Jennifer Lopez has unofficially launched her contract renegotiation with American Idol. The middle-seated judged got the “will she, won’t she” ball rolling late last week when she began her annual process of questioning her return to the show that saved her career.
Lopez sat down with E! News’ Ryan Seacrest where he asked if she was thinking about her next season of American Idol. “I don’t know,” Lopez began. “I have some movie things in the works and I have the tour. I love the show. It hurts me to think about not doing it,” she continued. Jennifer also explained that her biggest priority is balancing time with her children.
In case this all seems very similar, it is. Last summer Lopez gave an interview where she said, “I had an amazing time doing [Idol] and I loved it but I have a lot other things happening, and it’s going to come down to me making a choice of what I want to do for the next year.” Of course the real issue then wasn’t her schedule, but rather her bank account. Jennifer was holding out for a big pay raise and finally signed when she was promised $20 million for American Idol 2012. Now that Britney Spears has signed on to The X Factor for $15 million Lopez may be stomping her feet and holding her breath for even more money.
So when will we hear what JLo has decided to do? Lopez explained her process, “we’re not really at the breaking point of ‘You have to make a decision right now!’ I’m just really enjoying the time of just waiting and seeing.” Oh, no wait, that was what she said last year. This year Jennifer said, “everything is kinda like not thinking too far ahead, just kinda taking it day by day and we’ll see. I never make the decisions until it’s time to make the decisions.” Seriously? Does her manager just have a playbook of scripts to reuse each season?
Since Lopez is just reusing what she said last season of American Idol then I’ll follow her lead. Here’s what I had to say then:
Jennifer Lopez had an album that sat on the shelf unfinished for years and she was dropped by her label, Sony. Then, along comes Idol, offers her a job, and props up her former career. What does she do in return? She spends months talking about how she’s really busy now and not sure she wants to come back to the show that put her back in the spotlight.
JLo is coming back for American Idol 2013. I don’t care what games she’s playing now. She knows she’ll never get as good a deal as she has on Idol. They give her tons of money for little work and provide her a platform for her annual single she releases. Jennifer Lopez will be back next year and she should think about showing some respect in the meantime. Of course, that’s if American Idol wants her.
Watch Lopez’s interview with E! News below (yes, the video annoyingly auto-plays):