(Janet Mayer / Splash News)
It’s not bad enough he wasn’t their first choice for parade king – Latin crooner Marc Anthony also had to trade in his luxe convertible for a golf cart today at the 53rd annual Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Besides city budget cuts shortening the parade’s regular routes and hours this year, Anthony — named the event’s ceremonial king after actor Osvaldo Rios dropped out in a flap over allegation he beat his girlfriend — was forced to shlep along Fifth Avenue driving his gorgeous wife Jennifer Lopez in a golf buggy after their chauffered Chevy Impala broke down.
Anthony and J.Lo had been riding on the back of the convertible for about a mile when they arrived at a grandstand near W. 69th Street to head onstage for a TV interview, eyewitnesses said. But when they returned to the car, it wouldn’t start because its battery was dead.
Members of the entourage quickly jumped out and pulled up the hood, and Anthony himself briefly looked under the hood to see what was wrong. Both Anthony and J Lo repeatedly kept shrugging their shoulders and laughing in disbelief.
Minutes later, a dozen cops arrived to push the lemon convertible off the Fifth Avenue route, and parade organizers drove over an obviously less regal golf buggy for the “King” and “Queen.”
Anthony drove the buggy up himself to the end of the parade route at W. 79th Street while Lopez, dressed in a strapless white dress that showed off a sexy black bra, waved a Puerto Rican flag to the delight of the crowd.
“Marc and Jennifer were not fazed at all,” said Rafael Dominguez, a member of the parade’s board of the directors. “What was so funny was so how Marc handled it and how easily he drove the car. This is a man who must love to golf.”
Anthony took over as king after.
Rios had been named as the parade’s international godfather but critics called for a boycott because he has a domestic violence conviction.
The star couple laughed off the breakdown, and the mechanical mishap didn’t spoil the parade for the flag-waving thousands that thronged the annual celebration.
“I like to see the people with all the energy they have,” said 68-year-old Jorge Malave of West New York, N.J., a regular at the parade who was born in Puerto Rico and came to the United States when he was 10.
Claudia Albarado was lined up next to the parade route by 8:30 a.m., hours before the start, to stake out a good spot. The 65-year-old, born in Puerto Rico and living in Union City, N.J., was wearing a T-shirt that said “When I die and Heaven does not want me, take me straight to Puerto Rico.”
“I see all my people here. I’m very happy,” she said.
Anthony said it was “fantastic” to be at the parade.
“It’s such a big part of my life and it always has been,” he said.
A host of politicians turned out, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. David Paterson and gubernatorial hopefuls Andrew Cuomo and Rick Lazio.
Dolores Padilla, wearing a red, white, and blue eye mask with feathers attached, brought her 2-year-old son from the Bronx to see the parade.
Her little boy Zavian, who is both Puerto Rican and Dominican, was perched on her boyfriend’s shoulder, a tiny Puerto Rican flag clutched in his fist.
“I want him to be proud,” Padilla said.
The Puerto Rican parade, an annual event in New York since 1958, has grown to be one of the city’s largest.
With AP