Jennifer Lopez gets away from breakup with Marc Anthony

• Reprints

Jennifer Lopez performs on the TV show “Wetten, dass...?” (Let’s Make a Bet) on the Island of Mallorca last month. | Jaime REINA~Getty Images

Article Extras

Updated: July 20, 2011 2:38PM

Jennifer Lopez is handling her breakup with Marc Anthony by running away — at least in a sense.

The superstar has agreed to do a number of high-paying gigs around the world — including the one Tuesday night in the Ukraine, where she was to perform at a special wedding party of 300 guests, reportedly taking home a paycheck of nearly $1 million.

“She knows that by being out of the country as much as possible — especially in remote areas where there isn’t the media attention like in L.A. or New York or Miami — she will get some degree of privacy right now. She’s hurting bad. This has been an emotional disaster for her,” a good J. Lo source tells me.

† The actress and singer reportedly is trying to throw herself into her work as a way to get her mind off her personal crisis right now, “although once she’s off a stage or not working on a project, she can hardly forget about what’s going on in her life,” said the source.

“Jennifer is very family-oriented. Despite the problems she and Marc have faced in the past year or so, she really thought they would work through it all, thanks to counseling. … When that didn’t work, it seemed like there was no other alternative than divorce.”

HE SAID WHAT! I’m hearing Mila Kunis is not happy about statements made by a “Friends With Benefits” screenwriter that are fueling the rumor she and her “Friends” co-star Justin Timberlake had (or are having?) a fling.

Co-writer Keith Merryman told the New York Post the two stars “have such amazing chemistry, everyone is questioning, ‘What is going on?’

“Is it art? Is it life?”

Kunis and Timberlake have gone out of their way to deny their relationship during filming — or since — has been anything but a professional one.

FILM FOCUS: Congrats to former Sun-Times colleague-turned-author Robert Kurson for having Emmy-winning screenwriter Adam Mazer set to adapt his book Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure and the Man Who Dared to See into a film — produced by the team behind “Black Swan.”

Kurson’s book chronicles the journey of Mike May, a man blinded at age 3 who regained his vision at 46 following experimental surgery involving stem cells.

Before restoring his sight, May had quite the life — not allowing his blindness to prevent him from breaking world skiing records, joining the CIA and becoming a successful entrepreneur. Kurson also will serve as an executive producer on the project.

Mazer won an Emmy last year for penning the HBO drama “You Don’t Know Jack,” starring Al Pacino as suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kervorkian.

† Former Chicagoan George Tillman Jr. (“Men of Honor,” “Notorious,” “Faster”) is attached to direct a movie about the “worst boxer of all time” — the luckless fighter Peter Buckley, who retired with a win after his 300th bout in 2008, still saddled with a lopsided 44-256 record.

EIGHT IS GREAT? Looks like the final “Harry Potter” flick may finally get a best picture nomination, something the Academy hasn’t granted the previous seven films.

In fact, while the earlier “Harry” flicks have received a total of nine nominations, they all were for technical categories, and not one nod resulted in an Oscar to grace someone’s mantle.

However, Hollywood insiders say the record-breaking box office of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” — combined with terrific reviews — may finally score the wizardly wonder a best picture nomination come next year.

BOOK BIT: Among the items going up for sale at Leslie Hindman’s upcoming auction of rare books and manuscripts is a beat-up copy of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe.

But this isn’t just any battered old book — it was owned by famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, the subject of that great 2002 film “Frida” starring Salma Hayek.

Kahlo covered the book with all kinds of doodles, inscriptions, paint and collaged leaves — her way to create a dialogue with Poe’s poetry. That’s one reason the tome is expected to sell for more than $20,000 at the Aug. 9 auction.

SPECIAL SPEAKER: Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s longtime close advisor and first White House press secretary, will keynote the annual “Voices and Visions” speaker series at St. Xavier University — scheduled for Oct. 20.

Gibbs follows a distinguished lineup of previous speakers, including former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Gen. Colin Powell, ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and journalist Cokie Roberts.