Celebrities respond to relationship rifts in myriad ways, from propagating the term “conscious uncoupling” to smoking cigs with Paul Mescal, but I have to say that I’m particularly fond of Jennifer Lopez’s response to her alleged marital strife with Ben Affleck: refusing to talk about it publicly (as she should), canceling her tour, and jetting off to Italy for a solo vacation. Nobody has ever been less bothered!
Obviously, the mere fact of being in Italy doesn’t mean you’re not still Going Through It on a personal level (for evidence, see the last season of The White Lotus, or, more anecdotally, the time I cried so consistently and loudly about a breakup during a trip to Rome in my early 20s that the proprietor of the Airbnb I was staying at quietly reduced the price of my room by half). But personally, I’m beyond thrilled to see J.Lo queening out by the sea in Positano—and all while clutching a Dior handbag, no less. Who says you have to stay in Los Angeles and rot in bed when relationship stuff isn’t going so well? (Granted, Lopez probably has minimal rot time, but I’m sure she has her own hyper-famous version of lying in bed with unwashed hair for a week and watching When Harry Met Sally on repeat.)
Obviously, the easy filmic comparison to invoke in Lopez’s situation is Eat, Pray, Love, but since Lopez’s solo trip doesn’t appear to involve any cringe appropriation of Indonesian spirituality, I’d prefer to liken it to another movie about a woman setting aside her less-than-fun pile of romantic trials and tribulations to enjoy la dolce vita in Italy: Under the Tuscan Sun. No, Lopez doesn’t appear to be accidentally embarking on a gay tour of Tuscany, as Diane Lane does in the movie (which also stars Sandra Oh and Kate Walsh as one of the most iconic onscreen lesbian couples ever), but there’s still time for that, right?
