IN 2021, WHEN JENNIFER LOPEZ and Ben Affleck got back together after nearly 20 years, with four divorces between them (three of them hers, one his) and one A-Rod, it felt like a romantic destiny fulfilled, as though something amiss in the universe had been put back together. Much like Jen and Ben, we realized we might not have been ready for their relationship in the early aughts-it was too bright, too prominent, too blingy. We didn't understand that something so high profile and overexposed could be genuine. Two decades later, we've had other (parasocial) relationships with celebrity couples and have learned a thing or two about how the tabloid coverage contributed to their 2004 breakup. (Bennifer 1.0 walked-nay dragged itself through broken glass-so Taylor and Travis could run.)
Now, thanks to time and wisdom, we love their love story! We're even willing to reconsider their 2003 cinematic flop, Gigli, which will soon stream on the Criterion Channel. Call her a savvy businesswoman or a lovable narcissist but J.Lo picked up on what the people wanted: to luxuriate in this moment with them, to get a glimpse of their relationship, to fully nestle into Bennifer 2.0, to know what they talk about in couples therapy. To satisfy our lovesick little minds, she gifted us This Is Me... Now: A Love Story, a movie-musicalautofiction-cum-album promotion that's one part of a self-funded $20 million project (along with a behind-the-scenes documentary and the album) inspired by her two fixations: finding love and reconnecting with Ben Affleck. To tell her epic love story, she borrows from her own rom-com heyday, channeling an aesthetic from 2002, when music videos had interludes, plots, and flip phones. She revisits fedoras and Burberry plaid to dance her way through TIM... N:ALS, a feverish 55-minute highlight reel that (sort of) tells (but mostly hints at) the real story of how she found herself, learned how to love, and found her way back to Ben.
Esta historia es de la edición February 26 - March 10, 2024 de New York magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición February 26 - March 10, 2024 de New York magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
The Water-Tower Penthouse
Gigi Loizzo and Angel Molina's apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx looks out on Yankee Stadium.
