Tuesday January 16, 2001

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez sizzles as Hollywood's latest "it" girl. An A-list actress, Grammy nominated singer and fashion's femme fatale... not to mention rapper Puff Daddy's gal.

Now she's looking prim and proper in her latest movie "The Wedding Planner." Jennifer plays a lonely wedding planner who falls for the groom, played by Matthew McConaughey. Lopez says, "This is more like me than anything I have ever done. Someone a little more silly, light and funny."

When our Leeza Gibbons sat down with Jennifer, she talked a lot about life and love off the set.

Leeza: Is there such thing as that one everlasting love that can last?

Jennifer: I think if we didn't believe in that life would be pretty crappy. You got to believe in something and why not love.

Leeza So have you found that one love with Puffy?

Jennifer: I guess that kind of stuff is private... We don't have any plans to get married right now. But I think that whenever I do decide to get married, I will definitely have a wedding planner. You need help, I am a working girl.

But she may have to take a break soon if she's called as a witness in Puff Daddy's upcoming criminal trial. He's charged with illegally possessing a gun used in an infamous New York nightclub shooting this past December.

Leeza: Does being in a relationship help you cope or does it somehow make it more difficult because both of you have such public profiles?

Jennifer: My life is more about work right now. I live, eat and breathe what I do. Unfortunately you wind up sacrificing relationships because of that.

Professionally her formula is working. She's the highest paid Latina actress in history and the only artist right now who can leap from the top of the charts to the top of the box office and then back again.

"The Wedding Planner" hits theaters January 26. Puffy Combs hits a New York courtroom January 17.