Jennifer Lopez and Shakira brought down the house at the Super Bowl 2020 halftime show. That’s not surprising—they’re incredible performers—but what did shock fans was seeing Lopez’s daughter, Emme, at one point during the set.
The 11-year-old made a surprise appearance during Lopez’s performance, to the delight of fans everywhere. Check out some videos from her cameo and some fan reactions, below:
Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl 2020 halftime performance was a true musical retrospective on her career—spanning from her early roots (“Waiting for Tonight”) to her biggest hits (“On the Floor”), and her most recent releases (“Booty”). Shakira’s set was also expansive: She performed “She Wolf,” “Whenever, Wherever,” and “Hips Don’t Lie,” among other songs.
Lopez pole-danced at one point during her performance, which was no doubt a nod to her critically-acclaimed turn in the 2019 movie Hustlers. She was believed to be a front runner for Best Supporting Actress for that role, but was wrongfully snubbed.
Lopez and Shakira released very kind statements about each other when it was announced they’d be co-headlining the Super Bowl 2020 halftime show.
“I’m so honored to be taking on one of the world’s biggest stages in the company of a fellow female artist to represent Latinos and Latinas from the U.S. and all over the world—and to top it off, on my birthday. This is a true American dream and we are going to bring the show of a lifetime!” Shakira said, while Lopez added, “Ever since I saw Diana Ross fly off into the sky at the halftime show, I dreamed of performing at the Super Bowl. And now it’s made even more special not only because it’s the NFL’s 100th anniversary, but also because I am performing with a fellow Latina. I can’t wait to show what us girls can do on the world’s biggest stage.”
Here’s what happened: Midway through the pop icon’s set, she did a pole dance to her hit nineties song “Waiting for Tonight.” She killed it, obviously, and that’s largely because she completed serious pole dancing training for her performance in the 2019 movie Hustlers. Her turn as Ramona in that movie generated Lopez serious awards season buzz. Many thought she was a shoe-in for a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but she was snubbed.
So it’s funny that Lopez busted out one of the skills she was lauded for in Hustlers during her Super Bowl halftime show. “Jennifer Lopez started her Super Bowl halftime performance on a pole to remind the Oscars how badly they messed up by not nominating her for Hustlers,” one fan tweeted, while another wrote, “J.Lo said, ‘I trained for MONTHS for Hustlers and didn’t get an Oscar nom. I am getting on the poll at the #SuperBowl and you can’t stop me.'”
Read some more reactions from fans who were on this same page, below:
“I’m so honored to be taking on one of the world’s biggest stages in the company of a fellow female artist to represent Latinos and Latinas from the U.S. and all over the world—and to top it off, on my birthday. This is a true American dream and we are going to bring the show of a lifetime!” Shakira said when it was announced she and Lopez were headlining, while Lopez said, “Ever since I saw Diana Ross fly off into the sky at the halftime show, I dreamed of performing at the Super Bowl. And now it’s made even more special not only because it’s the NFL’s 100th anniversary, but also because I am performing with a fellow Latina. I can’t wait to show what us girls can do on the world’s biggest stage.”
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira headlined the Super Bowl 2020 halftime show, which happened Sunday, February 2, and they certainly did not disappoint. Both women are known for their impeccable, awe-inspiring showmanship: choreography, theatrics, an X-factor, the works. And they brought all of those elements to (arguably) the world’s biggest stage for 12 glorious minutes.
The performance was a seamless hybrid of Lopez and Shakira’s discographies. They performed songs both together and apart. And they didn’t miss a beat, either. That’s to be expected, of course: After all, they’re both total pros who have been in this business for decades. It’s no surprise they delivered one of the best halftime shows in recent memory.
Both Shakira and Lopez performed several of their greatest hits, including “She Wolf,” “Whenever, Wherever,” “Jenny From the Block,” “Let’s Get Loud,” and “On the Floor.”
But I’ll stop talking and let the fans tell you how they did. Check out some reactions, below:
Lopez and Shakira released the sweetest statements about each other when it was announced they’d be co-headlining the Super Bowl 2020 halftime show.
“I’m so honored to be taking on one of the world’s biggest stages in the company of a fellow female artist to represent Latinos and Latinas from the U.S. and all over the world—and to top it off, on my birthday. This is a true American dream and we are going to bring the show of a lifetime!” Shakira said, while Lopez added, ““Ever since I saw Diana Ross fly off into the sky at the halftime show, I dreamed of performing at the Super Bowl. And now it’s made even more special not only because it’s the NFL’s 100th anniversary, but also because I am performing with a fellow Latina. I can’t wait to show what us girls can do on the world’s biggest stage.”
This year has already been big for Lopez, who earned Golden Globe and SAG nominations for her performance in the movie Hustlers. Shakira, meanwhile, went on a world tour in 2018 that spanned 54 dates across Europe, Asia, North America, and Latin America.
Friends fanatics, I have a dream scenario for you: Imagine you’re visiting the set of Central Perk on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, and Jennifer Aniston pops up and surprises you. Well, this exact thing happened to a group of lucky fans this past week.
Here’s what happened: Aniston was guest-hosting The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which films on the same lot as Friends did, and decided to take a break and pop by her old stomping grounds. You see, fans can now actually tour the set of Central Perk, so Aniston decided to hide behind that iconic couch you know and love and give some visitors the scare of a lifetime. A good scare, obviously.
“The set is actually still here [on the Warner Bros. lot],” Aniston says in the clip. “It’s part of the Warner Bros. studio tour. So I thought, While I’m here, I’ll go take a visit.”
Watch the hilarious video for yourself, below. There is a lot of screaming involved.
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Don’t think this means a Friends reunion is happening soon, though. While Jennifer Aniston and several of the cast members have expressed interest in getting back together, nothing is on the books yet. A nonscripted reunion special was in the works at HBO Max (a new streaming service that will soon house all of Friends), but that’s been put on pause for now.
HBO Max chief creative officer Kevin Reilly told the Television Critics Association last week, per Deadline, “There is interest all around, and yet we can’t get the interests all alighted to push the button on it.” He said the reunion, for now, is “just a maybe.”
Hopefully something comes together. But if nothing happens, at least now we can hold on to the dream that one of the “friends” might surprise us on the Warner Bros. lot should we ever visit.
Backstage on the 19th, when they both accepted statutes at the SAG awards, a photographer captured an instantly-iconic photo of her hand, clasped under his. It looks, literally, like she is walking away from him, and like he is unable to let her go.
Cool, cool, cool, cool.
Mega-celebrities like Brad and Jen strike a strange deal with us, their public. We give them more money, value, and privilege of influence than anyone could ever need or want. In exchange, they entertain us—sometimes on screen, mostly in paparazzi shots and interviews and shady Instagram likes and breakdowns and addiction. Like the Greek gods were for mortals, they are our hotter, but similarly flawed, avatars. We project ourselves on them. We imagine ourselves on Brad and Jen’s last vacation as a couple. We take sides in the love triangle with Angelina. We find ourselves discussing Jen’s chances of having children as if we are her reproductive endocrinologist.
Pitt and Aniston were the golden couple. They were our royals in the long, dull interim between Princess Diana and Windsor-Sussexes. They were on top when Hollywood was still a country club that celebrated almost exclusively white people and white beauty, and they have maintained their footing even as much else has changed. We have lived in parallel with them, having children and heartbreak and successes and setbacks; they’ve stuck around with us as we exchanged the Hiltons for the Kardashians, and through six terms by four presidents. In the sprawling celebrity dollhouse that we all play in, they are Barbie and Ken.
Of course we want them to be together. It would mean that everything happens for a reason! It would mean that happy endings are real! It would mean Parent Trap was right and our divorced parents were wrong! It would mean that the Laws of Love are like the Laws of Energy: that the total amount of love in the universe remains constant over time, conserved in the hearts of people we thought had long ago moved on.
Wouldn’t it be cool if life was truly cyclical? Wouldn’t it be great if life, instead of culminating in death, culminated in sex with Brad Pitt?
That’s a good fantasy. But reality is actually better.
In reality, Jennifer Aniston is one of the most popular women in the world, and she does not need to get back together with the nice-but-slightly-greasy guy she broke up with 15 years ago. In reality, the only reason this pairing is still on the table is that despite being asked about Brad Pitt no matter what she does and where she goes, Jennifer Aniston has never said one bad word about him in public. (“That was really uncool” is the meanest thing Jennifer Aniston has ever said about Jolie and Pitt, referring to them giving interview after interview about falling in love during the first couple’s marriage.)
In reality, since his divorce and coming out with his addiction struggle, Aniston hasn’t tried to seduce him. She’s supported him with social invitations and public warmth. Even though it wasn’t exactly a loving compliment, she smiled encouragingly on Sunday night when Pitt gave his SAG acceptance speech, saying that he related to his character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, “who gets high, takes his shirt off, and doesn’t get on with his wife.” When asked about him that same night, Aniston said, “We’ve all grown up together; we really have. And it just feels like a really fun night to celebrate and cheer each other on and keep working.”
Folks, these extremely rich, pretty people are just trying to not be awful to each other. Their relationship is probably less like a sweeping epic love story nearing its satisfying conclusion, and more like two old friends who have buried the memories of the tastes of each other’s mouths under deeper feelings of mutual respect and understanding. We need to let the dream go, not for their sakes—their agents are probably overjoyed by these headlines—but for our own. We need to accept that things end. Things change. That we shouldn’t get weekday wine drunk and text our exes, and then be like “oh my god how embarrassing that was for someone else,” and then be like “well ha ha how are you.” We need to accept that we will live and die without seeing these hot shiny-haired actors kissing on the mouths ever again.
We need to take what we’re given instead: a woman who is the physical embodiment of Thank U, Next. Look at Jennifer in that silk dress, laughing, extending her hand, walking away. Look at her not getting back together with her ex, even though he’s literally Brad Pitt. God forbid something happens, ‘least her career is a smash.
Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. Follow her on Twitter @JeanValjenny.
They’re the photos currently breaking the internet: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pittreuniting backstage at the 2020 SAG Awards. Their interaction was brief but memorable. Pitt was already backstage, having just won the prize for Best Supporting Actor, and following closely behind him was Aniston for her Best Actress in a Drama Series win. Their photos together are so sweet—not romantic, to be clear, but rather two friends seemingly catching up and congratulating each other. That’s what I think, at least.
And it’s what the photographer who took the pics, Emma McIntyre, says happened. She gave some details about Pitt and Aniston’s well-documented run-in to People magazine, and it seems like it was good (platonic) vibes only.
“[They were both backstage] doing the circuit of awards press,” she tells the publication. “Jennifer had just signed some posters for SAG and was about to walk the press line. I was running back and forth between the two backstage areas and had just taken some photos of Jennifer. I was about to leave when I saw Brad coming down the hallway and sensed there would be a photo-worthy moment.”
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
She continues, “He called out ‘Aniston!’ and she turned around and they embraced and congratulated each other. It was a moment of two accomplished people at the top of their game, acknowledging each other’s successes and genuinely seeming happy to see one another…. The moment was really touching, and you could sense the respect between two people who have known each other 20-plus years and are both outstanding in their field.”
This is the kind of energy we all should have with our exes, TBH. Hopefully, people aren’t actually buying in to the idea Aniston and Pitt are getting back together. It’s beyond clear they’re just good friends who are happy to see the other one do well. Nothing more, nothing less.
In fact, Pitt said this himself when Entertainment Tonight asked him at the Golden Globes if he would mind running into Aniston. “I’ll run into Jen. She’s a good friend,” he said.
Meanwhile, Aniston said Pitt staying back to watch her acceptance speech at the SAGs was “sweet.”
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“We’ve all grown up together; we really have. And it just feels like a really fun night to celebrate and cheer each other on and keep working,” she told Extra TV.
