Early life

Lopez was born and raised in Castle Hill, a neighborhood in the Bronx, New York to Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodríguez and David Lopez. She has 2 siblings, Linda and Leslie. Lopez spent her entire academic career in Catholic schools. She financed singing and dancing lessons for herself from the age of nineteen. After leaving a one-semester career at Baruch College, Lopez divided her time between working in a legal office, dance classes, and dance performances in Manhattan clubs at night.

After months of auditioning for dance roles, Lopez was selected as a dancer for various rap artists' music videos, and was given a guest spot at the American Music Awards as a backup dancer for the New Kids on the Block and their performance of their song "Games" in 1991. After being rejected twice, Lopez gained her first regular high-profile job as a "Fly Girl" dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color in 1991. Soon after, Lopez became a backup dancer for famed singer Janet Jackson and made an appearance in her 1993 video "That's the Way Love Goes".

Film and television

Lopez has appeared on the short-lived television programs South Central, Second Chances, and Hotel Malibu, and the made-for-television film Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7. Lopez broke into the big screen in the 1995 drama My Family and then appeared opposite Wesley Snipes in the action film Money Train. Lopez has played roles in Francis Ford Coppola's 1996 comedy Jack starring Robin Williams, and the 1997 thriller Blood and Wine with Jack Nicholson. Lopez played the lead role in the 1997 film Selena for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy" in 1998. She became the first Latin actress to get paid $1 million or more for a film role. Some of her other critically-acclaimed films include Out of Sight, The Cell, and An Unfinished Life. Lopez's performances were less well-received in the financially successful films The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan, and Monster-in-Law.

Lopez has finished shooting two new independent films: Bordertown and El Cantante. El Cantante was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival where it got positive reviews. Bordertown was shown at the Brussels Film Festival. Both films were produced by Lopez and her production company, New Yorican Productions. In April 2004, Lopez guest starred in the sixth season finale of Will & Grace, playing herself. This was the highest-rated episode of the series since Elton John's appearance in 2002, and Lopez appeared again in the season seven's opening episode.

In May 2006, MTV gave the greenlight on her executively-produced reality show, DanceLife. The show will follow the lives of six aspiring dancers as their struggle to make it in the competitive world of professional dance. Lopez, who took an active role in selecting the show's participants, is slated to make cameo appearances over the course of the season and the show's eight-episode run began on January 15, 2007. As recent as summer 2007, it was rumored that Lopez would be appearing on HBO's "Entourage." It has been assumed that she would play herself.[citation needed] Lopez made an appearance as a mentor on American Idol on April 10, 2007.

Box office standing

Despite not having a film that grossed over $100 million domestically, Lopez is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and the highest-paid Latin actress in Hollywood history. Lopez appeared in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the most powerful actress. She was on the The Hollywood Reporter's list of the top ten actress salaries in 2002, 2003, and 2004. She received $15,000,000 for her role in Monster-in-Law. Her top-grossing film domestically is Maid in Manhattan which grossed $94,011,225. Meanwhile, her most successful film internationally is Shall We Dance? which grossed $112,238,000 at the international box office. Domestically, Shall We Dance? grossed $57,890,460 for a total of $170,128,460 in worldwide tally. Lopez has sold over fifty million records worldwide. Lopez made the 2007 Forbes magazine's list of The 20 Richest Women In Entertainment and ranked ninth. Her wealth is estimated to be $110 million.

Personal life

Lopez's first marriage was to Cuban-born Ojani Noa on February 22, 1997. Lopez met Noa while he worked as a waiter at a Miami restaurant. They divorced in March 1998. Lopez later employed Noa as the manager of her Pasadena restaurant Madre's in April 2002, but fired him in October 2002. After Noa sued Lopez over the termination, they drew up a confidentiality agreement.

In April 2006, Lopez sued to prevent Noa from publishing a book containing personal details about their short marriage, contending it violated the confidentiality agreement. She then had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with Sean Combs. On December 27, 1999, Lopez and Combs were at Club New York, a midtown Manhattan nightclub, when a gunfire erupted between Combs' entourage and another group. Lopez and Combs were being driven away from the scene when they were chased and stopped by the police. A stolen gun was found in the front seat of their vehicle. Lopez was charged with felony gun possession, but the charges were dropped, as she was riding in the back seat at the time. Lopez terminated her involvement with Combs shortly thereafter, and Combs reconciled with Kim Porter, mother of his three children.

Her second marriage was to her former backup dancer, Cris Judd. She met Judd while filming the music video for her single "Love Don't Cost a Thing". The two were married on September 29, 2001, at a home in a Los Angeles suburb. Their marriage ended in August 2002. Lopez's subsequent relationship with actor Ben Affleck was highly publicized, with the media dubbing them "Bennifer". Lopez announced her engagement to Affleck in November 2002, after Affleck gave her a six-carat pink diamond ring worth a reported $1.2 million. Lopez promised interviewers that Affleck was indeed "the one", and that they would soon have a family. The marriage, planned for September 14, 2003 in Santa Barbara, California, was called off just hours before the event. During the week before the scheduled nuptials, Affleck had been seen by press carousing at a strip club in Vancouver with friends. The media blitz intensified when it was Lopez's own sister who called in live radio to tell Lopez where her fiancé had been the previous night.

Lopez would only respond by saying it was a terrible way to begin the day, finding out about Affleck's behavior in that manner. Publicists announced a permanent split on January 20, 2004. Affleck has refused to speak of his relationship with Lopez, only citing intense media attention as the cause of the break-up. Their relationship was parodied on the South Park episode "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", which aired on April 16, 2003. There was a mild media furor as to whether Lopez would give Affleck back his ring after the break-up. Lopez did return it and it was discreetly placed for sale at the original jewelers. Affleck has since married actress Jennifer Garner on July 1, 2005 and they have a daughter, Violet, born on December 1, 2005. Lopez and Marc Anthony at the 2006 Time 100 gala event, as covered by the vlog Rocketboom. Lopez and Marc Anthony at the 2006 Time 100 gala event, as covered by the vlog Rocketboom. Shortly after her break-up with Affleck, Lopez was seen out with singer Marc Anthony, a long-time friend she had worked with in music videos. They had briefly dated in the late '90s, before his first marriage and her second one.

Lopez and Anthony were recording a duet together in early 2004, for Lopez's then-upcoming film Shall We Dance?. He had separated for the second time, in October 2003, from his first wife, the former Miss Universe, Dayanara Torres, with whom he had two young children. Lopez and Anthony married in a quiet home wedding on June 5, 2004, less than a week after his divorce from Torres was finalized on June 1. On the morning of the wedding, however, the media was tipped off and circled her backyard in helicopters. Photographs, alerting the rest of the world, soon followed. Reports fueled rumors that Lopez was pregnant but this was not the case. Lopez's guests had been invited to an "afternoon party" at Lopez's house and had not been made aware that they were actually going to her wedding. Days after the wedding, Anthony was promoting his new album Amar Sin Mentiras(To Love Without Lies), but refused to comment on their marriage during interviews. Lopez eventually confirmed the marriage in February 2005, but admitted that "everyone knows. It's not a secret". Anthony's daughter, Ariana, appeared in Lopez's music video "Get Right" as her little sister.

Regarding his marriage and family life, Anthony maintains a private and sometimes defensive stance with the media, which has influenced Lopez to set some boundaries with interviewers. Recently , Jennifer Lopez has collaborated on a feature film in Spanish, El Cantante, with her husband Marc Anthony. Alba was given the option to appear nude by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety".