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When Jennifer Lopez was forced to share the Super Bowl halftime stage with Shakira in 2020, many people, including myself, questioned why Jenny needed anyone else on her block.
Despite the fact that the two Latina divas got along and hugged at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Lopez wasn't happy about having to fit in one usual headliner's show in half the time.
The 52-year-old Bronx icon expresses her displeasure over it in "Halftime," a J.Lo documentary that premiered at the United Palace Theater on Wednesday night as part of the Tribeca Film Festival before premiering on Netflix on June 14.
"This was the worst idea in the world," Lopez, who is shown arguing with the NFL for additional time to complete her set, says an enraged Lopez.
While Lopez did not directly address why she was forced to share stage time with Shakira, her longtime manager, Benny Medina, does not mince words when it comes to the disrespect.
"To believe that you required two Latinas to execute the job that one artist has historically done was an insult," he says.
And while Lopez is seen on Zoom with Shakira trying to make the best of a not-so-super situation — “We can bring everybody together in this moment,” she says — the friction didn’t exactly make for the friendliest of rehearsals between the two.
They’re cordial and professional at best, but let’s just say Shakira shouldn’t be expecting an invitation to Bennifer 2.0’s wedding.
But who can blame La Lopez? This was her moment, and she deserved to own it herself.
“This is something I have been working for and hoping for for years,” she says.
“Halftime” also reveals that Lopez fought with the NFL over using children in cages to send a political message about former President Donald Trump putting migrant children into detention camps.
“The NFL had a real concern about making a statement about immigration,” says Medina.
But after the NFL asked Lopez to remove the cages the day before the Super Bowl, she didn’t back down. “We’re not changing the show,” she told them.
About half of “Halftime” is about the Super Bowl, taking you behind the scenes of rehearsals.
The Super Bowl is also positioned as the big, ultimate win for Lopez after she lost out on an Oscar nomination for “Hustlers.” And the star is open about her disappointment for her and her team after getting the hype—and her hopes—up in the awards-season campaign trail.
But the documentary glosses over other areas of Lopez’s career and personal life. There’s hardly anything about Lopez’s relationships with her famous flames here — although fiancé Ben Affleck briefly appears to weigh in on his lady having to deal with disrespect in the business as a Latina.
And Lopez herself knows about that all too well. At the beginning of the documentary, she says, “My whole life I have battled and battled to be heard, to be seen, to be taken seriously.”
