Back in the summer of 2018, a simpler time despite the Orange One still being “president” (for it was pre-pandemic dystopia as opposed to just post-political dystopia), J. Lo took a little trip to Capri with her now day-old cast aside, Alexander Rodriguez. The jaunt was, as is the Instagram way, painted as a magical time, complete with Lopez getting on top of a table and singing an impromptu live version of “Let’s Get Loud” for some unsuspecting Italians at a small restaurant/bar. This was arguably “peak” J. Lo/A. Rod. A zenith in their doomed-to-fizzle relationship. So yes, it was a special trip. One that perhaps A. Rod might have been a fool to believe that J. Lo would hold sacrosanct considering she pulled a total Pete Davidson/Ariana Grande move in getting with a new (old) flame so quickly after their demise.
As such, why would she be sentimental in any way about going to said island three years later with Ben Affleck, where she once had a majestic time with A. Rod? Then again, it’s not like yachting hasn’t always been her and Ben’s “thing” (see: “Jenny from the Block“). While it might be hard to drum up anything like sympathy for the erstwhile “ball player,” surely one can put themselves in the position of feeling betrayed after a breakup by the Olivia Rodrigo standard of, “She thinks it’s special, but it’s all reused/That was our place, I found it first I made the jokes you tell to her when she’s with you/Do you get déjà vu when she’s with you?” Sub out the pronoun for “he” and you’ve got the song being sung from A. Rod’s perspective as he watches from afar, ruing the day he didn’t heed J. Lo’s warning to “get right.” At the same time, Affleck might have been asking that of any subsequent beau Lopez found herself with after they called their engagement off. Nonetheless, Capri, from A. Rod’s vantage point, was supposed to mean something more to J. Lo than just being able to swap out one companion for another in order to visit it.
In 2021, with insane pandemic restrictions and traveling prices making vacationing to places like Saint Tropez and Capri the ultimate luxury of the rich (a.k.a. celebrity), J. Lo could have chosen many other “coastal” places to infiltrate. Hence, it feels as though there’s something more calculated about choosing this particular destination as it pertains to salt-throwing in A. Rod’s wound. Poor, sitting-alone-in-miserable-New York A. Rod (okay, so he’s vacationing in the South of France, too…but still, one will now always envision him sitting solo at Bar Pitti)–who is likely musing, “Don’t act like we didn’t do that shit, too/You’re tradin’ jackets like we used to do (yeah, everything is all reused).” Yet clearly, J. Lo still feels the Beyoncé-performing-Lemonade kind of affront after the rumors of Rodriguez’s infidelity. So where’s the harm in a little “subtle” payback, she might ask innocently. And of Ben, no less. All too happy to oblige in the theater of cruelty.
While Lopez continues to traipse around the island, painting it as a celestial oasis instead of giving any real taste of what Italy might actually be like (just as she did in 2018), she perpetuates the sanitized ideal of a country evermore ravaged by the effects of poverty (particularly as a result of COVID-19 ruining tourism for those who are not millionaires with the means to naturally steer clear of the hordes). But what does that matter with Ben on her arm to show A. Rod that it’s just as she taunted on the lyrics to “Still” from This Is Me… Then: “Do you ever wish we never split?” To which A. Rod could only riposte (if he was capable): “Do you get déjà vu?”
