Filed under: Interviews, Jennifer Lopez, Music, New Album: Love?, OJF Exclusives, The Back-up Plan by Angelo

Leading up to The Back-up Plan’s press conference and the incredible interviews lined up ahead of us, the Beyond-Beautiful.com and OnlineJLoFan.com team of administrators mulled over creative ideas and gathered questions to be covered. We knew we had to prepare, push, and conquer to bring you a completely epic event. It has taken many years and hard work to get to this point, and we can only hope you have had a fun ride leading up to this day; whether you’ve been around for years, or are just now joining our community. We hope many more amazing things will keep happening around here, but know that we can’t do it without you and your support!

We won’t keep you waiting any longer – drum roll please!

by Erika M. (@BellaJLo)

The morning of the conference for The Back-up Plan entirely flies by as I’m led from floor to floor, and suite to suite of the exquisite Beverly Hills Four Seasons hotel. I have already interviewed director Alan Poul, and will see The Back-up Plan’s leading man, Alex O’Loughlin, last. Now I am to sit back for a few minutes and take in the room before me. Suddenly, it finally strikes me – I am in Hollywood AND moments away from interviewing JENNIFER LOPEZ!

My heart has been beating irregularly for the past 72 hours, I’m convinced. I pore over the series of questions I have, one last time, before my name is called. “Erika, I’ll now take you to see Jennifer,” a CBS Films publicist says and I dreamily float behind her.

Moving closer, I hear Lopez say, “Ok, I’m ready!” from inside her private suite. A mere instant later, there she is, comfortably seated on a fluffy sofa. The door closes behind me and then, it’s just the two of us.

Ready, Set, Record

Before I float away, I manage to anchor myself on a sofa chair. I ask her to excuse me as a shuffle about getting my recorder ready because I don’t want to miss one thing. She sits there patiently, smiling. Immediately, I begin making quick mental notes on how she looks and what she’s wearing; I’m a slave to her fashion style, after all, and I know you will want to know all the details on what the newly anointed, US Weekly ‘Style Icon of the Decade’ is sporting today.

Her hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail. She is wearing dangle-drop earrings made of a shell material, a blush pink H&M shirt dress and a Sonya Rykiel scarf softly tied into what looks like a rosette. She has paired the ensemble with sky-high patent leather tan and turquoise heels and matching color enamel bangles. Her skin is lit up from within.

Our conversation begins as I gush about how much I loved The Back-up Plan, which I had the chance to see the previous evening. “Did you like it?” she enthusiastically asks me. I tell her I loved, loved, loved it! It may seem only obvious that I would say that to the star of the film, but folks, I truly loved the movie and I wasn’t about to hide my utter delight in being able to tell her just that; all the while swelling with pride after witnessing, what I feel, is true evolution in her acting.

Jennifer Lopez and Neil Patrick Harris
on ‘How I Met Your Mother’

I also express to her how I felt while watching the movie. It was like I was riding a kind of emotional roller-coaster. The Back-up Plan was a gratifying ride from beginning to end. I found myself wiping a compassionate tear off my face, only to wipe countless more after having laughed so hard.

Sharing my joy further, I declare that I believe her fans will love it just as much. “Ohh, I’m so glad,” she’s delighted to hear. “Yeah, I thought it was the type of thing that my fans would want to see me in. You know, after taking my maternity leave for a little while from doing films. It was nice. It was nice to get back and do that. And I was really pleased, when I saw the film for the first time, at how funny it was. I was like, ‘Ooh, that’s really funny! That’s good,’ she exclaims.

I then rave about her recent comedic TV appearances telling her they have been a nice treat to watch and ask her to share how she liked being involved. “It was fun! It was a lot of fun. You know, [The Back-up Plan] is for CBS films. Obviously, [How I Met Your Mother] is a CBS show, and [CBS said], ‘you know what? You should go on and do little a piece on our #1 show, How I Met Your Mother, you should do that. Your fans would love to see it, remind them that you do comedy,’ and stuff like that and it was a lot of fun. I loved working with Neal [Patrick Harris] and the director over there was awesome. I mean, the whole cast is great, but a lot of my scenes were with Neal and he’s just kind of an all around performer as well, and we just had a good time. He’s a cool guy,” she tells me.

Top: Opening Lopez Tonight.
Bottom: SNL’s car horn skit.

The Lopez Tonight hosting appearance came as a complete surprise to many, and Lopez got rave reviews for her improvisational stand-up hosting gig. She laughs as she reminisces, “Oh my God! That’s right. Well, the whole thing – I was supposed to go on and do the whole sit-down-this-and-this-and-that, and we couldn’t get it together on time. But I didn’t want to just not do something, so I was like, ‘what can we do that’s cool, and quick, and fast. I want to come out and do something.’ And the [show producers] were like, ‘you know what, you can come out unannounced and do the opening monologue and then George [Lopez] will come out and whatever.’ And I was like, ‘OK!’ Because you know, I didn’t just want to leave and not do something. They wrote this whole amazing monologue and they [asked me], ‘can you do this?’ And I was like, ‘yeah, yeah, no, I can do it!’ And it was just a lot of fun. It was really interesting. I had never done anything like that before in my life. Like, try to do stand up or host a show and it’s something I never want to do again, by the way.”

I admit it was a bit disappointing to hear her say that last part, so making sure she really means it I ask, ‘no?’ to which she firmly replies, “No!” ‘Ahh, well’ I silently say to myself. Let’s hope she changes her mind!

Although a seasoned performer and notorious career multi-tasker, Lopez shares details on the demanding nature of shows such as Saturday Night Live. “That was so brutal. You know, I’ve done [SNL] before as a musical guest and [most recently] as a musical guest and a host at the same time. I’ve done it twice before this time, but when I did it last time, I was only in about five or six sketches. This time I was in like, 11 sketches! I was in every sketch. I was in the opening. I was in the cold opening, the monologue, and doing the performances. It was just…”

She animatedly mimics actions to give me a better sense of the behind the scenes chaos, “I was running back and forth. They were ripping wigs off my heard, [they were] dressing me. And then I’d have to get my [microphone] and my ear monitors on, and do the songs. It was just like, trying to – having like a minute and 20 seconds or a minute and 40 seconds to change. And then just like, ‘ok calm down, you gotta sing,’ [and then] ‘ok calm down you gotta’ play this character”. It was just…insane!”

Even if Lopez doesn’t host again, we can still look forward to several film and TV projects currently in development under her production company, Nuyorican, including a First Look Deal with NBC Television, the romantic comedy Taming Ben Taylor for Paramount, where she will star as a top notch real estate agent who wins over a rugged vintner, Sweet Little 15 for Fox Searchlight which tells of a young Mexican girl’s coming of age story as she plans her Quinceañera, and Cheech at the Beach for NBC, a sitcom based on the life of comedian Cheech Marin. Additionally, in 2010, she and Nuyorican will be producing the Lasse Hallstrom directed Death in Cheyenne starring Richard Gere and Emile Hirsch — CBS Films Press Kit.

Love? Status

I quickly switch gears. I don’t want to forget to ask her to clarify what she previously announced during the morning press conference regarding the two brand new songs she performed on SNL this past February. Immediately after the performance, blogs reported the titles as Starting Over and Pieces. She clears this up, “No, that’s not the name of [one of the tracks]. I have a song called Pieces.” The correct title for the track is Until It Beats No More. Lopez offers no word on whether or not Pieces will appear on her upcoming album, Love? What she does confirm, however, is that Starting Over, as well as Until It Beats No More will “for sure” be included in the album, which is slated for a late Summer release.

Photo: Tony Duran.

A handful of leaked tracks have hit the net over the past year causing rampant speculation over the album’s direction and its delayed release. What Is Love (written by Atlantic Record’s recording artist Wynter Gordon) first leaked in May of 2009. Despite that, it is now the lead track on the film’s soundtrack and can be purchased through iTunes. Lopez says she “might still put it on the album.”

I press for more information as to the current status of Love? and its content and she tells me, “The album is not totally finished. Because I was transitioning from one company to another and we really couldn’t announce anything. You know, I kept working on the album, but at the same time I knew that once I got to the new company that they were gonna want to have their input on the record as well. So, it was like, ‘yes I’m doing it, but yes and no’ and you know, trying to kind of navigate around that whole thing. So, now that we, you know, are basically at a new company and we are working on finishing the record. But a lot of the records that I did work on will still be on the album, yeah.” History will surely be created, as several major performances are planned for early Summer to support the album release.

An Orphan at Sony

On February 22 of this year, it was announced that Lopez and Sony Music Group were parting ways after a decade long partnership. Despite speculation, it was unclear where Lopez would find a home next until hours before my interview, when she confirmed to a media outlet that she had signed on at Def Jam Records.

I wanted to dig in further and was amazed at her sincerity in explaining the reason behind the move. “Yeah, you know, it got to the point…I mean, it’s no secret [that] since Tommy Mottola left, I felt a little bit like an orphan over at Sony because he was SUCH a big part of my first four albums and I just, you know, didn’t even really speak to anybody else at the label,” she says. “He was my guy; me, Benny [Medina], him. And then he was gone, and I was there, and I had no relationship with anyone else over there. Then they changed people like, three times over the next four or five years and so, we never could really get traction over at Epic. It was weird.”

Jennifer Lopez had a great run with Sony,
selling over 50 million albums worldwide.

She opens up some more, saying, “But, everyone was doing their best you know? I put out some records that were big hits, and did well, and some didn’t and you know, it was what it was. But, I thought…at this point, we did two dance records with Fresh Out The Oven and Louboutins, which both went to #1 on the dance charts. It felt really good, but at the same time, I had given them seven albums and we had sold 40 million records, you know? Like, we had a good run, but I just felt like; when I sat down with the head of the company, I just said ‘I think it’s time for me to move on.’ And he was like, ‘well, you know…’ It was hard because I love them and they love me, but you know when you just know? It’s like, ‘I think, yeah, it’s time,’” to which I nod.

She continues explaining the exchange between she and Sony, “’You can’t do what you need to do right now’, and ‘I can’t do this.’ It was just a lot of things, but at the end of the day, we looked at each other and it was kind of like, ‘ok, if this is what you want, then,’ he literally said, ‘I’ll make it easy for you’. And they could have made it very difficult. But they didn’t and it was great. And we both parted ways with a lot of respect for each other and a lot of dignity and I am very excited because I am with a new company and it’s like a new beginning and now I get to have a whole new history. We get to create history all over again and with a new team, and new excitement, and seeing, you know what we can do that was even better than before. So, that’s where we’re at right now.”

I tell her how we, as her fans, are very much looking forward to that new ‘era.’ She immediately identifies with it, “Yeah! Like a new era! It feels like that.” I go on to share how around Beyond Beautiful and OnlineJLoFan we like to look at her projects in ‘eras;’ the On The 6 era, the This Is Me…Then era, the Rebirth era. She’s amused and laughs along as I share the list. Then I present her with the idea of naming the newest era; the Love? era, she seems to like that, saying “The Love? era, for sure!”

The Monas

Time has vanished and we are now close to the end of my time with Lopez. I want to switch it back and talk about her experience being part of The Back-up Plan. I share that I was quite moved during a particular scene where the character ‘Mona’ (played by Michaela Watkins) gives ‘Zoe’ a moment of clarity and much needed figurative slap in the face. I ask her if this has happened in her own life and who her real-life ‘Mona’ is. “I have a couple of Monas in my life,” she says. “I have like, three, maybe four really, really close friends who I will call and talk about things with and talk about my life with, who I feel comfortable enough, who I love, and who love me enough that we do that. But I wouldn’t just say it’s one friend. I have, like, maybe three or four friends like that.” It’s good to hear she has plenty to draw from in real-life to play her characters with emotion and authenticity; this is completely evident in her performance on The Back-up Plan . As she finishes telling me this, I feel the rush of having to end the interview and I’m sad to have to leave. I feel like ten minutes have disappeared and we’re just now getting to the good stuff. I could order a nice iced-tea and ask her for suggestions on room-service fare to be brought up to her suite; all on me! But now it is time to get back to reality. But I make sure to do one thing first!

J.Lo ♥’s Her Fans

‘With Love, Jennifer Lopez’

I tell her I have to show her something. “Let me see!” she commands. I pull out a prized item from my collection of memorabilia. She gasps, “Oh my goodness! Where did you get that?! Is that the one I wore in the movie?!” Smiling ear to ear, I nod. She sees the black Sharpie pen I hold in my hand and inches her way closer. I lay the crisp white ‘Fania All-Stars’ t-shirt her character ‘Puchi’ wears during a concert scene in her last film, El Cantante. I tell her I scored this from Screaming Mimi’s of NYC during the online vintage sale they held with wardrobe items from the movie. I don’t have to ask since she’s already getting ready to autograph it for me, but I do anyway. I’m thrilled watching her delicately pen ‘With Love, Jennifer Lopez’ when she whispers, “Oh God! I hate writing on t-shirts. They never…” apologizing for the jagged writing; then finally draws a heart.

I wholeheartedly thank her for the time and immediately jump on the opportunity to ask her to address her Beyond Beautiful and Online JLo Fans directly, “ok! Baby,” she happily obliges. Hear it for yourself:

Listen to Jennifer’s Lopez’s message!

I thank her once more, and then we hug goodbye. Signed, sealed, delivered Beyond Beautiful and Online JLo Fans!

Make sure you treat your date, husband, wife, friends, and family to The Back-up Plan when it opens this Friday, April 23 in theaters nationwide!

Filed under: OJF Exclusives by Angelo

Revealed: We interviewed Jennifer Lopez!

Leading up to The Back-up Plan’s press conference and the incredible interviews lined up ahead of us, the Beyond-Beautiful.com and OnlineJLoFan.com team of administrators mulled over creative ideas and gathered questions to be covered. We knew we had to prepare, push, and conquer to bring you a completely epic event. It has taken many years and hard work to get to this point, and we can only hope you have had a fun ride leading up to this day; whether you’ve been around for years, or are just now joining our community. We hope many more amazing things will keep happening around here, but know that we can’t do it without you and your support!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW!

24 Hours Left

48 Hours Left

4/19 @ 4PM EST

Filed under: Interviews, OJF Exclusives by Angelo

The amazing surprises continue guys! So, without further ado we present you our exclusive sit down interview with Alex O’Loughlin hunk of The Back-up Plan!

OnlineJLoFan.com & Beyond-Beautiful.com present:

I’m seated in the conference room for The Back-up Plan’s national press conference. There’s about fifty print, radio, and online press members present. The stars of the movie, Jennifer Lopez and Alex O’Loughlin are seated side by side sharing a table with director Alan Poul, and screen-writer Kate Angelo. It doesn’t take much time for me to be taken with O’Loughlin’s charm; the rest of the room seems to concur. His sense of humor is quick and natural, and the chemistry between him and co-star, Lopez, is unquestionably present off screen. I cannot wait to uncover more.

Rehearsing scenes in Pasadena, CA.

One on one

I have a series of questions neatly laid out in front of me. Feeling quite upbeat and even more inquisitive after my earlier interview with director Alan Poul, it’s finally my turn to see O’Loughlin. By this hour, he’s had a steady stream of interviewers walk through his door and I can only hope our interview goes smoothly.

He welcomes me with that bright smile of his, and he still looks as fresh as he did nearly four hours ago in the conference room twelve floors down. He is sporting a suit jacket, button up shirt (first two buttons undone), jeans, and Converse Chuck Taylors. Believe it when they say that natural good looks on camera are even more striking in person. That and I am a sucker for long eyelashes, which he’s also blessed with. The peek-a-boo afternoon sun is shining inside the suite where I find myself seated before him.

O’Loughlin has an extremely charismatic vibe about him that is very fresh and inviting. Possessing these qualities, I’m certain, made it easier for him to connect with Lopez. But, I was still curious to find out if their on-screen chemistry came naturally, or if they perhaps needed to work on it at all?

“No, it was really easy,” he says. “We met before we did the film. I flew to New York City and I went out to Marc and Jen’s house [in] Long Island and we had a cup of tea, and we just hit it off, you know what I mean? Sometimes you sit with people and you don’t hit it off or you’re not that interested. And other times, you do. And we both realized that we were to the other, someone who we could work with,” he explains. “I knew I could work with her closely because I kind of ‘got her’. She was funny! That’s a big thing. If she was someone who really took herself seriously and didn’t know how to laugh, I think I would have been like, ‘Weeeellll, I don’t know, it’s going to be a challenge to get to those important scenes,’ you know?”

“Make it a hard day on the set,” I gather. “Yeah, make it a hard day on the set of a romantic comedy,” he agrees. “But it wasn’t. We had a laugh; we kind of [played around]. She [clocked] my balls a bit; I kind of teased her a bit about her hair or whatever. So that’s where it started and where we sort of set the tone for the [movie]. It’s great. We’ve been mates ever since. We’re pals now. So, it’s nice…”

If seeing O’Loughlin’s and Lopez’s interaction in the movie and then witnessing it off-camera during the conference wasn’t gratifying enough, he now has me laughing in between questions with his account of getting to know his co-star. My laugh turns into a deep smile hearing O’Loughlin express his intent to keep in touch with his new pal, “It’s a real kind of sibling, kind of good friend feel now,” he says. “It’s funny. I don’t see her much because she’s so busy and out of town with her music and stuff. And they’re [in LA] or they’re in New York and Marc’s got a bunch of stuff. They’re always moving around, but I love the chance to see those guys when I do because they’re really cool people. Like, I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years and sometimes, most of the time, you lose contact. Sometimes you’ll text once here and there, every couple of years, ‘Oh, hey how’s it going’; but for the most part, so many people come and go. But, there are some people along the way [where] it’s like, ‘Dude, you’re a great person; it was a great experience, we really clicked.’ And, you know, that was this experience.”

Working with an “Icon”

As we talk, O’Loughlin continues to rave about Lopez and her ability to make others feel a particular way, saying “she’s a really lovely, open, earnest woman and she happens to be obscenely famous, you know? She happens to be this iconic figure in film and music that we all know about.”

Going through a scene with Jennifer.He marvels some more adding, “When I first met her, I was… I have been a big fan of music my whole life and my music tastes are a little [different]. I love all music, but I mainly head towards rock and blues, you know, and that’s sort of what I play [as a hobby]. But I knew who she was, of course, and I’d seen some of her films, and when I met her, I wasn’t nervous, but I was curious as to what she would be like, and how someone deals with that level of fame; because I’ve never had it, you know? Right away, I discovered that she works really hard to deal with it, to have the privacy that she has to have a normal life for her and her family and that’s something that’s so admirable, because I think it would be so easy to go off the tracks…”

And we all know how going “off the tracks” has played out for Lopez in the past. As fans, we’ve seen Lopez ride plenty of waves of media attention – the praise, as well as the inevitable backlash. But we have also witnessed her transformation into a more guarded and protective person since her marriage to husband, Marc Anthony. This is something O’Loughlin understands, “It’s really important, too. I think as you grow up, I mean, she was pretty famous pretty young, too, you know? And as you grow up, you get older, you get a family, [and] you have kids and stuff. You realize what’s important. You realize what’s sacred.”

Being the father of a twelve year old, O’Loughlin can personally relate to this, “When you have kids, you [ask yourself], ‘when I die, what’s important?’ [It’s] not your Rolex or your Louboutins,” he offers. “It’s that your kids are ok, that your family is ok. It’s not ‘wow, he looks so great on that billboard or she looks so great in that dress.’ So, [Lopez is] that. She’s that, man. She’s got her head screwed on.”

An Adult’s Playground

Speaking of family, Lopez’s twins often made an appearance on the set, what was that like? I ask. “So cool,” he says with an instant smile. “It’s the best, really. A film set is like an adult’s playground and we spend so much time on them… I work and live on them. To be on a film set where there’s a family vibe, and a family feel is kind of unusual and very refreshing. It was great to have [Jennifer's] kids there so much and Marc there when he could be there, when he wasn’t working. [Also] to have my son there, and my best friend would [visit], and her best friend was there, and her family. It was just awesome. It was the best time.”

Drama vs. Comedy

O’Loughlin has played a variety of roles throughout the years, but his stand-out role was likely as vampire Mick St. John in the short-lived, but beloved ‘Moonlight’. Most recently, O’Loughlin starred in CBS’ medical drama, ‘Three Rivers’. The Back-up Plan is his first foray into comedy.

Having worked mostly on dramas, what is the transition like from drama to comedy, I ask? “That’s a good question,” he says. “It’s quite a transition, you know. Comedy is difficult, [but so is] playing drama. You know, I’ve played a lot of characters; I’ve played characters that are similar to me as a person, but I’ve played a lot of characters that are very different to me as a person, as well. And the further I am away from who I am and what I’m like, the easier it is for me. You can dress me up as the devil, with a big mask and stuff and that’d be easy for me to play because I am hiding behind it. The closer you get to who I actually am, and ‘Stan’ has a lot of attributes that I have, the harder it is for me. The harder it is to put that on screen and to show my true self because as actors, a lot of us are very private with our true self. And [the reason] we’re so good and so comfortable on the job that we do, is because we can hide. So, the transition from drama to comedy…and also comedy is challenging. There’s a lot of things – there’s timing, You’ve got to understand what’s funny and why it’s funny and then you’ve got to forget about it and just do it. And often you mess it up. And you’ve got to be prepared to look like an idiot and fail completely…”

“Multiple times,” I figure and he agrees, “multiple times to get to the one that works. But we’re both good at that, so…”

A Message from O’Loughlin Fans

Before I know it, it’s time to wrap things up and I’m delighted to find out he enjoys fan interaction, “I love it, man. It’s hard. I wish I could do more of it. I’m so busy and sometimes it’s hard. Like, I only get enough time with my family and of course, my family has to come first, but my fans are very, very important to me. And whenever I can, I do. I reach out [on my] blog and I like to respond to what I can. My MySpace is – all the other ones – like, there’s people pretending to be me on Facebook and pretending to be me on Twitter. That’s not me. But the [MySpace one] is.”

Filming in New York City.

I tell him I am to deliver a quick message from his fans, sent to us by Tiffany from AlexOloughlinOnline.com, and he lights up, “ok!” The message reads:

“We want to let him know we can’t wait to see him in The Back-up Plan, and we hope Hawaii Five-O gets picked up and we can’t wait to see you in it and we’ll keep supporting you.”

O’Loughlin claps and grins, saying, “That’s awesome!”

I sincerely thank O’Loughlin for taking the time to talk to us as I make my way out. “It’s a pleasure,” he responds.

As I happily drift down the hall I realize I have completely forgotten to ask an imperative question! Lucky me, he has no other interviews, as it is now lunch time. I shuffle back towards him and tell him I just have to ask him one last question.

First, let me set it up for you, in The Back-up Plan, O’Loughlin plays a cheese-making farmer and selects one of his artisan cheeses representative of [Lopez’s character] ‘Zoe’s’ traits and names it, “The Zoe”. You will have to check out the movie when it opens on April 23 to find out everything about this cheese.

Pressed to know how the ingredients in a cheese named after Lopez, I ask him to describe the cheese she would be…

“The Jennifer”

He laughs in amusement to my question, “ha ha! Oh! Ok, she’d be… Pretty similar to the Zoe, actually, I think…except not distrustful of men. That’s not right. She’d be smart. She’d be….what would she be…ahhhh…well, ok, hang on.” I’ve clearly stumped him, and I can’t help but chuckle. He takes a couple of seconds to cook up the perfect recipe, “The 3 things that Jennifer would be in a cheese, strong, [biting], and with a sweet after palate.”

I’m completely satisfied!

Don’t miss Alex O’Loughlin on his round of promotional appearances. First up CBS’s Early Show Thursday, April 15.

Article by Erika aka Bella JLo.

Filed under: Interviews, Jennifer Lopez, Movies, OJF Exclusives, The Back-up Plan by Angelo

If you’ve been glued to OnlineJLoFan.com and Beyond-Beautiful.com for the past week you know that Erika aka BellaJLo had the opportunity to attend the press junket for The Back-Up Plan last week. It’s our pleasure to present you with this exclusive sit-down interview with the director of The Back-up Plan, Alan Poul. Enjoy!

OnlineJLoFan.com & Beyond-Beautiful.com present:

Alan Poul, executive producer of TV hits such as Swingtown, Six Feet Under, personal favorite My So-Called Life, and director of The Back-up Plan welcomes me into his suite at the Four Seasons. “I’m the easy one!” he assures me.

Welcome to my very first press junket!

I’m not at all expecting an actual one-on-one, but there’s no one else in the room but us. I’m both on edge and completely at ease.

On beat, we both gush about the star of, The Back-up Plan. “She’s beautiful isn’t she? She’s beyond gorgeous. I don’t think she’s ever looked better in a movie,” he says. SHE is Jennifer Lopez, and I could not take my eyes off of her throughout the film.

Okay, I’m lying. I took my eyes off of Lopez just long enough to take in Alex O’Loughlin’s unpretentious smile and sparkling blue eyes. I would, of course, go into more detail regarding his physical attributes, but I’m a happily married woman and all I can do is nod my head in agreement as Poul takes the words right out of my mouth. “He’s hot! You mean when he takes his shirt off?” he exclaims. You’ll know what I mean when you see the film!

Producing mostly independent films and then transitioning into TV production ultimately led Poul to directing. “[It] was what I always wanted to do. And I was given [that] opportunity on Six Feet Under.” After his recent work on Swingtown, Poul knew he wanted to direct a feature film. His work in a variety of genres allowed him to remain open when it came time to choose his next project. “I’ve been able to direct every different style,” he says. “I’ve done comedy, I’ve done drama, I’ve done suspense, I’ve done historical epic. So, in looking for material, it didn’t have to be a particular kind of movie. I just wanted it to be something that was good. Good material [with] some originality.”

First day on the set in Pasadena, CA.

So, when the script for The Back-Up Plan fell in his lap, crediting Kate Angelo’s script, he immediately said, “I want to do this.” He met with producers, the studio, and Lopez and signed on. “[It] came together incredibly easy,” he says. “As it often happens in this business, you work, and you work, and you work, and it seems like it’s impossible to get anything going, and then suddenly, magically, something comes together almost with no effort at all. That’s how it was with this movie.”

I tell him this may be just the reason I’m sitting where I am. You know? When the chips all just, sort of fall into place? “Every now and then they do. If you just stick around and do hard work and meet good people, every now and then you’ll hit the jackpot!” Alan Poul, I definitely have to agree!

He tells me that the script floated around for a while until it finally found a home at the newly formed CBS Films. “Like everything, it takes a while to get [a project] going. As soon as Jennifer came on board, it was a green-lit project.”

In search of “Stan”

When Poul signed on to The Back-Up Plan, Lopez was the only element attached to the film. She would take on the role of Zoe, the headstrong female lead with commitment issues and a plan. So, he set out to find the perfect ‘Stan’.

While watching Lopez’s movies in preparation for the film, Poul noticed Lopez’s “enormously charismatic screen presence”. He quickly realized that finding the perfect Stan would be difficult. “I realized when she’s on screen, it’s impossible not to watch her. So, finding a guy who could hold his own with her [and] also who could be Stan was difficult. A lot of the younger actors who you might believe as a cheese farmer, I felt, would come off as being too weak or too soft and wouldn’t be able to balance the story.” In addition, when looking into a pool of “bigger” names who would possibly make a better match for Lopez, Poul felt that they were “definitely too old to play Stan.”

This real-life challenge is right in line with just one of the modern-day issues explored in The Back-up Plan. “If Stan is in his 30’s and hasn’t quite figured out what to do with his life, he’s charming. If he’s in his 40’s, he’s a loser,” Poul explains. Casting a relatively unknown actor head-to-head with Lopez  was the direct result of what Poul describes as O’Loughlin’s own “brand of masculinity” which he perceived as “strong, effortless, not aggressive, but it’s so masculine that he would never appear to be soft or weak.”

These qualities needed to be present in the actor in order to bring balance to the two leads. In the film, Zoe is in complete control of her life and her future. As her counterpart, Stan could not appear to be a wimp, even during the ‘freak-out’ moments he experiences in the film. Poul recognized this characteristic in O’Loughlin immediately, and Stan was cast.

I segue back to how O’Loughlin steals my gaze off of Lopez. The intensity of Stan’s gaze upon Zoe is enough to spoil the twist of events in the film. This display of emotion on film was something that reeled me in, and I wondered how difficult this may have been for Poul to capture. He says, “playing the emotion of the role, the love, that is easy for [O’Loughlin]; also, he and Jennifer really, really liked each other.” Tackling the comedy aspect required more work. “Comedy is hard; so, learning how to throw things away so that you don’t see the effort in the comedy [was] the hardest part.”

Working with Jennifer Lopez

Alan and Jennifer on the set in Pasadena, CA.

“There’s a lot of amazing things about Jennifer,” says Poul. “She’s the most physically disciplined actor that I’ve ever worked with. And I’ve worked with a lot of actors. It comes from her background as an athlete and as a dancer especially. To her, movement is a discipline. [It’s] never random. She knows exactly what she’s doing. I knew that going in. I knew from her other movies that she was great with physical comedy and that she was fearless because she has a dancer’s agility.”

Was anything surprising about Lopez, I ask? “Her memory is a steel-trap. Even as she’s performing and giving a very emotionally honest, vulnerable performance, inside her mind she always knows exactly what she’s doing.” Poul appreciates this ability, as it made it painless to communicate his direction in order to capture a scene.

Lopez is known for showing up on the set of her projects incredibly prepared. Most recently, actor Neil Patrick Harris star of CBS’s How I Met Your Mother, boasted about her preparedness for the show saying, “She remarkably knows all of her lines. She’s good!” Which I would imagine could be intimidating to some? I ask Poul. “It wasn’t intimidating to me, because I was prepared. I think it’s only intimidating to people who are not on their game, because she’s so on her game!”

New York, New York!

Anyone from New York will tell you that there is absolutely no place in the world like it. Poul initially wanted the movie to be filmed entirely in New York. “It’s such a New York movie,” he says. “You think, somehow, that if it were really in New York, the New York feel [would] bleed into the film.” After discussing the logistics with the studio and the producers, they settled on shooting a couple of weeks in New York at the end of the schedule. Poul was relieved, saying “New York is a nightmare! The noise, the traffic control, the location permissions, the cops don’t help you all that much. And on top of that, we’re dealing with Jennifer in New York.” Add paparazzi and crowd control to Poul’s list and you quickly understand the need for a more manageable setting.

Despite his initial resistance, Poul was pleased with the choice, saying, “There were a lot of things that we shot [in California], like the scene when they walk down the street and he takes her into the community garden where he’s lit all of the candles. That was in Pasadena. Or like the street that the pet shop was on, that was the Warner Bros. back lot. I have friends in New York who watch the movie and they think that’s New York. Movies are make-believe. Movies are about fooling people. So, as long as we could have, at least every ten minutes in the movie, some shot down a familiar street in New York where you get undisputable New York value, like the Farmers Market, or Greenwich Avenue, or Grey’s Papaya, or the street she lives on. As long as you see those things in between, [then] everybody believes it.”

The Jennifer Lopez, New York Connection

‘Just like a J.LO!’

It goes without saying that Lopez is no stranger to the New York streets. In film, music, and real life we always catch a glimpse of the true New Yorker she is and her connection to the city and its people. Poul found this to be moving and rewarding while shooting there, “when we were shooting the scene when she walks out of the subway, after she’s driven away from the farm and [decides] to go look at the Farmers Market… [You’re] not allowed to block subway stairs, so while we were setting up and Jennifer was there waiting there for us to shoot, we had to have one lane open to let people go in and out of the subway station. There was this [middle aged Latina] woman coming out of the subway and she saw her, and she said, ‘Oh! You look so beautiful. Just like a J.LO!’ And then there was a beat when she looked again and she realized that it [wasn’t] ‘just like a J.LO’, but it was Jennifer.” Poul takes his hands to his face to show me the woman’s reaction, “she was so overcome with emotion and you could feel the emotional connection and it was a great moment. Jennifer was moved by it and we were moved by it. I think that was a quintessential New York moment in terms of the relationship the city has with her.”

The Back-up Plan will be released in theaters on April 23! Don’t miss Alan Poul’s directorial debut in a feature film w/ Jennifer Lopez and Alex O’Loughlin!

More cool stuff for all of you online J.Lo fans will be coming up next week… don’t miss it!

Filed under: Interviews, Jennifer Lopez, Movies, News Articles, OJF Exclusives, The Back-up Plan by Angelo

This past Tuesday, one of our own, Erika aka BellaJLo had the opportunity to represent Beyond-Beautiful.com and OnlineJLoFan.com at the press conference for Jennifer Lopez’s upcoming movie, The Back-up Plan!

The Back-up Plan is a romantic comedy centered on a woman who conceives twins through artificial insemination, only to meet the man of her dreams on the very same day. However, it isn’t your typical romantic comedy, says director, Alan Poul. “The thing that I love about Kate [Angelo’s] script is that the movie manages to stay squarely in the realm of the contemporary romantic comedy, meaning that it pushes the boundaries of taste sometimes, there’s a few elements of crudity in the humor, but it also [has] a beautiful, classic romantic comedy shape.”

The contemporary elements of the film also attracted Lopez to the film. “That’s what I really liked about it. It had a very modern voice, it seemed very up-to-date and I think that’s very important for romantic comedies. That they do deal with issues [and] that it doesn’t feel like it’s a story from 20 years ago, which is what some romantic comedies can be like,” she explains. “We are so used to seeing men with the commitment issues and they’re afraid, and God they are gonna get tied down, and you know, here’s a woman who has her own business and some money in the bank and you know, is actually better off, in a sense, than her counterpart, and that, actually was very interesting to me.”

The film also depicts issues of commitment, to which Lopez reacts, “It’s funny, because Zoe and I are so opposite. She was so comfortable being alone, having lost her parents so young. I’m so uncomfortable being alone. We were total opposites. In a sense it made me admire this person and I loved playing her, because I envy people like this in that sense. But that was also her crutch, you know what I mean? Her kind of, big flaw; that she was so afraid to let anybody into her life. She was going to let something great pass her by, or subconsciously destroy it. That’s what she tries to do in the movie a little bit.”

The easy chemistry between Lopez and her leading man, Alex O’Loughlin, has been a source of buzz for the movie. That chemistry came naturally for them. “We met before we did the film together. We had a meeting, had a cup of tea at her house in Long Island. Met with her family and, I mean, we realized that we were both cool people and we [got each other’s] sense of humor. We made sure to see if we could spend a bunch of time together and not, like, kill each other,” says O’Loughlin. “The thing is,” he continues, “to have a friend and a comrade as your co-star, especially in a film, in a romantic comedy, is really important. It gives you the room…it’s easy to give yourself and the other [person] permission to play. I actually learned a lot about comedy and romantic comedies from Jennifer.”

The Back-up Plan is Lopez’s first film in three years, and as a result, many consider it her “comeback film”. When asked about this, she responds, “I don’t really think of it that way. I was just at home on maternity leave, working and making music and now my first movie is coming out since… you know, I was fat,” she says, laughing. “So that’s that.”

Lopez, now a mom of two-year old twins Emme and Max, believes her kids have made her a better actress. “I knew that was happening while it was happening, because my life and the way I felt about life, and the way I felt about my children, was so deep and profound, and it was the first time I felt anything like that. I knew that, as an artist, that it was gonna make a huge difference in everything that I did. And when I was [doing] the movie, I really felt the growth of myself as a human being. As a person.”

When it came time to resume her work, it was only natural for Lopez to choose a film like this one. “It was just time for me to do a movie again, I think, and I just love romantic comedies. It was the first thing that I wanted to do [going] back so we started looking for one and this one came up and it was just perfect. You know, throughout my career I have always felt like certain things come to me at the right time and when I look at the work that I have done it’s always kind of indicative at where I was in my life at the moment. And this was the same thing, it was just very serendipitous that it happened this way. It was perfect.”

Though Lopez was ready to get back to work, she still struggles when it’s time to leave the twins at home. “They know when I start putting on hair and makeup and getting dressed…they’re like, ‘she’s going somewhere,’” she says, laughing. “Sometimes they’ll come with me and they’ll know that too, ‘cause they’re getting dressed and sometimes they’re not. So, I think they’re starting to put all that together…It’s hard [when I leave]. [They] come to the door and start yelling, ‘No! Mommy, Mommy! Don’t go’… That just started happening yesterday, and I’m like, this is tough. And I’m just gonna have to figure it out as I go along. I’m like (to the twins), ‘I will be home and the sun will still be up!’ Like trying to explain to them that it’s not going to be that long! That it won’t be night time”

Inevitably, the question of whether or not she had a back-up plan for her own life comes up. Unlike her character in the movie, Lopez insists she did not have one. “I have so much respect for single moms or anybody who, you know, finds themselves as a single mother. But to even choose to be a single mother is just so courageous to me. It is such a hard job to raise a child. And to be everything to that child without a partner, I think is just admirable, and courageous, and brave, and every other valiant word I can think of. I don’t know if I could do it on my own. I really don’t.”

In addition to motherhood, and The Back-up Plan, Lopez is also working on her upcoming album. Despite switching labels, Lopez has not abandoned her original album concept. Lopez says, “I’m going to call it Love?, because I just feel like it’s an endlessly fascinating topic that all my albums have been about. It’s still very confusing to me and so I explore that on this album, probably more than my other albums.” Lopez will work with her new label, Def Jam, to finish the album. She says, “I recently parted ways with my old record company and we have a new one, so you know, they are gonna get involved with it. They’ve heard what I’ve been working on already. Everybody is really happy with it. We just need to finish it.”

Though there’s a solid concept, “[The album] hasn’t taken its full shape, yet,” she says. “I mean, there’s a real base of material that really goes with that concept and then there’s gonna be stuff that we create now, that I don’t even know what it’s gonna be.”

Love?, scheduled to hit stores this summer, will feature a variety of influences like Lopez’s previous albums. “It’s gonna be that combination of, like, dance and a little bit of street, and a little bit of hip hop, and a little bit of R&B and just all of those influences that I grew up with and that my music has always had, you know. My albums if you [listen] from the first one to the last one, it always has a few ballads and then there’s a few great dance cuts and then, you know, kinda mid-tempos,” she says.

Lopez performed two songs that will likely end up on Love?, “Starting Over” and “Until it Beats No More”, this past February on “Saturday Night Live”. Another song that could end up on the album is a song that she wrote for her twins. “I wrote a song for the babies, I don’t know that I’m going to put it on the album, [though]”.

In addition to her English music, Lopez is also going to record an all new Spanish album. “I’m going to start working on a new Spanish album, probably in about a month, as well. Probably right as I finish the other one. I’ll put [Love?] out this year and we’ll ride that out and probably do the Spanish album for release next year.”

While Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony have often worked together in the past, don’t expect to hear her on Anthony’s upcoming album, Iconos. “We didn’t duet on this one. We are going solo. He is doing his thing and I’m doing my thing. We had our moment in our 3rd or 4th year married where we did everything together – El Cantante, we did the tour, we made all the music together, he produced my album, and you know, that was a beautiful time for us and we really enjoyed that, but I think we both kinda subconsciously said, it’s time for us, we have a responsibility to our own individual fans, and we have to go off and do our own thing.” But that doesn’t mean they no longer support each other. Lopez went on to gush, “You guys are gonna love his new album. It’s absolutely brilliant.”

But first, it’s time for The Back-up Plan – in theaters April 23rd.

That’s not all we have for you guys! Stay tuned, as we will be posting more in the coming weeks, including a HUGE surprise you won’t want to miss!

Filed under: News Articles, OJF Exclusives by Angelo

Happy April Fools Day you guys… we were just playing with you guys… or were we?

No we weren’t!

OnlineJLoFan.com & Beyond-Beautiful.com proudly present:

Imko from OJF was able to arrange this exciting feature thanks to the help of Jennifer’s management and CBS Films. We sent Erika from BB to fly over to Los Angeles to attend this week’s press conference of The Back-up Plan to represent all of J-Lo’s Beyond Beautiful and Online JLo Fans and she got all of the scoop on the movie and even more than that!

What can you expect in the next couple of days? A bunch of stuff, but we will keep that a secret for now!

Stay tuned for the first batch of exciting stuff in the next few hours!

Filed under: Interviews, Jennifer Lopez, Movies, OJF Exclusives, Streaming Media, The Back-up Plan by Angelo

Check out this exclusive new “She Glows” featurette from The Back-up Plan presented by yours truly, CBS Films, OnlineJLoFan.com and Beyond-Beautiful.org.

Definitely check this out and don’t forget to share it with your friends. The Back-up Plan will be shown in theaters across the country from April 23nd!

Filed under: Jennifer Lopez, Music, New Album: Love?, News Articles, OJF Exclusives by Angelo

Through her representatives, Jennifer Lopez has reached out to her fans via OnlineJloFan.com to clear the air about yesterday’s news report about a split between her and record label Sony/Epic Records. She wants her fans to know that she has already found a new record company to work with!

“I know my fans have been wondering what’s been going on with my album. I have been in the process of a transition and now I am happy that all the issues have been resolved and I have found a new home.”

There were several articles online that stated the album “Love?” would not be released because of the split. This is completely false, as the statement continued:

“I have fulfilled my contractual obligations to Sony/Epic and felt it was time to move on. It was an amicable split not as the media will paint it out to be. I have been with Sony for many years and we achieved great success together. During this period I never stopped the creative process and my album Love? will still be released in the summer of 2010 as planned.”

Make sure to pass this message around to other Jennifer Lopez fansites and communities as this is a message from Jennifer to all of her fans! We are looking forward to finding out what record company will become the ‘new home’ of Jennifer Lopez.