You might think to yourself, “Another J.Lo cover? What more does J.Lo have to say about J.Lo right now?” The answer is, truthfully, not a ton, so the InStyle team decided to ask a bunch of OTHER people to talk about J.Lo — everyone from Marc Anthony to Affleck to Selena’s father to, somewhat randomly to me, Michelle Obama — and then I think told J.Lo about some of their stories and got her to expound on the details or on a general theme. It’s a catchy approach, but I strongly suspect it wasn’t the original idea. My armchair theory is that InStyle had this in the works already when J.Lo and A.Rod abruptly broke up (but then maybe didn’t, or maybe are waiting to break up for real once they disentangle their shared financial ventures). If there was a longer cover interview either planned or finished that was more wedding or A.Rod-focused, it would therefore have to be nixed, either at their discretion or on her request — especially if anything that had been said was, shall we say, no longer emotionally accurate, at the very least. If this was the plan all along, hey, it’s at least something different — and if it was a late-minute scramble, good on them for pulling it off.

Some of the comments, like Mark’s, feel very personal and conversational. Tyler Posey’s comment makes me laugh; he remembers being 10 shooting Maid in Manhattan with her, and how she bought him an Xbox. They didn’t get a comment from Jennifer on that, sadly. I want to know! Tell us about the Xbox, Jen!

And this one is also cute:

Fat Joe (friend and frequent collaborator): J.Lo is J.Lo, OK? So if J.Lo walks into the party, she will smell so good that when she walks to the other side of the room, you can still smell her.

And this random aside:

Affleck: Where are you keeping the fountain of youth? Why do you look the same as you did in 2003 and it kind of looks like I’m in my 40s…at best?

It’s an interesting approach — you can tell it’s pieced together, but you find yourself consuming it gladly, scrolling down, eager to see who else talked to them. Then you, if you are like me, start making a mental list of everyone you wished would ALSO be in the piece. And no — there is no sign of A.Rod.

[PHOTO BY PAMELA HANSON; the May issue of InStyle is available on newsstands, on Amazon, and for digital download April 17]
Tags: InStyle, InStyle
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