Scammers are having a major moment, and Jennifer Lopez wants in.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lopez has joined Hustlers, an upcoming Annapurna production about strippers who con their wealthy Wall Street clients out of oodles of cash. Based on The Cut article "Hustlers At Scores," the movie will star Jenny from the block as an exotic dancer and leader of a group of women who will do anything to get what they're owed. The Cut's article reveals that "anything" includes drugging strip club clients with ketamine and MDMA, so that they would conveniently forget how much they "tipped" the dancers.
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In addition to starring in the upcoming film, Lopez will executive produce alongside her producing partner, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas.
The film will be more than just a look at this wild scam. According to writer Lorene Scafaria, the movie will explore the gender dynamics not only of the strip club where Lopez's character works, but of the world as a whole.
"The film is an empathetic look at women and men, our gender roles, what we’re valued for, what we’ve been told is our value in every movie, TV show, every corner of culture. Men have been told they're worth the size of their bank accounts. Women have been told they’re worth the symmetry of their faces, their bodies, their beauty and that’s what this film is based on. The rules of the club are the rules of the world," Scafaria told The Hollywood Reporter of the movie.
This stripper scam is just one of several others making its way into pop culture. Shonda Rhimes is tackling the case of New York City grifter Anna Delvey in her first series under her new Netflix deal, while Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are producing a movie about the man who conned McDonald's out of Monopoly money. (A far more serious crime than it sounds.)
If there's anyone who knows how to hustle, it's a never-stopping superstar like Lopez, who will next star in workplace comedy Second Act and continues her work on NBC's Shades of Blue, now in its final season. Let's see how she makes this particular scammer her own.