Once upon a time, a hard-working girl from the Bronx went to Manhattan and fell for a handsome Prince Charming, creating a media firestorm everywhere she went.

That’s the Cliffs Notes version of the new Jennifer Lopez movie, Maid in Manhattan, but, in a madcap case of life imitating art, it’s also The Jennifer Lopez Story as it was playing out all around New York City last summer.

On a sweltering 90-degree day in mid-July, the woman with the world’s most famous posterior (clad in a gray maid’s uniform) is sitting in a park beside a midtown Manhattan church with her producer and former agent, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, pondering the insanity of it all. “ ‘J.Lonely!’ Hello! Did you see that one?” Lopez shouts, amazed at that morning’s New York Post item quoting a “pal” of her ex, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. “They hear a story and they just put it in. I didn’t even know I was going to the Hamptons this weekend! But I was calling people to come with me! ’Cause I’m lonely!” She laughs. “They basically said you were calling anybody you ever met,” says Goldsmith-Thomas, also laughing, “and nobody wanted to!” “I’m calling them nonstop, no less!” Lopez howls, picking up steam. “Nonstop!” “You’re a loser!” Goldsmith-Thomas fires back. Across the street, a photographer snaps the women sitting together. “This will be in the paper tomorrow,” Goldsmith-Thomas says, only half joking.

These longtime friends clearly relished the irony: It would be only a matter of days before it was confirmed that J.Lo was anything but lonely, thanks to Ben Affleck, her costar in the recently wrapped Gigli and soon-to-be-shot Jersey Girl. Within a week, the paparazzi would descend on the set to catch him coming out of her trailer. Just as they had swarmed weeks before, during reports of her separation from husband Cris Judd. And just as the fictional press was chasing her in today’s scene, eager to capture images of her character with a hot Senate candidate, played by Ralph Fiennes. “It’s a hall of mirrors,” admits director Wayne Wang.

“Most of the press on this film has been really supportive of us,” Goldsmith-Thomas says, as Fiennes chats nearby with Wang. “I mean, everyone takes potshots, ’cause potshots are sexier.” “But it’s still mean to take them,” Lopez says softly. “But she doesn’t care,” her friend replies. Agree that she seems to be handling it well, and Lopez’s Bronx-bred sassiness comes out in full force. “I don’t care—I’m a bitch,” she snaps, suddenly adopting a steely gaze.

Lopez can be forgiven for having a moment, especially one that seems to parody her reputation as a diva. Aside from personal upheaval, this summer she has faced constant script revisions, a near-riot by her fans on location, and nonstop press scrutiny, all with what appears to be amazing aplomb. And these are just a few of the many twists and turns her production has survived on its way to the screen.

The fairy tale began at the turn of the century, when teen film auteur John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) contacted Joe Roth, founder of the new Revolution Studios. “He said, ‘I’m writing this script, kind of a Cinderella story called The Chambermaid,’ ” recalls Roth. The plot revolved around a Chicago maid who steals a dress from the hotel where she works, then sneaks off to an exclusive party where she meets a European royal. Roth bought it, but the biggest news was that after a decade of simply writing and producing family films like Flubber and Baby’s Day Out, Hughes wanted to return to the director’s chair (his last effort was 1991’s Curly Sue). The two began shopping the project around to several A-list actresses, including Roth’s friend Julia Roberts, who passed. A serious flirtation with Sandra Bullock ensued. “She wanted some work done on the material that John felt uncomfortable committing to do until she committed,” Roth says. Bullock dropped out shortly thereafter.

Next up: Hilary Swank. “She was certainly interested, and we were interested in having her do it,” Roth says. Press reports claimed Hughes dropped out of directing while Bullock was considering the project, then changed his mind during talks with Swank. “I don’t know if John ever came back in,” Roth says now. “John is a very particular guy, and unless he tells me he’s absolutely going to do something as a director, my assumption is he’s [just] going to write or produce it. If, in fact, John was going to [direct], we were talking about doing it with Hilary.” It was not to be: Swank ended up signing for Insomnia in early 2001, and “we decided to go in kind of a bigger, more commercial way with Jennifer,” says Roth.

Roth handed the project over to Goldsmith-Thomas, whom he’d hired to head his studio’s New York branch. She had read the script when she was Roberts’s agent, and she felt it would be the right film to simultaneously launch her division and Roberts’s production company (now named Red Om Films), and harness the talents of another former client, Lopez. “I decided the script needed a rewrite,” she says. “We sort of tailored it for Jennifer.” It became the tale of Marisa Ventura, a single mother from the Bronx who works as a maid in an upscale Manhattan hotel. “I had the Bronx, Puerto Rican part down,” Lopez deadpans. While cleaning the room of a condescending socialite (Natasha Richardson), she tries on a Dolce & Gabbana pantsuit and accidentally attracts the attention of Christopher Marshall (Fiennes), a suave Republican from a political dynasty. A romantic comedy of mistaken identity unfolds as he pursues her, under the watchful eyes of Marisa’s precocious son (Tyler Garcia Posey), her supportive coworkers (Bob Hoskins, Frances Conroy, and Marissa Matrone), and Marshall’s antsy adviser (Stanley Tucci). “[Jennifer and I] were making up a story, never thinking it was going to really happen,” Goldsmith-Thomas says. “Then I typed up a 49-page treatment and gave it to Jennifer.” Says Lopez, “That’s when everybody knew that we had a solid thing.”

Well, not quite everybody. After Goldsmith-Thomas told Hughes her ideas for the script, he dropped out of the film altogether. (The Garboesque Hughes declined to comment except through his lawyer, Jake Bloom, who says he left “because of the direction

Revolution wanted to take the picture.”) After securing her star, Goldsmith-Thomas traveled to San Francisco to meet with Wayne Wang. “She basically told me the whole movie in an hour and a half, in real time,” Wang says. Though he has directed both indie comedies (Smoke, Eat a Bowl of Tea) and studio dramas (The Joy Luck Club, Anywhere But Here) since his $22,000 breakthrough, Chan Is Missing, two decades ago, he might not seem the obvious choice for a $50 million romantic comedy. “[Elaine] wanted to make a very down-to-earth, character-driven comedy,” Wang says. “She was also interested in the upstairs-downstairs aspect of the hotel, and she said I’ve shown I could do hat very well.” He had just finished the digital video drama The Center of the World, which examines an Internet tycoon’s paid tryst with a stripper in Vegas. “Elaine keeps saying she hired me because I did porn,” he jokes.