Why Is Everyone So Giddy About J.Lo’s Downfall?

There’s a particularly triumphant moment midway through Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, which she co-headlined with Shakira. While performing “Waiting for Tonight,” one of the biggest hits of her career, she climbed to the top of a stripper pole and, as the arena screamed with delight, thrust her arms out, holding herself up with her crossed legs. Did she intend to look Jesus Christ on the cross? Who could say? Was it a stunning, electric feat of entertainment braggadocio? I would argue it absolutely was—and so would the millions who watched and raved about the performance.

That the exultant tableau involved a stripper pole was a clever, intentional nod to her performance in Hustlers, in which her widely celebrated turn as a, let’s say, entrepreneurial exotic dancer was tipped to score Lopez her first Oscar nomination. Her eventual snub is considered one of the most egregious of the last decade—a topic of conversation during at least every other brunch I have attended in the last four years. Consider that performance, and Lopez perched powerfully on top of that pole, as a middle finger to the Academy, which held the ceremony at which the star should’ve been nominated seven days later.

Snub aside, it was a very good time to be Jennifer Lopez, amidst a three-decade career full of very good times to be Jennifer Lopez. That she was slighted by the Academy only amplified the vocal hosannas for her acting skills, which had gone underappreciated before Hustlers. The Super Bowl performance was a barn-burner (or should we say “arena-burner”) that left over 100 million viewers slack-jawed over her sizzling dance moves. She had turned 50 six months before, setting a new standard for beauty—and energy!—at any age. Her Las Vegas residency, which had run for two years, had been the talk of the Strip.

Read more at The Daily Beast.