Jennifer Lopez released her independently produced and funded documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told last month that flopped in a major way. Since then, the social media has spent weeks flaming JLo for everything from her lack of vocal prowess, her weird dance moves, her allegedly fake Jenny from the block persona to her beauguarding the THS Actress roundtable in the most cringe way. What’s so crazy is besides the documentary being panned by critics and audiences as a self-indugent pet project, none of the criticism that has spread like wildfire over social media is new. Lets get into it.
The Greatest Love Story Never Told chronicles that making of JLo’s album, This Is Me Now: A Love Story that tells the pseudo biographical story of the highs and lows of her relationships in pursuit of true love. The album is the second part of a trilogy that started with the release of her album This Is Me Then from 2002. The documentary is the third part of the trilogy which follows JLo’s attempt to get this musical film/album made. One of the funniest moments in the documentary is attributed to Ben Affleck who’s describing where the title for the musical film was derived. According to Affleck, he put together a book of love letters and poems that he’d written Jennifer throughout their early time together up to their rekindling and he titled the book The Greatest Love Story Never Told. Only to find out that JLo decided to share the book with her album writing and production team as inspiration for the album. Affleck hilariously says what we’re all thinking, “if you’re making a record about [the book], that seems kind of like telling it.” There are so many more cringeworthy moments throughout this documentary that JLo is getting flamed all over social media for like a sequence where JLo and her team are calling what feels like every actor in Hollywood to make an appearance in her musical film, and we have to watch as she’s told over and over again that they’re either busy or just flat out won’t do it. Ouch.
Now, seemingly because the album and the documentary were critical flops, some of the stops on her latest tour are being cancelled.
If the double flop of her musical film/album and documentary chronicling the making of that album aren’t bad enough, old clips of JLo’s participation in 2019 The Hollywood Reporter Actress Roundtable on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter (X), evidencing what people are calling JLo’s history of narcissistic personality. One TikTok’er took it upon themselves to put together a sequence of clips that show JLo repeatedly interrupting the other actresses at the table to turn the conversation back to herself and her own experiences as a performer and film star. Now to be fair, these are clips that are cut to be inflammatory and make a point. But there is one full clip where Lupita Nyong’o is describing how at the time of this roundtable there appeared to be a culture of novelty in Hollywood around directors and producers seeking out and capitalizing on Black projects. Nyong’o goes on to say that she wants to get to a place where this novelty is not just a phenomenon, but the normality. JLo can’t wait to interrupt her to talk about her own experience as a Puerto Rican actress in comparison. Now, she may have valid points, but the interruption to shift the conversation is cringy on camera.
In addition, clips of JLo talking trash about other actresses in a 1998 MovieLine interview are going viral again. Some of the notable actresses JLo mentions in that article include Selma Hayak who she says, “[is] a sexy little bombshell and those are the kinds of roles she does. I do all kinds of different things. It makes me laugh when she says she got offered Selena, which was an outright lie.” Jennifer Lopez’s breakout role was in a biopic about late Tejano singer, Selena. About Cameron Diaz, Lopez said, “Cameron Diaz she’s a lucky model who’s been given a lot of opportunities. I just wish she would’ve done more with it.” She also had shade for Gwynneth Paltrow who at the time was dating Brad Pitt. “Tell me what she’s been in! I swear to God, I don’t remember anything she was in. Some people get hot by association. I heard more about her and Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work.” Lopez didn’t mince words, going on to shade everyone from Winona Ryder to Madonna in that same interview. Thank goodness that interview came out when in a print magazine in 1998 because in 2024, any one of the comments she made about these actresses could have derailed any career she would’ve tried to establish in Hollywood.
To make matters worse, Lopez’s rumination on her childhood in the Bronx in her documentary frustrated Bronx natives enough for many to come online to criticize her about not really being part of the community during her childhood or otherwise. Alleged former classmates and former childhood neighbors are taking to social media to contradict JLo’s Jenny from the Block persona. Now this part of the social media storm is incredibly petty, but it adds to gasoline to a fire that was already blazing after the album and documentary flop. One user in particular puts Lopez on blast contradicting some claims she made in her documentary about her upbringing. The user specifically contradicts claims that JLo “ran the block” in the Bronx, instead calling JLo out as a catholic school girl who attended high school in an Irish and Italian neighborhood. She claims that Lopez is using her upbringing to make herself relatable for sales and nothing about her statements in her documentary are genuine. But this isn’t new. JLo’s song “Jenny from the Block” was a single from her This is Me Then album back in 2002, and many people from the Bronx criticized her for trying to come across as a type of “around the way girl” when she really grew up relatively privileged. So this criticism isn’t new, but hey, social media is a petty palace.
And of course, no JLo media storm would be complete without her infamous feud with Mariah Carey resurfacing for our viewing pleasure. For those that don’t know, Mariah Carey has notoriously shaded Jennifer Lopez whenever she’s brought up to her in interviews. Carey’s “I don’t know her” line in reference to Lopez is notorious at this point. Now there are numerous accounts chronicling JLo’s history of stealing music from other artists, especially Black female artists. TikTok account @newcinema does a 2 part breakdown, and its not the only account capitalizing on the JLo backlash. The timeline is swamped with users going in on JLo’s lack of vocal range, some interesting dance choices in recent years, and her insufferable parading of her relationship with Affleck in recent years. All of which are recycled conversations, but there’s nothing social media loves more than a pile on.
