Jennifer Lopez Inks “American Idol” Deal Worth $12 Million

Jennifer Lopez has a lot of reasons to smile this days. More like 12 million reasons.

On Monday, Deadline Hollywood insiders dished that the notorious diva has sealed a $12 million to join Randy Jackson and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler at the judges’ table when American Idol premieres its 10th season in January. The move comes as A.I. producers revamp the series following the departures of judges Simon Cowell, Ellen DeGeneres, and Kara DioGuardi. Lopez wanted $15 million for her new judging duties, and a network development deal that would have also included a FOX movie. Instead, she wound up settling for the 12 million smacks in a deal that was sealed at the end of July. One of her bargaining chips was that Simon wanted her to be a judge on his upcoming X-Factor show, set to debut next fall.

Tinseltown informant Nikki Finke writes of the deal: “It was her manager Benny Medina (whom she once fired) who first orchestrated the meeting with the Idol producers in June, and, by the end of July, J-Lo accepted the offer to be a new Idol judge. Since then, she, Medina and her producing partner Simon Fields have been trying to milk the gig for all they could get from the movie studio and broadcast network/television programmer to further her stalled career in the film/TV area…..Among JLo’s demands, ‘She was angling for an overall deal at Fox, including a put picture, to keep the movie career going. But Fox said no,” one insider tells me. “In the old days, these were called a ‘vanity deal’ for good reason. They simply don’t exist today. Will Smith doesn’t have put pictures.’”