Journalists and photographers covering Sunday's Los Angeles premiere of the new Denzel Washington movie "Man on Fire" got a rude surprise regarding Jennifer Lopez and her apparent squeeze, Marc Anthony, reports Fashion Wire Daily.

In the course of red-carpet coverage, an announcement reportedly was made by a publicist as a stretch limo pulled up to Mann's National Theater in Westwood: "J.Lo and Marc are arriving NOW!" But when the car door opened, the statement was revised to: "J.Lo will NOT be getting out of the limo with Marc."

So there was Anthony, 34, solo, telling the paparazzi as he was lit up by their snapping lights, "Hey, guys, this really isn't my thing."

Lopez, 34, meanwhile, didn't make her entrance until Anthony was safely inside the movie house. He does, after all, costar in the movie with Washington.

Picking up on the sighting, New York's Daily News reports that Lopez arrived at the theater a full 15 minutes after Anthony, so as not to upstage his entrance -- but they did leave together, and avoided the after-screening party.

The two reportedly were together all last weekend in Manhattan, where they had checked into the Peninsula Hotel and she (accompanied by him) taped an interview with James Lipton for Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio."

Anthony also was there when she did her photo shoots for InStyle and Marie Claire, and next Monday both of them can be expected -- either arriving separately or even possibly together, for the first time publicly -- at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Costume Institute gala.