So what does Lopez reveal? Watching her is sort of like seeing molten rock churn under pressure. It's a fascinatingly torturous process. And it could yet produce a diamond. ''It's impossible for people to imagine how overwhelming stardom can be,'' says Nava. ''Everybody that this happens to has a period where they have to learn how to deal with it. Jennifer's very level-headed, and she's going to come through all of that with bells on.'' Adds Out of Sight director Steven Soderbergh, ''I'd work with her again in a heartbeat.''
And here's some undeniable proof that Lopez's place in the Hollywood pantheon is holding firm. Two weeks ago, Lopez — or at least her image — appeared on Will Smith's 30th birthday cake, right alongside depictions of Salma Hayek and Scary Spice. So what did the cake say? Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, had the baker write: ''Now you can have a piece.''
On the day following her interview, Lopez is sitting on a stool wearing a bronze satin bra and pair of almost see-through black pants. A woman is stooped at her feet painting her toenails, while makeup wizard Kevyn Aucoin applies false eyelashes to her lids, readying her for a photo shoot. It's another entertaining, and utterly innocuous, diva moment. And Lopez is laughing because her music producer is worried about the diminishing size of her butt. A real concern, perhaps, since it's famous enough to have been the subject of a shout-out on a recent Hollywood Squares. ''It's funny. Now people want me to be a little heavier. I don't mind,'' she says. ''All the other big-butted women in the world are happy.''
As tracks from her work-in-progress album play in the background — they sound fun and danceable and formidably commercial — Lopez sings along. Her voice — caressing the lyrics of one song, ''Could This Be Love?'' — is both sweet and strong. Does making a run at becoming a singer scare her? She laughs again. ''How can I live my life in fear like that?'' she says. ''The winners take risks. That's the only way to be.''
Before long, Lopez is even comfortable enough to play at being a diva, in the way that a cat toys with a mouse. After she yells across the studio to her assistant to skip to track No. 11, this reporter asks her which song that is. ''The song that I wanted to hear,'' she cracks. Her life, she admits, is ''at an all-time high of tornado-whirlwind-storm right now.'' So it's no surprise that later, when she's asked if she'll make some more time for the interview, she says: ''I'll try. But I don't make promises. Maybe that's the diva in me.''
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