TONY DURAN

And her next two film projects seem to lend credence to her Latin roots. First, there is her role as Lauren Fredericks in Gregory Nava’s obsessive film, Bordertown, about the murders of women of Juárez. But even more personal to Jennifer is the completion of her dream project, El cantante, based on the life of the legendary Boricua Héctor Lavoe. “I started developing the movie in 2002. Héctor’s wife, Puchi, was working on the script in conjunction with writer David Maldonado and they brought it to me. Puchi wanted me to play her and I read it. I called Marc [Anthony] four years ago; we weren’t even seeing each other then at that time or even talking. I called his manager and said ‘Look, there’s this part I know Marc is born to play and I’ll be playing his wife, and four years later it all just happened. When we did the movie we were married, which is really crazy.”

When Jennifer talks about her husband, her upcoming projects she feels passionate about, her family, you sense an uncomplicated joy, an organic essence that just isn’t there when the subject changes to more difficult or invasive topics. Not unlike Madonna or Elizabeth Taylor in her day, everyone needs to know everything about Jennifer López: what she’s wearing, who she’s in love with, what’s with her hair, when’s the baby coming. And on and on. I mean, it can’t be that easy being La López all the time.