Jennifer Lopez promoting new MTV series

The MTV Networks didn't offer any news during their three-hour session at the semiannual TV press tour in Pasadena — they even managed to overlook the fact that their chief operating officer, Michael Wolf, resigned Thursday.

But they did manage to bring out Jennifer Lopez, so it wasn't a complete wash.

Lopez was on hand to promote "DanceLife," an MTV series debuting Monday that she executive produces. It follows a half-dozen aspiring dancers as they attempt to break into the business.

Lopez, who began her career as a dancer, said the show concerns "the struggle of loving something so much and wanting to do it and how hard that life can be. That's why I wanted to do it — because I lived it.

"It was my first love," she continued. "I was in sweats all day, with a big bag on my shoulder, going from audition to audition."

Lopez, wearing a clingy mustard top, a short tan skirt and copper heels, added, "That's one of the most intriguing things about dancers: They may be starving, they may not have booked a gig in six months, and they're still at it. They do it for the love of the dance, as corny as that sounds. There's not a lot of money in dance. Ö You don't complain — everyone else around you is in the same boat."

She recalled getting a job in an overseas Broadway revue. "I didn't get a solo in the show, and I was the only one who didn't, and I was devastated," she said. "I called up my mother and she said, 'Hey, you want to be in that business; don't ever call me up crying.' Tough love."

Lopez admitted she has been able to stay out of the tabloids for a while by choice.

"My life for me had become uncomfortable," she said. "It was affecting my personal life and the people in it. I had to take a look at it. I decided to change the way I live. It was an adjustment, but I've found a way to do it."

How do she and her husband Marc Anthony manage to elude the gossip magazines?

"Don't go out as much; choose different places to go," she said.

"If you want to be in those magazines, you can be. But I chose to go a little bit underground. We're not big club people, not anymore."