Jennifer Lopez returns with a back-up plan

By Bob Thompson , Canwest News Service

Jennifer Lopez seems at home as she wanders the hallowed halls of Radford Studios, originally built in this San Fernando Valley enclave as the cinema home for silent film greats Charlie Chaplin and The Keystone Cops.

More recently, the sound stage complex housed the long running TV sitcoms Seinfeld and That '70s Show, among many others. And now it's home to JLo who is determined to revive her film career with the romantic comedy The Back-Up Plan, which she's currently filming here.

In the Alan Poul-directed movie set to open early next year, Lopez plays Zoe, a freethinking Manhattan woman who decides to go it alone as a single parent. She's conceiving twins through artificial insemination when she meets whom she believes might be Mister Right (Alex O'Loughlin), even if he has some reservations.

That story's not much of a leap for Lopez. She's the devoted wife of Marc Anthony, her Mister Right, and the caring mother to fraternal twins Max and Emme, born to her on Feb. 22, 2008.

Lopez agrees it was easy to identify with the screenplay. Still, the 39-year-old had misgivings about returning to the grind after tending to her real-life babies, which accompany her to most of The Back-Up Plan locations around the city.

Looking vivacious, the slimmed down JLo - she dropped 50 pounds of baby weight - seems confident and in charge when she takes an afternoon break from shooting an apartment confrontation scene to discuss her return to the big screen.

"I don't think it is any big secret that I love romantic comedies," says Lopez who is joined for the chat by her co-star O'Loughlin. "I chose this specific movie because I thought it was funny and romantic and it had a little bit of a naughty edge to it."

Not surprisingly, she also had cast approval and lots to say in selecting co-star O'Loughlin, the Australian actor best known for his detective role in The Shield and private investigator and vampire in the now cancelled Moonlight series.

Her assessment? She says she decided he had lots of charm, but more critically O'Loughlin had the strength of character to stand up to the strong-willed Lopez on screen.

As it was, she knew she would be a force in the part. "Having been pregnant and having my own kids I responded right away to my character," she admits. "But then I hadn't been on a set for 26 months."

So she had to take it slow and easy those for the first few weeks on The Back-Up Plan. "It was nerve-racking," confesses Lopez smiling. "I thought maybe I would forget how to do it right."

"But she didn't," assures O'Loughlin, who says he's been impressed with her commitment to detail in general and her comedic timing specifically.

Shrugging off the compliment, Lopez says she's accustomed to being under-estimated whether it's on a sound stage or in a recording studio.

Over-exposed by public displays of exaggeration? She became accustomed to that as well.

For nearly a decade, the singer and actress unintentionally provided gossipy fodder for sensationalists around the world.

Almost everybody knows the turmoil she's experienced, whether the incidents were overblown or not. There were her failed marriages, the Sean Combs nightlife clubbing phase, and the wild and wacky 'Bennifer' engagement to Ben Affleck that became infamously disengaged.

So that's her baggage real or imagined. And O'Loughlin's asked the obvious because of it.

What's it like acting opposite somebody so famous?

As he tries to explain himself, Lopez's goading him to come clean with what he really thinks.

"Believe it or not I didn't have any pre-conceived ideas," he says. "She's smoking hot and super famous."

"And for someone as iconic as you are," adds O'Loughlin, pausing as he looks at Lopez who interrupts him with "I want to hear the second part of that sentence."

"OK, I think of you as a grounded person who's got all of her stuff down at work," he says, looking relieved he's finished without more good-natured taunting by Lopez.

Maybe it's the dancer in her, but she's always been prepared. Born in the South Bronx to Puerto Rican parents, Lopez's dance gigs and classes consumed her early performing years, which led to a regular spot as a Fly Girl dancer on the comedy show In Living Color.

She was more ambitious than that, however, talking her way into bit parts on shows South Central, Second Chances and Hotel Malibu in the early 1990s. She graduated to film, co-starring in Gregory Nava's My Family in 1995, although she made more of an impression that same year playing opposite Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in Money Train.

The next year she impressed the film industry even more by winning the supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola's comedy-drama Jack with Robin Williams. She was applauded for holding her own against Jack Nicholson in the thriller Blood and Wine.

But it wasn't until Selena in 1997 that Lopez shined portraying the real life Tejano pop singer tragically murdered just as her career was blossoming. She followed through with the promise of great things to come, headlining with George Clooney in the quirky 1998 crime flick Out of Sight. Then there was the Lopez alter ego JLo, who could sing and dance and sell products but seemed to select movies that didn't challenge.

The Wedding Planner did decent business at the box office, which was fine. Angel Eyes and Enough disappeared without impact.

And while Maid in Manhattan got Lopez back on track as a bankable movie star, it didn't save her from her future.