Being a judge on American Idol has catapulted Jennifer Lopez’s fame into the stratosphere, but Lopez hinted this morning on the Today show that she might be ready to walk away.
But then again, she might not be.
Lopez’s hesitations came just hours before Steven Tyler released a statement in his own inimitable style saying he was walking away from the show after two years as a judge.
“After some long … hard … thoughts … I’ve decided it’s time for me to let go of my mistress ‘American Idol’ before she boils my rabbit,” Tyler said in a statement on Thursday. “I strayed from my first love, Aerosmith, and I’m back—but instead of begging on my hands and knees, I’ve got two fists in the air and I’m kicking the door open with my band.”
As she sat on the Today set, Lopez seemed torn by the decision because she said it would be heart-breaking either way.
“It’s been on my mind a lot, as you can imagine,” she admitted in an interview with Natalie Morales. “You know, I signed on to ‘American Idol’ to do one year, and … I wound up doing the two years. And now it’s like, ‘OK, do we continue on this journey?’ I’ve loved it so much. I enjoy the show so much. I enjoy just the whole process of the show and the whole thing. So it’s a tough decision either way. But I have to say that there are so many other things that I do, and that I put on hold for that. At the end of the day, whichever way, it’s a heartbreaking decision if I’m going to have to go.”
After 11 seasons, with the Idol franchise still drawing immense attention—if not quite the gaudy ratings numbers of its early years—there is much glare on the judges table as there is on the Idol stage. With speculation strong that either Lopez or Tyler or both might be leaving, many celebrity names have been bandied about as possible replacements—names such as Adam Lambert, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Fergie, will.i.am and Katy Perry have been said to be in the running.
“I know everybody wants that definite ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and … all I can let you in on is my own thought process with it, because that’s where I truly am,” Lopez insisted on Today. “And the truth is, I love everybody. I love all the guys on the show. I love the family that’s there. Like I said, I’ve just enjoyed it so much. But I am thinking that maybe it’s time for me to go and do other things that I really love to do.”
But just in case that last line sounded a little too certain, she added, “But then again I really love the show. So…”
Lopez fans can catch her voice in “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” which hits theaters nationwide tomorrow.
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