Oh, man. So Rosie Perez and Jennifer Lopez met back in 1991 while auditioning as Fly Girls on In Living Color, and apparently things went downhill between them pretty quickly. Want to know the details? Sure, Rosie has all of them in her new book, Handbook For an Unpredictable Life. Apparently Rosie, who was a choreographer at the time, says she convinced the show’s creator Keenan Ivory Wayans to hire Jennifer even though he didn’t want to – so long as she promised to lose 20 lbs and cut her hair. Apparently he thought she was “corny and chubby”.
That’s not so hard to believe, I suppose (this is Hollywood, we’re talking about), but Rosie says that when Jennifer got the job, she completely changed her personality and went “ghetto biatch” on everyone, creating a rift that’s lasted until the present day between the two women.
Here’s some of the scoop from The New York Post:
“All of the girls were coming into my office complaining how she was manipulating wardrobe, makeup, and me, all to her advantage,” Perez writes. Lopez, now 44, shrugged it off, saying the other girls were just “jealous.”
But Lopez dropped her “sweet-girl act” and “went off” on Perez like “some ghetto biatch, screaming and pounding her chest!” writes Perez.
“You pick on me, me and only me, every f–king day! Every f–king day! I work my ass off, deliver and you keep pushing me aside, treating me like sh-t! I know I’m good! I’m better than any of these girls, and you know it,” Lopez roared.
J.Lo left the show after two seasons but didn’t drop her beef — Perez says she made “disparaging comments” about her after hitting it big in Hollywood.
“I was blindsided,” writes Perez. “I’d thought we were cool. I called her up. She wouldn’t pick up. Frustrated, I left her an irate message on her answering machine. Instead of calling me back and hashing it out like friends do, she went on a major talk show and reiterated my lashing,” Perez writes.
Apparently they ran into each other at a club sometime after and Jennifer acted like nothing had ever happened, but Rosie had to “kill her” with her “biting tongue”, though she didn’t elaborate on what in all that entailed.
I dunno, I’m kind of torn here. Whether or not any of what Rosie’s saying here is true, what’s the point? You’re bringing up a feud that’s nearly 25 years old and doing the same thing that you were slamming Jennifer for – discussing shit in public. The cattiness is just ridiculous – and yes, if Jennifer’s behaviour was true, I think that’s just as bad. Hollywood is hard, especially for women. Especially for women of colour. Let’s not make shit worse.
Jen looks like one in the photos. She looks positively ghetto. It’s in the eyes. I think the lady pointing the finger is also one. It takes one to know one.