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''Qué Hiciste'' was the first all-Spanish-language video to hit No. 1 on MTV's TRL. But unless it becomes a smash on Latin radio, it's unlikely to cross over to pop stations (see Shakira's ''La Tortura''). Another possible obstacle: In July 2005, then New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer fined Sony BMG $10 million for bribing DJs and programmers with cash and gifts in exchange for giving more airtime to Sony artists — Lopez included. ''That could be why you're not seeing ['Qué Hiciste'] take off — because the label's not buying it,'' says Romeo, music director of New York's Z100. Whatever the case, by the time Lopez and I chat on the phone a month after our meeting in Miami, she seems on the defensive.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What are your expectations for Como Ama?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: I don't think of it that way. The joy is in creative expression and making something that's true to your heart. It's not about [sales].''
You're going to perform ''Qué Hiciste'' on a Latin-themed episode of American Idol on April 11. That'll be great for mainstream exposure.
I think you have the focus in the wrong place. For me, the focus is to
get my music out there, but it's for different reasons than what you are
focusing on, which is kind of like...
What do you mean?
I don't know. It's just kinda weird to me — the questions seem like, ''What about the success?'' That is like icing on the cake. At the end of the day, you're an artist, and you do it because you love it.
You seem upset right now. Have I upset you?
No. You know what it is? Sometimes I know where this stuff is coming
from, and it's not a pure and beautiful place, and that's where [the work] I'm doing now is coming from. Please don't take it the wrong way.
Como Ama may be a passion project, but electing to sing ''Qué Hiciste'' on Idol is clearly a sign that Lopez hopes for crossover success. After all, when Rod Stewart appeared last April, sales of his four Great American Songbook CDs shot up 253 percent.
With two Latin-themed films in the can, Lopez isn't playing it safe in Hollywood, either. The first, Bordertown, a crime thriller costarring Antonio Banderas, was reportedly booed at the Berlin film festival this February. Yet the highest-paid Latina actress earned props at last fall's Toronto film festival for El Cantante (due Aug. 1). Directed by Leon Ichaso (Piñero) and produced by Lopez, the biopic of troubled '70s salsa singer Hector Lavoe marks the first onscreen pairing of Anthony and Lopez, who costar as Lavoe and his wife, Puchi (born Nilda Roman Perez). ''There was nobody in the world to play [Hector Lavoe] but Marc,'' says Lopez, whose Nuyorican Productions company recruited Anthony in 2002. ''Little did we know that we would be a couple when we filmed it.''
Say what?! Didn't she learn anything from Gigli and Jersey Girl, two flops costarring ex-fiancé Affleck? ''Friends warned us about the dangers of working with your spouse,'' Anthony says, ''but those experiences were, to the contrary, great for us.''
If El Cantante doesn't put Lopez back on top, there's always the dance-oriented English-language CD she has planned for fall, a project that'll ''be back to choreography and big splashy shows,'' she says. ''But for right now, the focus is a little different.''
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