’s just a sample — pretty much every song has at least a few references to her beau. In one case, there’s an entire song about him — “Dear Ben, Pt. II“, appropriately enough a sequel to “Dear Ben” from This Is Me… Then. “I was missing a part/ You was the missing piece,” she coos on her latest love letter to Matt Damon’s best buddy. “Seasons change but love remains, I’ll show you/ Wrap my arms around you, I want to console you/ Look into your eyes, I can see it’s the old you/ I’m committed, I’m in it, admit it, I adore you.”
Lead single “Can’t Get Enough” departs from the Ben-centric narrative, slightly, but is consistent with the overall theme of the album. The song is less about being reunited with an old love and more about being happy and in love, in general.
On the other hand, “Broken Like Me” and second single “Rebound” move entirely out of the Benniverse (at least, at first glance). These songs are about past relationships that did not end well and serve as a stark contrast to the rest of the album. In the case of “Rebound,” she talks about how prior toxic and abusive relationships left her emotionally scarred. She has not said who this song is about, but plenty of people have speculated that it could be about Diddy, whom she dated from 1999-2000 and broke up with during the latter’s criminal trial for allegedly shooting up a nightclub — an event Lopez was present for. Or, if you take this lyric (“I can’t force the love when I’m only thinkin’ of him”) at face value — it could be referring to her first breakup with Affleck and how she ended up back with Anthony.
Of course, the song could now include her marriage to Affleck. Not long after her movie, This is Me… Now: A Love Story, and documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, were released in February 2024, rumors popped up that the golden couple was on the rocks.
Even worse, the album and movie both landed with thuds. This Is Me… Now sold a fraction of what her previous album, 2014’s A.K.A. did and debuted at #38 on the Billboard 200 compared to #8 for A.K.A. Her recent singles have been hit or miss, but she went gold with 2018’s “Dinero,” and peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Booty” in 2014. But this time, she struck out as neither “Can’t Get Enough” nor “Rebound” charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
As for her movie, it was released on Amazon Prime and streaming figures are not available. However, reviews were pretty underwhelming, with many critics calling the film bizarre and self-indulgent.
And, in what could really be the sign that her career as a music star could be finished, she had to scramble as her planned summer stadium tour experienced poor ticket sales and canceled shows. She tried to rebrand it as a “greatest hits” tour à la Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, but that didn’t juice ticket sales. The fact that she even thought she could pull off a stadium tour was an exercise in pure hubris. Stadium tours are for artists like Swift or Beyonce. At her absolute pinnacle, Lopez was never in that class, and the idea that there were, somehow, millions of J.Lo fans willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to hear her latest ode to Ben alongside “If You Had My Love” and “My Love Don’t Cost a Thing” is more theoretical than actual. Finally, in May, she bowed to the inevitable and cancelled the tour, citing her desire to spend time with family and loved ones.
By then, Affleck was no longer family and, arguably, no longer a loved one. According to the divorce petition filed by Lopez, the couple had separated in late April 2024, although they had continued to make appearances together in May and June. They even put their 12 bedroom/24 bathroom Beverly Hills mansion on the market (who needs that many bathrooms, anyway?). Ultimately, their divorce was finalized the following January.
So, what happened? For one thing, if you look just at the album (and not the movie or documentary, neither of which I watched), there’s one thing that’s clear — it’s just not good. The songs on This Is Me… Now are boring, repetitive, and lyrically weak. Additionally, her limitations as a vocalist are on full display as many of the songs, by virtue of their subject matter and overall theme of the album, are the kind of emotional, emotive ballads that she has long struggled with. Worse, she doesn’t have a killer single on here à la “Let’s Get Loud,” “Waiting for Tonight” or “On the Floor.” “Can’t Get Enough” tries to copy that vibe but it just doesn’t have the goods. A song of that quality would have been album filler on some of her earlier albums, including This is Me… Then.
Worse, the album’s failure confirms a lot of things that we already knew or felt about her as a singer and as a person. She has a mediocre voice. She needs great songwriters and producers to prop her up. She needs to have great singles to record or great dance songs to choreograph videos for. She’s self-indulgent and self-centered and acts like a grand romantic but her relationships never last. And she seems to be somewhat delusional about her popularity and drawing power, thinking she could, somehow, fill stadiums à la BTS or U2. Plenty of people will get joy out of seeing someone like her get hoisted on her own petard. The Daily Beast even published a story with the headline: “Why Is Everyone So Giddy About J.Lo’s Downfall?”
It’s too bad because this is an album that, for the most part, is there to make people feel good. Other than “Rebound” and “Broken Like Me” the entire record is basically Lopez singing about how happy and content she is now that she’s finally landed the love of her life. The unbridled optimism and joy she expresses is heartwarming and a nice contrast to how angsty and depressing music can be. It’s the polar opposite of an album like Robin Thicke’s Paula which is all about how he lost the love of his life.
But like Paula, This Is Me… Now overplays its hand and gives us way more information that we ever wanted to know about a couple that clearly thought people loved and cared about them more than they really did. In fact, the project really is a testament to how much Lopez misremembered how Bennifer was received the first time around. Sure, they sold plenty of magazines and tabloids (back when that was a thing). But it wasn’t necessarily because people liked them or wanted to see them succeed. There was always a “trainwreck” aspect to their relationship and many people were surely just waiting for the inevitable crash. If people really liked and cared about Bennifer and wanted the best for them, then Gigli would have done a lot better at the box office.
After all, even though they were both famous and captured people’s imaginations, both Affleck and Lopez have always had a significant number of detractors and people who just plain disliked them and wanted to see them fail – either together or separately. We’ve already covered why people might not like Lopez. When it comes to Affleck, there are even more obvious reasons to dislike him. A polarizing person in his own right, Ben Affleck may be well-respected as a filmmaker, but his personal life remains messy. Between his alcoholism, messy divorce from Garner, #MeToo allegations and perceived arrogance and rudeness, he is a difficult person to root for. An entire album, movie and documentary dedicated to him was too much for many of us to take — especially since it isn’t 2002 anymore.
As a couple, there was always something disingenuous about them. They would complain about not having privacy but then always happened to be where the paparazzi were. They would engage in public displays of affection but then get upset when people took pictures or reported on it (can you imagine if there had been smartphones back then?). They would talk about how happy they were together and then look miserable when out in public.
In essence, they always felt like a fake couple — a marketing stunt or PR ploy designed to boost the fortunes of two actors who were good but not great (and in the case of Lopez, a pop star who was neither good nor great). They felt fake in 2002 and even more fake in 2022. Why would we part with our hard-earned dollars to bolster Bennifer’s bottom line?
“Jennifer’s always been a marketing and PR genius but her biggest miscalculation here is that she thinks the world is still interested in Ben and Jennifer’s love story,” Lopez’s former publicist Rob Shuter told The New York Post. “But no one cares about Bennifer anymore. The world has moved on.”
And perhaps that’s why her flop album (and movie and documentary) on top of a cancelled tour doesn’t just feel like an unforced error – it feels like it could be a death blow for her music career. Maybe she’ll be like Will Smith, who decided to focus on movies after his disastrous 2005 album Lost & Found (although he made a less-than-successful musical comeback earlier this year).
Of course, she could easily prove her doubters wrong and bounce back from this. Everyone who’s ever known her has said she can outwork anybody and that her ambition knows no bounds. Someone with that much drive and work ethic will always be a force to be reckoned with, as well as underestimated at one’s peril. Maybe she’ll get inspired and come back with a killer album and set of singles. Maybe she’ll finally get her due as a singer and actress with her upcoming turn in the remake of Kiss of the Spider Woman (coincidentally co-produced by her now ex-husband, Affleck). Maybe people will finally stop hating on her and realize that she’s a hell of an entertainer who puts on a good show no matter what and doesn’t deserve all of the negative thoughts and vibes thrown at her.
Or maybe she’ll reunite with Ben (again), release another album, movie and documentary about third time being the charm, and shoot for the moon by making a long-delayed sequel to Gigli. Ain’t love grand?
