'The Wedding Planner' and J. Lo's Movie Career
Revisiting this 2001 romcom made us think about...a lot of stuff.
Hayley: So, we recently watched The Wedding Planner with one of our friends. This movie came out in 2001, a year that we are going to spend some time exploring in this newsletter, because for every Amélie, there is, unfortunately, a Wedding Planner.
I am going to summarize that movie in one word: woof.
Okay fine, I’ll elaborate: Jennifer Lopez is Mary Fiore, a highly successful San Francisco-based wedding planner. Inexplicably, she is Italian. She is portrayed as a type-A control freak, mostly with her hairstyles (severely parted chignons and half-updos) and her home environment (a clean apartment and .... she sets the table just for herself? idk it's a lot of lazy character development that is present in a lot of mid-aughts rom coms). She lands a hugely important wedding for her company that gives her leverage to become partner if she does it successfully (Is this how event planning companies work?). She meets the bride-to-be, Fran Donolly (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) and they hit it off, but Fran's fiancé is not at the meeting. J. Lo says that most grooms are "NIDs: Not Interested in Details." Fine.
Later, J. Lo gets the heel of her Gucci shoe stuck in a manhole cover and is almost crushed by a dumpster but Matthew McConaughey saves her just in time. We find out he is a pediatrician named Steve Edison. He agrees to go watch an outdoor movie that night with her, they dance, they have what anyone would describe as a very nice date. If you haven't already guessed, McConaughey is Fran Donolly’s fiancé! Hijinks ensue. J. Lo and McConaghey end up together, but we do not see their wedding, which honestly is a bummer considering that it is a movie about weddings. But at that point, you're just glad the movie is over!
Listen, the premise of a wedding planner falling for a groom of one of the weddings she is planning is an A+ romcom premise. This plot is great in concept, great for the first 20 minutes, and then it swiftly becomes unbearable to watch. McConaughey, who is engaged and getting married in three months, decided to go on that date with J. Lo and the best explanation we get is, "Hey, I'm a dude!"
I'm not exaggerating, like he actually says something along those exact lines.
This was my second time watching this movie, the first time was IN THEATERS with a bunch of girls from my dance studio. Victoria, this was your first viewing. Can you please elaborate on your feelings about The Wedding Planner?
Victoria: Wow this was an experience. I'm glad you pointed out how disappointing it was not to see how they get married at the end! It's a test 27 Dresses did not fail — if you make a movie about weddings, you have to see the main character get married at the end!!
J. Lo is great in this movie. She's, of course, beautiful, and is down for all the weird pieces of physical comedy they throw at her. The film marks a real turn in Jennifer's acting career. In 1997, Selena was, of course, her breakout role, but then she kind of bounced around, looking for a niche. In 2000, she was in a "psychological horror film" called The Cell with Vince Vaughn, and Vincent D'Onofrio, which sounds absolutely deranged. "Psychological horror films" are not the type of movies one associates with Ms. Lopez.
Like you said, this movie is so delightful at the start. Judy Greer is the best friend! J. Lo is a highly, if ridiculously, competent wedding planner. Kathy Njimy is in this! Karev from Grey's Anatomy plays her childhood friend from Italy! McConaughey, in general, does not ring my bell, but for the first chunk of this movie he was getting it done.
And then they made him irredeemably terrible, since he basically cheats on his fiancée and all he can muster is a shrug about it. After that, you don't want him to end up with Jennifer! This whole script just felt deeply and lazily phoned in. If two people are confessing their love to each other and I'm feeling nothing, you've gone awry!
This movie's premiere was huge for J. Lo, who released her second album the same day (for more info on the shadiness of this album and J. Lo’s music career in general, please read Mariah Carey's memoir). She became the first person to have the number one album and number one movie at the same time.
But that moment — where she's at the top of two charts — brings into focus the dialectic of Jennifer Lopez's celebrity. Though she got her very first break as a Fly Girl on In Living Color, starred in a movie as a Mexican superstar, and eventually perfected her persona as "Jenny From The Block," the roles she took in films were very white-washed (though we have no way of knowing what types of roles she was offered). Like you said, in this movie she's Italian. It's particularly egregious here, because it would have been very easy to make her Puerto Rican. So in her music, she's talking about her authenticity as a girl from the Bronx, while the acting roles she takes distance herself from that perception (for two years she played a cop on NBC"s Shades Of Blue. Terrible show, but she had a great, curly wig).
The moment when the music and dancing and acting all came together for J. Lo was 2019's Hustlers. Jennifer pole dancing to Fiona Apple and then putting on that fur coat feels like the ideal zenith of her star image. But then the Academy didn't nominate her for an Oscar and she decided she should go back to singing (the weakest of her triple threat, by far) and that's how we ended up with her doing Streisand covers and singing "Let's Get Loud" at the inauguration.
Hayley, what does J. Lo mean to you?
Hayley: I do think it is very important to mention how good J. Lo is in this movie, even if everything around her (besides Judy Greer!) is a train wreck. I think that she is always charming and fun onscreen, and has good comedic timing. I obviously love Sandra Bullock but something I think about a lot is a Miss Congeniality with J. Lo as the lead. Ruminate on that for a minute — doesn't that sound fun?!
I have always liked J. Lo. Growing up in a dance studio during her musical heyday contributed a lot to that fact, and it wasn't a coincidence that I saw The Wedding Planner in theaters with a group of girls from my dance studio. I also saw Maid in Manhattan in theaters. J. Lo was just so cool. Seeing her in Hustlers was honestly incredible, and that role like you said felt like a culmination of her onscreen and offscreen persona. I can't imagine anyone but J. Lo in that role. Justice for J. Lo for not getting nominated for that role, a thing I will continue to be mad about.
In all honesty, I wish that we had gotten more (good) romcoms from J. Lo. It's a perfect genre for her! It's super insulting that Gigli is the first movie that comes up on her IMDb page under what she's "Known For." The way that she became fodder for so many jokes circa the Gigli/Bennifer era feels sexist as hell (and the way high-profile women were treated in the mid-aughts media cycle is also very timely!!!) Ben Affleck was allowed to go on to be Mr. Serious Movie Guy, but J. Lo's film career never really recovered until she came back swinging with Hustlers.
Victoria: Well, J. Lo did continue to make J. Lo movies post-Gigli — Jersey Girl, Shall We Dance? and Monster-In-Law all came after, but your point is well taken.
Can we talk about J. Lo and A-Rod? There is, of course, this iconic photo of them, from when Jennifer was still married to Marc Anthony:
But when news of their relationship broke in 2017, I thought, "Wow, this makes sense." It made me like both of them more. Did you know they're both Leos? And people say astrology isn't real!
I like that they both have oversized egos, and then they turn that power on to each other and make magic. This dynamic is best illustrated by this photo from a Vanity Fair cover story they did shortly after going public as a couple:
I mean!!!! Wow!!!! You cannot imagine ANY other celebrity couple taking this photo!! Their joint appearance at the inauguration was also amazing, and J. Lo including "Let's Get Loud" in her performance is the perfect embodiment of the fun self-centeredness that is her brand. She loves herself!!! Why not!!!!!
Gossip mag readers may know that cheating rumors currently surround the couple (please email if you want a full explanation; it, ridiculously, involves the cast of Southern Charm), but I think J. Lo honestly does not care. If I believe any celeb couple is in an open relationship, it's this one.
How do you feel about J. Lo and A-Rod (never J-Rod)?
Hayley: NEVER J-Rod indeed. I love J. Lo and A-Rod together! I think my knowledge of and feelings around A-Rod are probably not as strong as someone who does not care about baseball and does not live in New York, but I have always been supportive of this union. It totally makes sense to me that they are both Leos, and this photo of the two of them should probably be used in any and all astrology couples articles going forward. I also love that A-Rod is such a good Instagram Boyfriend and this feels like something that only another Leo would understand is of maximum importance in a relationship.
I feel like every single celebrity couple has to deal with cheating rumors at one point or another, with varying levels of truth. It's kind of that thing that always happens when someone gets too big too quickly, stories start coming out of the woodwork and suddenly the whole checkout lane at the grocery store is covered in tabloids speculating wildly. J. Lo and A-Rod are like the sun, they're gonna attract a lot of attention. Very Leo!!!!
Victoria: OK but the A-Rod rumors are definitely true. I mean "allegedly" yadda yadda but he definitely did it.
Things Hayley loves right now:
The Chani Nicholas astrology app is SO GOOD. It has journal prompts, guided meditations, a weekly podcast, and a weekly reading for your chart. I am impressed by the level of personalization and the weekly updates. Even the way she describes each aspect of my chart is really lovely and easy to understand.
This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe because I do not have to cream butter and sugar to make it and it holds up very well with egg replacers.
Lately we can’t get enough of these Elderflower & Pomegranate Champagne Spritzers. They’re a little summery, but they are delicious.
What Victoria recommends:
Reply All is currently airing a four-part serious about the implosion of Bon Appetit this summer. Very smartly, the first episode goes back 10 years to really get at how the fault lines were there all along. Obviously it only focuses on the one publication, but a lot of the lessons are broadly applicable to all workplaces (including Gimlet, which produces Reply All).
These neapolitan sugar cookies would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, if that’s your thing.
Netflix has promised to release at least one movie every week this year, and my friend Sierra has pledged to watch one every week! She’s chronicling them in her own newsletter which you can check out here.