Jennifer Lopez To Star In Plan B, Continues The Grand Tradition Of Mindless Rom-Coms

Jennifer Lopez is practically a shoe-in for an Oscar now that she’s been cast in her latest romantic comedy, Plan B. Hijinx ensue when a single woman, played by Lopez, becomes pregnant through artificial insemination, only to meet the fantastically potent man of her dreams on the same day. Zany!

Producers do not yet have a director, nor a leading actor. God, who are they kidding. It’ll star Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn. One of the producers, Todd Black, thinks the movie will have appeal for people of all genders as long as they’re just below being considered functionally retarded:

“I’m really aiming to make a movie that’s relatable to men and women. They can laugh super-hard and walk away being OK with their choices.”

No one should be ok with the fact they paid something around 12 bucks to see a Jennifer Lopez film. Interestingly enough, this news comes out right on the heels of a study out of Edinburgh, Scotland’s Heriot Watt University that claims romantic comedies can — and will — ruin your life. The study found that fans of rom-coms are often not good at communicating with their respective partners and have unrealistic expectations when its comes to their relationships.

Interestingly, of the 40 movies researchers used in their study, one happened to be Jennifer Lopez’s craptacular Maid in Manhattan - a story of love, longing and deeply-rooted class envy. Says the university’s own Dr. Bjarne Holmes:

“Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.”

“We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people’s minds.”

“The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise.”

Ideals like the concept of love at first sight, destined partners, being rescued from undesirable circumstances by love or the dream of having a “happily ever after” are exactly why we’ve, personally, never been able to watch romantic comedies…. Except that time we were dumped and really, really wanted to believe in something like love eventually conquering all. Then we developed things like friends and hobbies and got over it.

The real danger in romantic comedies, however, can lie in how they package this distorted sense of reality and unattainable ideals for relationships almost exclusively to young women. More often than not, the leading actress — regardless of her career, friends, family life or personal interests — feels complete only when she is finally united with “the one” - who is almost always an attractive, successful, slightly older man. He also, we’ve noticed, usually happens to be white, regardless of the leading lady’s race or ethnicity, thus subtly cementing the racist idea of “dating up.”

Yeah, we’re looking at you, Miss Maid in Manhattan.

What do you think about romantic comedies, though? Are they a mostly harmless form of entertainment, or increasingly out-dated, formulaic movies best ignored when picking what to watch on a Saturday night?

Jennifer Lopez pencils in ‘Plan B’ [Hollywood Reporter]
Rom-coms ’spoil your love life’ [BBC]