(Picture: Columbia/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
The most delightfully unexpected reunion took place over the weekend as two co-stars of a classic 00s rom-com appeared together at a glitzy Hollywood event, 22 years later.
Conclave Oscar contender Ralph Fiennes, 62, presented his former Maid in Manhattan co-star Jennifer Lopez, 55, with a special gong at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Saturday.
Lopez was being honoured with Variety’s Legend & Groudbreakers award in honour of her recent film Unstoppable, as well as the breadth of her decades-long career so far.
The two famously starred together in the soapy rom-com about a politician and a single mother who meet by chance at the New York hotel where he’s staying – and she works.
As Ralph remembered: ‘Once upon a time in another life and perhaps in a different epoch of movie storylines, there was this Republican senatorial candidate mooching about in a hotel in Manhattan, and there was as well in this same other life a maid in this hotel.’
‘This wannabe Republican senator was struck by her good looks, but he couldn’t quite truly see her. This maid was masking something in her demure and mindful way. She was sweet and charming, but actually she was concealing something. She was hiding a kind of superpower,’ he added.
(Picture: Vivien Killilea/Variety via Getty Images)
(Picture: Vivien Killilea/Variety via Getty Images)
(Picture: Emma McIntyre/Variety via Getty Images)
He went on to praise the ‘unstoppable’ force inside Lopez, and how she is ‘honouring and fulfilling her extraordinary creative spirit, and sharing it, shining a light on the lives of so many people, inspiring them and brightening their days’ with her career.
The star, who warmly embraced him onstage when she got up to receive her award, later revealed his words had choked her up.
‘I cannot thank you enough Ralph Fiennes for your beautiful words and for our little Maid in Manhattan reunion today. It was wonderful to see you. You brought tears to my eyes. (That’s why I was sniffling through my whole speech LOL),’ she wrote.
‘I love you. Thank you so much… working with you was one of the great highlights of my career so far,’ the actress and singer continued.
(Picture: Barry Wetcher/Columbia/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
(Picture: Barry Wetcher/Columbia/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
‘I say so far because I hope I get to do it again someday soon for Maid in Manhattan 2…You never know…’
This tease was met with a wave of excitement from fans in the comments.
‘Did THEE legend just say maid in Manhattan 2 maybe?😏 We need that,’ insisted fan Chloe JLover in the comments, while Leah added: ‘Maid In Manhattan 2 ?? OH YES PLEASE I AM ALREADY SEATED.’
‘Legends 💯 We need Maid in Manhattan 2! ‘ agreed Andre Husada, as Camila Naiara Mota chimed in with: ‘Maid in Manhattan 2. Omg I need.’
(Picture: Everett/Rex/Shutterstock)
Eri Ishizu also praised it as ‘the most iconic romcom movie’, which @divojb seconded, commenting: ‘Maid in Manhattan has got to be one of the most romantic movies ever made!’
Lopez starred as Marisa Ventura in Maid in Manhattan, a New York born-and-raised single mother who works as a maid in a first-class Manhattan hotel.
By a magical twist of fate – and a classic rom-com case of mistaken identity – Marisa meets Christopher Marshall (Fiennes), heir to a political dynasty, who believes that she is a guest at the hotel after he sees her trying on a wealthy woman’s dress.
(Picture: Erik Pendzich/Rex/Shutterstock)
The pair is thrown together for a magical night of romance, before Marisa’s true identity is revealed and the two find that they are worlds apart.
Directed by Wayne Wang, Lopez and Fiennes were joined n the cast by the late Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, Bob Hoskins, Frances Conroy, Amy Sedaris and Teen Wolf’s Tyler Posey as Marisa’s son Ty.
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