J Lo's three down, but not out

Get ready, guys, J Lo is on the loose again. And she's fixing her sights on finding a fourth husband.

Voted the girl with the best bum in the world, Jennifer Lopez says the collapse of her marriage does not mean she has given up on love.

The actress and singer has had a tough time in the love stakes, with two marriages and high-profile romances with Sean "P Diddy" Combs and Ben Affleck hitting the rocks.

Now she has announced that her marriage to singer Marc Anthony is headed for the divorce courts.

Yet the voluptuous star is far from down and out. In an interview with Vanity Fair, due to be published on Tuesday, she says that although "marriage is hard", she still believes in love.

She goes on: "Sometimes it doesn't work - and that's sad. But I remain an eternal optimist about love ... it's still my biggest dream."

We all have our own perceptions of beauty, yet few people can dispute that this lady oozes sex appeal. She has that Latina charm that makes men go a little wobbly at the knees and the flawless complexion that women ache for. And she reveals almost all in Vanity Fair, where she's photographed nude apart from a fur coat and slinky gold sandals.

But what is it that makes it difficult for her to stay in a marriage? With three down, perhaps she'll end up with the most-married mantle held so long by Elizabeth Taylor. At the moment, there are at least two stars ahead of her: Liza Minnelli has four divorces under her belt and Joan Collins is already on her fifth husband.

Yet J Lo says she truly loved Anthony. She says they made magic together, but she decided to leave the marriage when she realised he wasn't "good" for her.

That's fair enough, but don't you just love how the celebrities put out statements shortly after they split up claiming huge respect for their ex-partners? They speak glowingly of what wonderful parents and lovers they were and then, breathlessly, beg for "privacy" to sort out their "differences".

The statements leave one totally confused as to why they are splitting up if all is so lovey-dovey. But it doesn't take too long for the knives to come out and for the break-up to become a vicious public brawl.

The omens are not good for J Lo. Her last marriage to dancer Cris Judd ended rather painlessly after only a year, and she was able to move on to high-profile relationships.

But she has had continuing battles with her first husband, Ojani Noa. She took him to court to prevent him publishing a book about their marriage and unveiling a tape that apparently shows them having sex.

I don't know if anything like that will happen here, but it's likely once the reasons behind the collapse dribble out. Here's my interpretation. For the first few years of their seven-year marriage, she spent most of the time at his side, even going on tours with him. She says: "I wasn't working, it was mainly about him." Then she fell pregnant and the second part of their lives together was about their two children. Then she started working again.

She became the darling of a whole new generation as a judge on American Idol . Get the drift? Our hero could not bear playing second fiddle to his ever-popular wife , leading him to start undermining her self-confidence. J Lo admits that she could not stay married once she realised she was not being treated in the right way. She says: "I love myself enough to walk away from that now."

News of the split has made ripples in Hollywood circles, where couples seem to be staying together for far longer than in the past.

Who would have believed that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would still be kissing and cuddling? And now they are even talking of walking down the aisle. It's outrageous by Hollywood standards. Such longevity in the public eye was once the reserve of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

Now there are scores of them happily together, ranging from Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffiths, who have notched up 15 years together, and Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith. Even the handsomest star of them all, Johnny Depp, is the father of two children and happily living with French actress Vanessa Paradis. And, like Brangelina, they live in a chateau in France, away from the bright lights of Hollywood.

J Lo won't be short of suitors. For one, she is fiscally fabulous (that means rich). She's one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and the highest-paid Latin actress in Hollywood history.

We're talking $15-million for a movie. And a few million more from her singing career and an estimated $12-million for her judging stint on American Idol. The cash is certainly rolling in.

Ironically, as her own marriage split was being announced, she was singing at a wedding in the Ukraine. This private show netted her $1-million.

That would have taken her mind off her marital troubles for a minute or two, don't you think?