Why Jennifer Lopez ditched Madonna, Britney Spears’ MTV VMAs performance 

Jennifer Lopez missed out on Britney Spears and Madonna’s iconic 2003 VMAs kiss because she was working on a movie.

“I was working on a movie, ‘Shall We Dance,’ at the same time, and they just wouldn’t let me out of the movie,” Lopez told Andy Cohen during Monday’s episode of “Watch What Happens Live.”

The “Office Romance” star, now 56, divulged that she was set to perform alongside the iconic singers in a sultry medley performance of “Like a Virgin” — a role that ultimately went to Christina Aguilera.

“We rehearsed and everything,” Lopez told Cohen, noting that she “went to Madonna’s house” to prepare for the performance.

“It was me, her and Britney,” Lopez recalled. “She was playing her guitar, and we were singing.”

Though it was the kiss between Madonna, now 67, Spears, now 44, and Aguilera, now 45, that made the performance unforgettable, Lopez said she didn’t rehearse an onstage smooch.

“But [Madonna] said that that’s what she wanted to do,” Lopez divulged. “It was a thing, like, ‘We’re going to get married, I’m going to be the groom, you guys are going to sing.’ I was the one who was going to come out first and sing ‘Like a Virgin.’”

The “Jenny From the Block” hitmaker confessed that she couldn’t “really remember what it was, but it was something like that.”

Though staff on the set of “Shall We Dance” allowed her “on the weekend to go meet with” Madonna, Lopez said, they ultimately wouldn’t let her “out of the movie to do the actual show.”

Reps for Madonna and Spears did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment on Tuesday.

The finished product saw Spears, Madonna and Aguilera take the stage in wedding-themed attire for performances of “Like a Virgin” and “Hollywood,” culminating in a three-way kiss that left audiences breathless.

Finally, Missy Elliott joined the trio with her hit “Work It.”

In January 2022, Madonna said during an Instagram Live that she wanted to re-enact the kiss with Spears while on tour, saying, “Hell yeah! Stadium, baby! Me and Britney, what about that?”

Several months later, in June 2022, Spears locked lips with Madonna while celebrating her marriage to Sam Asghari.