J-Lo glows.

Jennifer Lopez is the reason why American Idol remains a guilty pleasure for me. I don’t care much about the singing (or screaming) and the judging (much too kind).  It’s J-Lo’s glow that I love to see two nights in a week.  She’s more lovable now, warmer, more real. Even prettier than the time since burst into Hollywood.  Some say she puts on too much blush.  I dare them to be just as adventurous and put on green make-up.  Hindi nila kaya.  Only J-Lo can get away with it.

Before AI though, I had forgotten about J-Lo.  I think she laid low after marrying Latin superstar Marc Anthony.  Before marrying Marc Anthony, I had grown to dislike her.  Call it the umay factor, like having too much of halayang ube (jam made from purple yam).  She seemed too much in a hurry to reach iconic status.  She did awful films (Gigli, Enough, Monster-in-Law, Maid in Manhattan).  She was always on the red carpet in hideous Donatellas.  She’d be shaking her booty all the time on MTV.

But some of you may not know that she started out as a great actress, way before shacking up with Ben and P. Diddy.  The greatest onscreen chemistry from the 90s belongs to J-Lo and George Clooney, playing a marshall and a fugitive, respectively, in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998).  It’s a crime/action film that’s different from the usual that’d star Bruce Willis or Jason Statham.  The plot is not as important as what goes on between the two main players.  J-Lo and George get in on so believably.

Now that I like you again J-Lo, you must consider doing another film with George, who isn’t so bad himself at 50something.