Jennifer Lopez: The Lo Down

When Jennifer Lopez slips, as she did in her performance at the 2009 American Music Awards, she gets right back up on her Louboutins. Despite a recent split from her record label, Epic, she plans to release her new album, Love?, this summer. Box-office flops like Gigli haven’t kept her from making more rom-coms like The Back-Up Plan, which hits theaters April 23. And her third marriage — to Marc Anthony, the father of her twins — seems to be the charm. Now, taking on her harshest critics and most discerning drag queen impersonators, the 40-year-old fly girl gets real about fashion missteps — but she clams up when it comes to questions about kissing girls.

The Advocate: When you last spoke to The Advocate in 2002, you were giving us a preview of your first lesbian role.
Jennifer Lopez: Oh, yeah? Which one was that?

Ricki in Gigli.
Oh, my God, that’s right! I totally forgot about that.

Understandable. So I’ve done some intensive research and concluded that “Louboutins” may be the gayest song ever.
[Laughs] I love that. I’m very happy to hear that, thank you.

Michael Patrick King would be crazy not to stick it on the Sex and the City 2 soundtrack.
I agree. He would be crazy.

Do you keep the gay audience in mind when working on a new album?
To be honest, yes, I really do. I love dance music and I know that’s very big in the club culture and in the gay community, so I feel like you can’t not think about them. I also think about whether or not they’ll want to impersonate me. [Laughs] I’ll be like, “Is this outfit any good? Would any drag queen want to put this on? No? Then forget it — it’s not worth it.”

Those Jennifer Lopez drag queens on SNL looked pretty rough. How should a drag impersonator best emulate you?
The best advice I can give is to really study your character. Like when I play a character, I really study.

Does it hurt your feelings when one of your outfits gets negative criticism?
Not really. I always wear something that I like, so whether or not other people like it isn’t that important to me. It’s always great when people say you look nice or you were one of the best dressed, but if you take that you have to also take it when they say, “Oh, we didn’t like that.” Either way, I liked it.