J.LO PUTS HER HEART INTO ROLE OF TORMENTED SALSA KING'S WIFE.

Byline: SANDRA BARRERA

>LA.COM 

After reading the script to the Hector Lavoe biopic "El Cantante" six years ago, Jennifer Lopez says Marc Anthony immediately sprang to mind.

And for obvious reasons.

"Oh, I don't know, he's Puerto Rican, a salsa singer, he looks like him -- it's too perfect," says Lopez, all dolled up in a formless Dior on Tuesday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Lopez, now married to Anthony, was there to promote her new film that brings the pioneering salsa singer's story to life through the eyes of his widow, Nilda "Puchi" Lavoe.

Anthony plays Hector Lavoe while Lopez plays Puchi.

Before her death in 2002, Puchi was interviewed for the film by the screenwriters with the hopes that her character would be played by Lopez.

We asked Lopez about her connection to the feisty spouse.

Did you ever get to meet Puchi?

No, I didn't. I got the script and literally a couple months later, she died. It was really weird. I was like, 'Oh I want to meet her.' And I remember that was one of the first things that I said to my manager at the time. And then I went off and did whatever I was doing at the time, traveling a lot with the 'J.Lo' album and all that kind of stuff, and next thing I knew, Puchi died.

There doesn't seem to be a lot written about her.

Not so much. She would hide from the camera, you know what I mean? She didn't need that. But she was definitely a strong presence in that world. All the other musicians knew her, she was very tough -- just what you have to be when you marry a guy like Hector. You've got to keep him in line a little bit. These musicians are crazy!

Do you think she truly loved Hector?

Yes. It's just like with anybody, you know what I mean? You love somebody, but you love them for certain reasons.

I think she truly fell in love with Hector. But I also think that the fact that he was a singer was very intriguing to her. She zeroed in on this guy who was going to get her to where she wanted to be. But I honestly, honestly believe you don't stay in a relationship that's that difficult if you don't truly love somebody.

She wasn't so loved by the people they surrounded themselves with.

I spoke to a lot of people, and it's funny, everybody loved Hector and everybody kind of hated Puchi.

Why do you suppose?

Because she was always there, because she didn't let him get away with anything, because she was tough and abrasive. But at the end of the day, having a husband on drugs who she'd literally have to pull out of crack houses and clean up and put on stage takes a certain kind of character to do that over and over again and still find the joy and happiness in life.

Director Leon Ichaso said Puchi wasn't originally a very prominent character. But it's become her story.

It was her version of the story like she says in the beginning. And it's funny because that was an ad-libbed line that I did and I thought it was genius of (Leon) to use that because it really sets the tone.

If Hector was here and telling his side of the story, it might be a little different. But us, as filmmakers, made sure that we did do certain things in history that are accurate.

So yes, you're watching a movie that is true whether or not all the sentiments and emotions and feelings are all exactly accurate.

This is definitely Puchi's feeling, and I used all of her tapes and her firsthand account of how she saw things to bring those interviews to life.

You got the original "El Cantante" script back in 2001. Was there something that particularly grabbed you?

The combination of story and the music, where that music came from was so much from his story and what his life was that I knew it was going to be a real beautiful, tragic portrait of an artist, and I just felt like that had some worth and value. And also exposing people to Hector and his music, you know what I mean? That's really one of the great joys of it for me.

Is it true you didn't know much about Hector Lavoe going into the project?

Well, it's like when I did the movie 'Selena,' I knew her songs and I knew of her but I didn't know know, you know what I mean? I was so young, and he wasn't an artist I was following at the time.

But you eventually discovered his music?

Yeah, and I'm glad I did. It's like, you see a Daddy Yankee or a Fat Joe with Hector Lavoe on their T-shirt and you know why, you know what I mean? It was the sound of it, it was the greatness of it. It had a street quality, but at the same time it was like symphonies.

It was everything you wanted music to be when you're just a regular person working 9 to 5, struggling. Somebody understands what you're going through.

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

[e-mail]

His own song sounds like 'El Cantante's'

One script.

That's all it took for Todd Anthony Bello, a 42-year-old from Palmdale, to change his luck from an alcoholic/substance abuser camping out on motel rooftops to a bona fide Hollywood screenwriter who's now clean and sober.

"I'm living a dream, and it's because of Jennifer Lopez," Bello says by phone before boarding a plane headed for New York to attend the star-studded premiere of the film "El Cantante."

Bello and his partner, David Darmstaedter, wrote the original screenplay for the biopic about pioneering salsa singer Hector Lavoe.

They later sold the rights to Lopez.

For Bello, it was the first of six successful attempts at screenwriting -- he collaborated with Darmstaedter on the gambling comedy "The Big Six," and is working on another project about a dysfunctional Italian family -- after years of hard times that he says were brought on by bipolar disorder.

"I smoked my first joint at 11 because I didn't fit in," he says. "Now all of a sudden, I fit in."

The Woodland Hills native says he dropped out of high school in 10th grade, enrolled in acting school and eventually became a disc jockey at stations in New York, Chicago and Dallas.

While working at local top-40 giant KIIS-FM, his alcoholism and substance abuse hit an all-time high and ultimately cost him his job, Bello says.

"There would be a big appearance that I'd have to show up to, and instead I'd be somewhere off in the bushes getting high," he says. "It's the most depressing thing to do in the world, and all the while I was going to Alcoholic Anonymous meetings."

His addiction got so out of hand that his family and friends stopped letting him crash on their couches. He then found cheap motels.

Around this time, he met Darmstaedter through a mutual friend.

The two hit it off so well that when Darmstaedter was approached to write the "El Cantante" script, the L.A.-based playwright brought along Bello as his writing partner.

Going in, Bello knew nothing about the Puerto Rican singer born Hector Juan Perez Martinez -- or his destructive drug habit.

But he could relate.

"The whole thing about doing drugs to enhance your creativity is a lie," he says. "It kills you."

Bello and Darmstaedter did extensive interviews with the people who best knew Lavoe, including his wife, Puchi.

Before her death in 2002, she regaled them with incredible stories, like the time she fetched her husband from a shooting gallery, cleaned him up in the car and delivered him to Madison Square Garden for a show -- a scene that opens the movie.

There were also stories of Santeria rituals, foiled suicide attempts and the accidental shooting death of the couple's only child, although the latter story didn't come from Puchi.

"She wouldn't talk about it," Bello says, adding he isn't bothered by the movie version, in which she does.

And why should he be?

"They did my movie," he says. "So, whatever."

>S.B.

'It's an upbringing thing'

Back in his heyday, Hector Lavoe never would have been caught dead bouncing in and out of rehab like the young stars of today.

"It wasn't as acceptable as it is today to talk about what you're going through," says Marc Anthony, who stars in "El Cantante" as the doomed salsa singer. "And he had demons, boy. He had enablers."

For the rich and famous, enablers seem to come with the territory.

"It's a totally different world," he says. "I was talking to Jen (as in J.Lo) about it -- it's an upbringing thing, man," he says. "My mother would beat the (expletive) out of me till this day (for doing drugs), 75 years old ... like, 'What are you doing?' "

After releasing his debut salsa record in 1993, Anthony recalls promoters trying to pay him off with cocaine. But he never touched the stuff.

"I was brought up in this industry when it was shunned," Anthony says. "Back then it was socially acceptable -- the way of the world and all that stuff. Now it's more corporate. Now it's people parlaying their celebrity and their fame to explore other opportunities.

"It's a new day," he says, adding that he attended Lavoe's funeral. "You're not cool if you don't have a fragrance out."

>S.B.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Salsa LOVER

(2) no caption (Jennifer Lopez)

Michael Owen Baker/LA.COM

(3) Jennifer Lopez portrays Puchi Lavoe, wife of salsa legend Hector Lavoe, in "El Cantante," opening today.

(4) Growing up in Woodland Hills, "El Cantante" screenwriter Todd Anthony Bello began smoking pot at age 11. Decades of drug abuse followed.

(5) Marc Anthony said that for him, falling into drug addiction wasn't an option: His mother saw to that.

Box:

(1) His own song sounds like 'El Cantante's' (see text)

(2) 'It's an upbringing thing' (see text)