Lopez's Razzie list caps bad year

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck in happier times

Jennifer Lopez has received the most nominations in this year's Razzie awards - the anti-Oscars that honour the year's worst films. It has closed a bad year for the actress and singer.

At the beginning of 2003 Lopez had a successful romantic comedy - the hit Maid in Manhattan - and swanned into London with co-star Ralph Fiennes to premiere the film.

At the same time she was enjoying her engagement with Ben Affleck, the bona-fide Hollywood star who had starred in films such as Good Will Hunting and Pearl Harbor, who she had been dating since 2002.

Her divorce from dancer Cris Judd - whom she met on the set of one of her videos - had also been finalised. The pair had been married for only seven months.

Lopez's high-profile relationship with Affleck appeared to have given her private life some stability after her tumultuous romance with rapper Sean "P Diddy" Combs and the short-lived marriage to Judd.

But Lopez's rosy start to the year was to be short-lived.

The film where Affleck and Lopez met, the crime comedy-drama Gigli, was due for release in the US in July. The film starred Affleck as an underworld figure who begins an affair with a lesbian assassin, played by Lopez.

By that time the media were obsessed with the couple's relationship, and constantly second-guessing when they would marry.

Lopez was all smiles for Maid in Manhattan

"We are not letting anybody know when we are getting married - we're going to keep that as private as we can as far as we can," Lopez told the BBC ahead of the film's US release. Already, the pair were feeling exasperated at the press attention.

Lopez also felt worried that speculation about their private life was getting in the way of the film. It also threatened to overshadow her music career as a solo artist.

But however intense the media interest in their relationship, it did not overshadow the critics' response to the film, which was soon to have the dubious distinction of flop of the year.

The film made just £2.4m in its opening weekend in the US, after some of the worst reviews in recent film history.

One radio station in Boston, Massachusetts offered listeners a prize if they could sit through the entire film.

In September the pair called off their "imminent" wedding at the last minute, citing the pressure of media attention.

Their film, Gigli, was slated by many critics

The tabloids were full of stories of the couple breaking up and getting back together. At the same time, there were reports Gigli's disastrous reception was jeopardising another film the pair had made together, director Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl.

In December bookmakers were laying odds of 7/1 that Lopez would marry Affleck - and divorce him within the year.

In interviews Affleck was increasingly vague about a date for the couple's proposed wedding. He travelled to Europe to promote his latest film, Paycheck, on his own earlier this month.

Then last week Lopez announced the couple's relationship was over.

Almost immediately it was reported she was meeting with business managers to try and get her career back on track.

It is unlikely she will look back on 2003 with much fondness.