Her love may not cost a thing, but a few snarky comments on television’s most famous singing contest sure will. Jennifer Lopez will earn $12 million as a judge on the next season of American Idol – and that’s a $3 million cut from her original demands. I mean, really? What’s left of the show without Simon Cowell’s cantankerous commentary? (It’s the only thing that kept me tuned in on Tuesday nights.)
Despite the show’s drooping ratings, fans have been buzzing around the topic of replacement judges on Idol since this year’s lackluster group started their journeys toward Idol-dom back in January. With Cowell, Ellen DeGeneres, and Kara Dioguardi all out next season, Randy Jackson stands alone with a handful of empty judges’ seats. That’s where JLo comes in.
It’s reported that Lopez and her on-again-off-again manager, Benny Medina, went full metal diva, insisting that Fox dole out an unheard of all-inclusive deal for her. She’s said to have asked for a guaranteed “go” movie and TV pilots on Fox in addition to an already hefty paycheck. It was rumored that her outlandish demands caused Fox to kick her to the curb, but longtime Idol producer, Nigel Lythgoe, squashed that bit of gossip and it looks like she’s back on track.
I can’t blame the girl. Fresh off her expulsion from Sony Music’s label, Epic Records, last Winter, it only makes sense that she’d try to squeeze as much as she could from the Idol deal. She may be rolling in cash from her past, but Jenny from the Block isn’t ready to give up on future green. McMansions and bubble-wrap dresses don’t grow on trees, you know.
Will all this back and forth be worth Fox’s while? If it’s going to work, Lopez is going to have to drum up some of that famous Bronx attitude and gives us a fresh take on the role of the judge-we-all-love-to-hate. If she Paul Abduls this job, I’m out. You don’t pay a Bronx girl 12 million big ones for sunshine and rainbows.
Source: Deadline.
