People: Feb. 5, 2001

THE DESPONDENT/HAPPY COUPLE

"Puffy" and "J-Lo," SEAN COMBS and JENNIFER LOPEZ to the nickname impaired, are over. Then again, Puffy and J-Lo are not over. It is an amorous seesaw that holds the nation rapt in tepid curiosity. The New York Daily News reported last week that Lopez quietly split from Combs several months ago and has been seeing a dancer named Chris--who lacks not only a nickname but a surname--whom she met while making her Love Don't Cost a Thing video. The callipygian queen instantly denied the story, her spokesperson intoning that Lopez and Combs "are absolutely together." Unconvinced, the Daily News responded that Lopez and Combs, whose trial on weapons-possession and bribery charges starts in New York this week, had merely reached an agreement to remain together in public for the sake of his pretrial image. The jury will surely be impressed by Puffy's commitment, real or otherwise, to a hot movie star.

More of Him to Love

When he retired from the NBA in May, CHARLES BARKLEY gave himself the gift of corpulence. "I'm 37," says Barkley. "I've worked out every day since I was nine. So I gave myself six months off from being in shape." By eating whatever he wanted, playing golf every day and drinking Grey Goose vodka with cranberry juice every night, Barkley added 70 lbs. to his frame. By Jan. 1 he had hit 337 lbs. Now, in his new gig as a TNT studio analyst, he's submitting himself to humiliating weekly weigh-ins in a bid to get back in shape. "I don't drink anymore," he says, over the phone. "Well, I only drink two days a week, and I restrict myself to a six-pack." Somehow, Barkley has dropped 13 lbs., though his proud testimonial is drowned out by chewing noises. "I'm eating cantaloupe." With prosciutto? "Shut up!" O.K., then.

COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR

After a career plagued by huge expectations, a 1994 drug arrest and a rather embarrassing shoplifting incident, the former everything-that's-wrong-with-modern-sports poster girl, JENNIFER CAPRIATI, 24, finally made good on all of her promise by whupping Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3 in the final of the Australian Open, notching her first-ever Grand Slam tournament. "I got the chills," said Capriati, who wept after slamming a backhand winner on the first match point past Hingis for the championship. Hingis, 20, had never lost to Capriati in five previous matches, but Capriati actually used her underdog status--she was seeded 12th--and newly discovered maturity to her advantage. "I thought, 'Why be nervous? She has everything to lose. Just go for it.'" In addition to winning a legion of fans, she'll take home $473,385 and leap to seventh place in this week's rankings, the first time she's been in the top 10 since she quit the tour in 1994.

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