Las Vegas. Where you can marvel at fountains dancing to music each evening, gaze at a decent replica of the Eiffel Tower, wait four hours for mediocre room service and, crucially, lose your shirt.

Which is the only explanation I can think of for why Jennifer Lopez, a beautiful, accomplished A-list star, appears on stage at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace without hers. And not only is her shirt missing, Lopez seems to have lost her skirt and, clearly, her mind. There isn’t even any underwear and, my goodness, even Madonna stuck with a pointy bra all those years ago.

Now at the end of a three-month hotel ‘residency,’ Lopez performs night after night in a sheer black lace onesie, the only cover a perilously narrow landing strip along the crotch that she exposes every few seconds. The hair is long and straggly.

Lopez might be 56, but she looks little different than she did a quarter of a century ago when she wore THAT green Versace jungle dress, slit to her kidneys, the sight of which broke an infant internet. Photos of a Versace-clad Lopez at the 2000 Grammys alongside her then boyfriend, Diddy, were so searched for, that they spurred the invention of Google Images.

Arriving at the end of the stick-thin/heroin-chic Nineties, Lopez found fame at 30 with a fabulous, curvy body that was nothing short of a revelation. Back then I was editor of the Times of London’s Style Magazine, and I immediately put Lopez on the cover. Overnight, with her video for If You Want my Love — and starring role opposite George Clooney in Out of Sight — Lopez made fuller-figured women feel better about themselves.

But something must have clicked in her brain when the Versace dress went viral: the more flesh I show, the more press I get, the greater my record and ticket sales and the more relevant I am. Years later, in an interview with Vogue, she even likened her appearance in that dress to the sheer, spangled sheath Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang Happy Birthday to President John F Kennedy in 1962.

Lopez wore an updated version of the infamous frock to close out Versace’s Milan fashion show in September 2019, framing it to Vanity Fair as a personal triumph. ‘The second time I wore it… it was such an empowering thing,’ she said. ‘I think for women, knowing you can put on a dress 20 years later—it resonated. It was like, “Yes, you know, life is not over at 20!”‘

Of course it’s not over at 20! Instead, you are supposed to evolve as you age, Jennifer! You’re supposed to become more mature. Be financially secure, loved, safe, fulfilled. Remaining the same dress size for the rest of your life, that’s as unambitious as, well, hoping you reach adulthood without being run over by a bus. 

Lopez performs night after night in a sheer black lace onesie, the only cover a perilously narrow landing strip along the crotch that she exposes every few seconds (Pictured: Jennifer Lopez performing Las Vegas residency show on March 29)

Lopez seems to have lost her skirt and, clearly, her mind

Lopez might be 56, but she looks little different than she did a quarter of a century ago when she wore THAT green Versace jungle dress, slit to her kidneys, the sight of which broke an infant internet 

Lopez wore an updated version of the infamous frock to close out Versace’s Milan fashion show in September 2019, framing it to Vanity Fair as a personal triumph 

I don’t think Lopez is too old to be sexy: she’s gorgeous, without doubt. She’s also a good actress: Maid in Manhattan is one of my all-time favorite self-medicating rewatches. My dismay at her Vegas stunt is not about age, it’s about success, and how women like Lopez behave when they attain it.

Success is supposed to mean there’s no longer any need to try so hard, to expose yourself to ridicule online, of which Lopez has endured plenty. So why do it? Rich, powerful men treat themselves as they attain achievement: retire, buy yachts. 

Women? We just work harder. Is it because taking time off is simply not in our DNA? We must be servants to our children, our parents, our partner, our fans? We must never stop because, what then? Will we become irrelevant, a Jenny from the Block all over again?

Liz Jones: When I was editor of the Times of London’s Style Magazine, I immediately put Lopez on the cover

What usually happens with successful women is that our men resent us. Just watch Lopez’s fly-in-the-ointment documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told to see how this phenomenon plays out. 

I love the desperate narcissism of the film’s synopsis: Lopez’s ‘most daring project yet, producing a new album and cinematic original that explores her 20-year journey to self-love’.

The flick features her then husband Ben Affleck — whom she first dated decades ago — as brooding and whiny, hulking along the sidelines while barely managing to mumble, ‘Yeah, it’s your story but younger.’

He sought privacy, while she overly flaunted their relationship, which is always a mistake: they divorced in 2025, having called off their first wedding back in 2004. Affleck was her fourth husband.

You only have to glance at Instagram, the posts from disgruntled men saying ‘It’s Saturday morning, and all my wife wants me to do is put up shelves and paint the kitchen’ to understand that men resent women more driven than they are. Affleck clearly did: In snatched photos of ‘Bennifir’ in the months leading up to their split, he resembles a sullen teenager, reluctantly opening car doors, fetching coffee: the simmering bitterness of the chippy man-child.

Success is supposed to mean there’s no longer any need to try so hard, to expose yourself to ridicule online, of which Lopez has endured plenty (Pictured: Lopez performing Las Vegas residency show on March 29)

Woman feel that we must never stop because, what then? Will we become irrelevant, a Jenny from the Block all over again? (Pictured: Lopez performing Las Vegas residency show on March 29)

The flick features Lopez’s then husband Ben Affleck — whom she first dated decades ago — occasionally smiling, but mostly brooding and whiny

Affleck sought privacy, while Lopez overly flaunted their relationship, which is always a mistake: they divorced in 2025

I wish JLo would realize it doesn’t have to be this way: that she’s not empowering women, she’s sending us mixed messages. Lopez says she’s an icon, but still resorts to shock tactics for attention. 

She’s confident in her fab-after-50 body, but needs the rest of the world to love it as well. I wonder what her 18-year-old twins think of their mom’s antics — that we need to look exactly the same as we did when we were 30, only with even fewer clothes and far less dignity.

Years after she first appeared on the scene, I still listen to Dido without her needing to bare her bum every five seconds. And Sade has managed to become the soundtrack to passion and heartbreak while remaining classy and, crucially, fully attired. Jennifer Lopez should really watch and learn. 

Because despite stepping away from the spotlight, Sade remains as relevant as ever. JLo, meanwhile, has never been more over-exposed — sadly, in every way imaginable.