Alibi (ITV1)

Jennifer Lopez: The Story (five)

THERE was no doubt that Graham loved his wife. "I think it's beautiful, so are you, stuff the mortage," he told wife Linda, handing her an expensive necklace for their 20th wedding anniversary.

To be strictly accurate, it was their 19th. He arranged the surprise party this year as he feared he'd be bankrupt by the time they reached two decades of marriage.

A bigger surprise awaited Marcia, a waitress with the catering company, when she returned to the house later to retrieve the bag she'd left behind. She found Graham dragging a body across the hall. The corpse was that of the man she's seen affectionately and secretly holding Linda's hand earlier that evening.

Alibi was a different kind of thriller to writer Paul Abbott's last one, the excellent State Of Play, and only half as good - which still made it better than most. It was part Hitchcock thriller, as Marcia helped Graham cover up the death, and part odd couple romance. Spread over two nights, it was also too long, despite sterling work by Michael Kitchen as the bumbling Graham.

There were no surprises in Jennifer Lopez: The Story, an efficient cut-and-paste job chronicling the rise to diva-dom of J-Lo or whatever she's calling herself this week. The clips we saw of her being interviewed showed a performer with "talent, beauty and a taste for bad boys" who changed her images as often as her lovers.

We learnt from schoolfriends that if "there was anything to do with theatre and dance", the girl from the Castle Hill area of the Bronx was first in line. She's always been ambitious to the extent that she quit college and suffered a rift with her parents rather than train as the lawyer they wanted her to be.

"There are people who have that look in their eye - they want this big prize and are determined to get it," noted one person she passed on her climb up the fame ladder.

She's succeeded with four platinum albums, six US number ones, $270m at the movie box office, and a bottom insured for $1m to her credit.

And that's the bottom line with Lopez - her behind is what sticks out about her. If the answer to the question, "Does my bum look big in this?" isn't "yes", then she's disappointed.

Despite success as performer, recording artist and movie star, she has yet to find lasting happiness in her love life. Her first husband was a waiter, her second was one of her backing dancers. Then there was Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Sean Coombs (why do singers feel the need to keep changing their name?) She stuck by him during a gun scandal, then dumped him when she discovered he was cheating on her.

Actor Ben Affleck is her current companion (at time of writing - but things change quickly with Lopez, so he might be ex by now). A psychologist was produced to say that as he's as big a star as her, the relationship has a better chance of lasting.

I doubt it somewhow. I'm with Martin Geeson, senior editor of GQ magazine, who said: "Despite all the money and being incredibly beautiful, she still can't keep a guy. So she must be such a pain in that big arse."

Published: ??/??/2003