This year’s Governors Ball in Los Angeles centered on Tom Cruise collecting an honor, but the real storyline happened behind the scenes.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez, two A-list fixtures whose names have long been tied together through history, headlines, and one very memorable interview, appear to have officially moved past decades of rumored tension.
The pair were both at the star-packed event on Sunday evening, where they delivered full red carpet glamour, an almost symbolic prelude to what’s coming next. According to a source who spoke to the Daily Mail, the actresses are now firmly on good terms. “They are doing OK, they are friends,” the insider said. “There is no frost, no bad vibes, they are good.”
That soft reset couldn’t be better timed. On December 3, Paltrow and Lopez will be in each other’s company once again, this time at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Women in Entertainment breakfast gala at The Beverly Hills Hotel.
Both are set to receive major honors. Lopez will be handed the Equity in Entertainment Award, while Paltrow will take home the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award, which recognizes women who have reshaped Hollywood at the executive level and on screen.
Their renewed warmth has been quietly building in recent years. When Lopez married Ben Affleck in 2022, Paltrow publicly reacted with good wishes, commenting, “Love is in the air.”
It was a surprisingly lighthearted moment from someone who once shared both a relationship and red carpet era with Affleck. Paltrow and Affleck dated on and off from 1997 to 2000, co-starring in 'Shakespeare' in Love and Bounce before officially ending things in 2000.
Lopez, of course, has her own long timeline with Affleck. The Oscar winner and pop superstar first dated from 2002 to 2004 after meeting on the set of Gigli and famously becoming engaged before ending their relationship in early 2004. They rekindled their romance in 2021, married in July 2022, and later filed for divorce in August 2024, with their split finalized in early 2025.
Those shared romantic histories became part of Hollywood lore, but the tension between Paltrow and Lopez dates back even further. In 1998, Lopez gave a now-legendary Movieline interview.
At the time, the singer was promoting 'Selena' and speaking openly about her place among Hollywood’s brightest actresses. When asked about Paltrow, Lopez was blunt. “Tell me what she's been in? I swear to God, I don't remember anything she was in,” she told the magazine. “Some people get hot by association. I heard more about her and Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work.”
The comment created a media firestorm and followed both women for years. Lopez also weighed in on other major actresses of the era, including Cameron Diaz, Madonna, Winona Ryder, and Salma Hayek.
Just one year later, in 1999, Paltrow won the Best Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, a full-circle moment that many saw as a response to her critics. Around the same time, she was attending awards shows with Affleck, who was at the height of his early fame.
Despite the complicated histories, insiders now say the women have long shared more common ground than conflict. Both train with celebrity fitness expert Tracy Anderson. Both have built expansive, second-chapter careers spanning beauty, wellness, and lifestyle ventures. And both seem more interested in celebrating their longevity than revisiting the messy corners of late-90s celebrity culture.
The source also told the Daily Mail that Affleck’s ex-wife Jennifer Garner remains friendly with both women. “There is no tension among them even though they have been with the same guy,” the insider said. Garner, who married Affleck in 2005 and separated from him in 2015, has long been known for her diplomatic presence in Hollywood’s circles.