SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

“We are only going to take the questions related to the series `DanceLife’ “ says the misguided president of MTV Entertainment as he introduces Jennifer Lopez to the room full of TV critics gathered for the winter press tour.

Lopez showed up to garner some exposure for her new reality series, which premieres at 10:30 Monday (Jan. 15) on MTV. Of course, we wanted more from the recently reclusive Lopez.

Like, how has she successfully avoided the tabloid tango for the last couple of years?

“My life for me had become uncomfortable in the way it was affecting my personal life and the people in it, and so I decided that I needed to take a look at that and my own
responsibility in that,’’ Lopez says. And I realize there was a way to pull back from it in the way I lived. It was an adjustment and a compromise, but I found a way to do it.’’

And, she says, it wasn’t really that difficult to become a more private person with her husband, singer Marc Anthony.

“You don’t go out as much. You choose different places to go.’’ Lopez says. “You know, if you want to be in those magazines, you can. And if you don’t, you don’t have to be.’’

She says she decided to pull back a little, to go underground and work on some passion projects like her two new albums and her two new movies being released this year.

“This year, I’ll be out there a little bit more since I have that stuff coming out,’’ Lopez says.

She’s particularly proud of “DanceLife’’ because she started her career as a dancer. The eight-episode series follows the lives of six dancers tring to break into the world of professional dance.

So does she ever go dancing with her husband?

“You know, we don’t. We are homebodies. We love music, obviously, and it’s a huge part of our lives, and I love to dance,’’ Lopez says. “We are not big club people, you know, not anymore. I had my days. “

Lopez says it was hard starting out as a dancer, and the best advice she was ever given was from her mom who told her “Don’t ever let me catch you crying.’’

“I remember calling her on my very first job I had. I went to Europe for a revue show
about Broadway, and it went overseas. And I didn’t get a solo in the show, and I was devastated. And I was the only one who didn’t. And my mom was like, “Hey, you want
to be in that business? Don’t you ever call me crying again. Good luck. ‘ ”

Tough love, Lopez says.

After her session, Lopez took off leaving her gi-nourmous Ritz Carlton Tournament of Roses suite all alone. But not for long. It was time to have a little party, MTV and Comedy Central style. The “Drawn Together,’’ “Reno 911’’ and others, including a handful of critics, made themselves at home.

Turned out to be much more fun than the too-crowded MTV party downstairs that included entertainment by the Naked Trucker. He did have a sort of jock-strap type device attached, but the damage was already done by anyone gazing on his pasty bod.

Anyway, back to J. Lo’s place.

The suite has a spiral staircase leading up to several balconies, two bedrooms with huge marble bathtubs. Downstairs was a huge living area and in each room was a plasma set. But all that was left of J. Lo was the steamer used to get the wrinkles out of the empire-waist two-tone dress (gold top, brown bottom, touched off by bronze shoes) that she wore for the session.

She was only in the suite for about a half hour, but the non-home bodies were still partying well after midnight.