Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, has launched a celebrity website featuring original interviews called The Daily Beast. One of the site’s first interviews, with new mom Jennifer Lopez, 39, shows that their journalists aren’t afraid to ask the questions most of us are wondering about – like would Lopez send her kids to a Scientology school? Lopez is a longtime Scientology sympathizer, if not an avowed member of the notorious cult. Her father has been a Scientologist for 20 years, and her best friend, Leah Remini, is also a member. Lopez says people just don’t understand what it’s about and that she would trust her kids to the cult. She also opened up about a nervous breakdown she suffered in 2002, and said that she had postpartum depression after the birth of her twins.
J Lo on the Mommy Blues
“At the tenth day after giving birth all that chemical stuff did peak—that hormone thing—and I did cry a lot that day because I was having so much trouble moving. I couldn’t get up fast enough to feed the babies…Marc was helping out a lot and I was crying and crying and going, ‘Oh, Papi…they’re going to know everybody more than me…They’re going to love everybody more than me!’ [Lopez also says in the interview that she’s not breastfeeding, but doesn’t elaborate.]On Her Breakdown
“I don’t get nervous. I don’t get depressed. Blah, blah, blah…There was a time when I was very overworked and I was doing music and movies and so many things. I was suffering from a lack of sleep. And I did have a kind of nervous breakdown. I froze up on a set. Well, not on a set, but in my trailer. I was like, ‘I don’t want to move. I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to do anything.’ It was on that movie Enough [in 2002]. Yeah. I did. I had a nervous breakdown.“There were no signs leading up to it. You really don’t know what’s happening at first. I was going, ‘What’s going on?’ It was about five in the afternoon in my trailer and I just sat there. I remember telling my assistant at the time, Arlene, to go get the director, Michael Apted, and I asked if I could go home because I was feeling so sick and weird. I kept saying, ‘I’m not weak. I’m not weak.’ It’s funny what tricks your mind plays on you. I just didn’t want people to think I was falling apart. But when I look back on it now it’s so odd to me that those are the words I chose to say: ‘I AM NOT WEAK.’
“Michael let me off and when he left I just sat there and started crying and felt frozen. I didn’t want to move. My bodyguard, who had been with me for many years, picked me up and put me in the car and they took me to a doctor…Right away they want to give you pills. But I have never liked the idea of pills and kept saying no to that and just kept asking what was wrong with me. ‘I’ll tell you what’s wrong,’ the doctor said. ‘You’re sleep deprived. You’re overworked. Go home and go to bed.’ He told me to go back to work on Monday after a weekend of sleeping because if I waited longer that I would only get more panicked about working. So that’s what I did. I’ve still never been to a shrink. I’m not a shrinky person.”
On Scientology: it’s ‘very helpful’
Lopez’s father has been a Scientologist for more than 20 years, and she is frequently seen with converts including Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Leah Remini.
“I do know a lot about Scientology. And I know about the practices. I know all about what the technology is and all that kind of stuff. It’s very helpful. So in a sense, yeah, you do call on it.”
“Do you consider yourself a Scientologist?”
“No…I wouldn’t have a problem saying [I was] because I know what it is. I have no problems with it and it really actually bothers me that people have such a negative feeling towards it.”
“That it is too exotic? Too cultish?”
“Just negative feelings.”
“Would you consider schooling Emme and Max in a Scientology school?”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind. Not at all. Because I know that the technologies that they have are very helpful…It’s all about communication. That’s the thing I really don’t like about talking about this. I do know so many great people who do do it, who choose it as a lifestyle and really follow it and it is their religion…I just wish that people wouldn’t judge it without knowing what it is.”
[From The Daily Beast]
Lopez sounds a lot like a Scientologist when she says she’s “not a shrinky person” and swears that she’s never been to one, as if there’s shame in it.
She also revealed that she saved the $6 million she received for the first photos of the twins, and said “We gave a little bit and I saved the rest for them.” The money was widely rumored to have gone to her husband Marc Anthony’s tax debt. In early 2007 it was reported that he owed NY State $2.5 million in back taxes. When asked if she wasn’t rich enough not to need the millions for her baby photos, Lopez said “Hmmm… I wouldn’t believe everything I read.”
She’s not my favorite celebrity. Even when she reveals perceived vulnerabilities it’s like she’s bragging about how well she handled it all. If Lopez became a full-fledged Scientologist I wouldn’t really care. She would just be another fool handing the cult money to strip her of all critical reasoning skills, which she doesn’t seem to have in the first place. She probably already gives them plenty of cash through her father and we just don’t hear about it. She should have seen the psychiatrist six years ago. If she ever got a dose of humility by smelling her own bullshit she might have wider appeal.
Photo update: I don’t know how I missed these photos of Lopez at the Elle’s “Women in Hollywood Event” last night. Credit: Nikki Nelsen/WENN. The other photos are of Lopez hawking her latest perfume for men, Deseo, at Macy’s on 9/29/08. Credit: Janet Mayer / PR Photos
I actually like her – I used to be very fond of her, but it’s gone back to a mild warmth.
That being said, it doesn’t seem like she’s very *engaged* with motherhood, does it?
I used to think she was cute and likeable too. But this latest personna – the slitted eyes, the mouth hanging unsmiling and slightly open, it’s like she imagines herself to be a spy in a WWII movie or something.
She calls Skeletor “Papi”? Gag me.
That ruffled collar does a really good job of disguising the fang marks on her neck.
Marc Anthony really needs to find a secondary blood donor, though. From the look of it, the poor woman’s gone anemic.
@Syko – Yeah, she just looks uncomfortable. And Papi…*barf*
Her looks have changed so much. I watched Selena this past weekend, she used to look so much better than she does now.
I thought “mental breakdown” wasn’t allowed in the Scientology dictionary. That would imply a psychiatric problem, wouldn’t it?
J-Ho is the poster child for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Another dumb celebrity becomes a Scieno!
I love how she says that we all judge Scientology without knowing what it is. Um, actually we know exactly what it is, and that’s why we think you’re all crazy people.
Obviously Daddy never shared the secret of Xenu, if he even knew. I’m sure if she thought there was validity to that story, she’d high tail it outta there.
She looks like a first grader who got into her mother’s garish makeup collection.
she looks awful in these latest pics at the elle event. she aged herself by 15 years dessing all matronly with her matron bouffont hair. i wouldnt really call sitting in your trailer and wanting to go home to sleep a nervous breakdown, but she is a melodramatic character, so who knows. ooooh papi. imagining that reminds me of a really big termite queen who is too big to move around and needs her smaller soldier types (mark) to help her.
Matronly. That’s it. And just dull. Impossible to get excited about.
Hmmm, a ‘nervous breakdown’ on the Friday, then back to work Monday??? Honey, if you’d had a real nervous breakdown, you WOULD have needed the pills and you WOULD have needed ‘the shrinky’ person.. A panic attack does not make for a complete mental breakdown. Take your Hollywood psychobabble and peddle your ‘strength’ elsewhere.
i don’t think freaking out at work, sleeping over a weekend and then being ok and going back on monday qualifies as a breakdown. i agree the “papi” thing is kind of ick, but in mexico i noticed couples calling each other “mami” and “papi” so maybe it’s a cultural thing.
I think ‘Papi’ is more of a pretentious thing for the benefit of the interview to demonstrate how ‘rootsy’ she is now after having kids. Meanwhile, Jenny from the Block *cough* can barely speak Spanish on her own from what I understand. All her Spanish language recordings are done phonetically – like Celine Dion in her early days and the classic ‘Radar Love’ by Golden Earring (they are German).
Anyway, she is a poser of the grandest proportions – in any language.
I never got the whole Jenny-from-the-block appeal. She’s an okay dancer, a not very good singer and a dreadful actress. If her “breakout” role had been anything but Selena, the only real breakout would have been on her chin and T-zone.
For those of us who have dealt with major mental issues reading tripe like this (not CB, but the interview) makes me want to scream. A nervous breakdown doesn’t last three days you stupid twat. A nervous breakdown is a life altering occurence that isn’t taken lightly. You had an anxiety attack and were tired. There’s a world of difference.
What an idiot. Your time is probably better spent hooking up your “papi” to his daily IV of young virgin’s blood. Plus, please get a new look. Thanks.
Right. Queen of Perfectionism and OCD control freak is saying she had a breakdown. Clearly a transparent attempt to make her seem more human/vulnerable/likable to the masses who no longer like her (or buy her cds).
Every time I see her in one of these OTT frothy getups I expect to see her holding a drink and sloshing the ice. She looks like a well marinated old lady who hangs out in her living room filled to the ceiling with old newspapers and empty birdcages. Grey Gardens kind of shit.
She was okay as a fly girl, and wonderful as Selena, but thats about to. She is irritating.
I cannot stand her. She so over-dramatic
“I AM NOT WEAK”
pleaseeee give me a break. she sucks.
it is odd to me that because she says he doesn’t to shrinks you automatically think she is a scientologist. i am a Christian and i don’t do the shrink thing,,,i’m not nocking it though.
it is also odd to me that people call this a cult…they are free to worship as they please or so i thought.
people trash what they know nothing about.
On a side note: Catherine Zeta Jones got so much shit for her make up last week but Jenny’s doesn’t look much better…
Can’t stand her and it pisses me off that she considers a day where she’s tired and ‘can’t go back to work’ to be a nervous breakdown. I’ve never had one, but as other posters have pointed out, I’m pretty sure it’s not something that can be cured with sleep. I’m getting more ticked off by the minute — the more I think about her breezy ‘just got some sleep and I was cured’ mentality and the papi crap.
She’s a full fledged CO$ member, her friends are members and at least one parents is a member of the cult. She’s not telling the truth because her career is almost gone, except for a few ads, her cheap clothes and stinky perfumes which she peddles overseas and she doesn’t want to lose what little luster she has left.
My guess is she donated part of the twin money to the CO$ for tithing purposes, and pocketed the rest because she is greedy, needy, egotistical and a plain ol nasty ho that ruined a marriage to take a C list singer away from a truly beautiful woman.
I’ll bet money that if she starts feeling the pinch of finances she’s going to take whatever is left of the twins money and spend it on herself. Remember she was just booted off a film for TWC, which would have been an indie anyway – she isn’t being offered acting jobs anymore, and she can’t sing.
she’s a subtle nutjob. i can’t stand the way she always pouts for the camera — she does this thing where she squints and leaves this half gape in her mouth – – argh. it drive me nuts! she’s so average!! and she’s a star. it really irritates me because i think she’s just bland, bland, bland . . .
yerch.
Another Scientology assclown 👿 some people are just born weak timid victims I guess.
AMEN to all of you who are more intimately acquainted with a nervous breakdown, as I am. With a REAL BD, you want to do anything and everything you possibly can to feel better. REAL breakdowns=pills, counseling, time, and effort to get past; notice I didn’t say get *over* because it’s not something you just wake up with one day like a cold and is gone over the course of a fricking weekend and some sleep! 👿 This ignorant, irrelevant, narcissistic woman has just gotten on my last nerve.
**HEY! I’ll just go to bed for a few days, and I know that when I get back up, I’ll just *love* her…NOT**
off topic, in a psych class i once heard that changing your mind about a long-held belief qualifies as a nervous breakdown. when you think the same thing over and over again, for example “god exists,” your brain fires along the same pathways and it becomes easier and easier to think it. if you ever change your mind, your brain must find new pathways and thus, mini-nervous-breakdown.
changing your mind is difficult on your brain. just thought that was interesting.
as for j.lo, when a former gf of mine started getting into dianetics (scientology) the only thing running through my mind when i heard what it’s about was: wacko!
if she knows what it’s about and she doesn’t think it’s crazy, then she’s probably a convert.
She got her start as fly-girl, and even then I thought she danced like a bull in a china shop. She played Selena very well, a directorial feat I believe, and the story was sold by the sadness the audience felt for the actual young slain chanteuse.
I think she’s terribly self-absorbed, and her talents are lacklustre. I believe celebrities of her ilk, are just insecure attention-seeking sycophants who make too much money. It was said that after the twins’ births they each had their own nanny…and here she is quoted in this interview that her babies won’t know her. I hope the nannies are cool.