J.Lo and Marc Anthony better together

Marc Anthony, left, performs a duet with his wife, Jennifer Lopez, during a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007. (Henny Ray Abrams, Associated Press / October 7, 2007)

BY GLENN GAMBOA | glenn.gamboa@newsday.com

10:17 AM EDT, October 8, 2007

There's an ease and an affection between Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony that makes their performances even more appealing together than they are separately.

Maybe it comes from always being the biggest power couple in the room -- which is almost always the case, unless they have been on a lot of secret double dates with The Clintons or Bill and Melinda Gates. Maybe it comes from spending so much time together at their Brookville home and on the road. Or maybe they just fit together.

Whatever the case, their duets -- the ballad "Por Arriesgarnos" and the salsafied "No Me Ames" -- were the best moments in the duo's show at Madison Square Garden Sunday night, part of Lopez's first national tour.

Lopez and Anthony took the telenovela-worthy dramatics of the ballad "No Me Ames," where they repeatedly tell each other "Don't love me," and gave it a sweet comic twist in their deliveries that translated well, whether you understood Spanish or not.

"This is the bilingual tour, right?" Lopez asked, to the delight of the capacity crowd, as she introduced "Que Hiciste," the single from her Spanish album "Como Ama Una Mujer."

Lopez didn't make any announcements about the growing question of whether or not she's pregnant. Of course, she didn't really have to. (It's possible that the fashion plate has suddenly developed a taste for gold dresses three sizes too big for her and the one-time Fly Girl has slowed down her dance moves to about three-quarter speed for no real reason, but it's not likely.)

It didn't really matter, though. Lopez answered all the other questions about her musical career. Her voice was strong, especially on "If You Had My Love" and "Let's Get Loud," and she connected well with the crowd, as she recreated some of the big dance numbers from her videos for "Get Right" and "Waiting for Tonight."

She also brought out the star power for her hometown crowd, as LL Cool J dropped in to do "All I Have" with her and Fat Joe stopped by to do "Hold You Down." Lopez was surprisingly light on material from her new album "Brave" (Epic), which hits stores Tuesday, opening with the excellent "Do It Well" and throwing in a massive version of the disco-tinged "Hold It, Don't Drop It," which showcased the 12-piece band and three singers that backed both her and Anthony.

Anthony's 70-minute set was masterful as usual, working the crowd and holding long notes to show his vocal power. He quickly moved from songs from his recent movie "El Cantante" to his English hits "I Need to Know" and "You Sang to Me," which featured a splashy new, gospel-tinged ending.

Anthony revealed that song was written when he had a crush on Lopez. "Now I get to sing it to her every night," he said.

JENNIFER LOPEZ AND MARC ANTHONY. The couple that plays together stays together. At Madison Square Garden on Sunday and Monday. Seen Sunday