BUTT NOTHING

JENNIFER Lopez sunk to a new J. Lo(w) last week when her attempt to resurrect her recording career failed miserably – just as her August attempt to do the same with her flat-lining movie career did.

First week sales of the world’s most famous booty’s highly promoted sixth studio album, “Brave,” came in at a miserly 53,000 units, marking the only time any of her English-language albums failed to crack 100,000 in the debut week.

And while some might argue that J. Lo’s sales figures have slipped in proportion to CD sales in general, a quick look at her previous five efforts suggests that the low hum of the cash register is more in tune with her declining celebrity status.

After a string of successful movie appearances, J. Lo released her first studio album, “On the 6,” in 1999 to first-week sales of 112,000 (all sales figures were provided by Nielsen SoundScan).

Her next two albums, “J-Lo” and “This is Me . . . then,” built on that total, posting sales of 273,000 and 314,000 during their initial seven days out. The latter album, released in 2002, came at the height of the “Bennifer” tabloid love affair, as her highly publicized relationship with actor Ben Affleck came to be known.

As recently as 2005, smack in the middle of the transition from CD sales to digital sales, the Bronx native’s “Rebirth” album sold a relatively strong 261,000 copies and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts.

Since then, however, as her marriage to singer Marc Anthony has increasingly kept her out of the spotlight, J. Lo’s sales seem to reflect an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude among her fans.

Not only has “Brave” been disappointing, but her and her hubby’s attempt to entice their Latino fan base to movie theaters with “El Cantante” in August also fell flat – the small budget, limited release movie has only collected $7.6 million.

Taken together, entertainment industry observers are wondering if J. Lo isn’t J. L-OVER.

Peter Lauria

Special guest

The battle between CNBC and the newly launched Fox Business Network isn’t just over viewers – it’s about guests, too.

After appearing on Fox Business Network last week, one Wall Street strategist and frequent guest on CNBC received an e-mail from CNBC executive editor Nick Dunn asking him to limit his time on Fox.

“Saw you on the new network. Please don’t make that a regular thing,” Dunn said in the e-mail. “We value you highly here at CNBC and we don’t want that watered down by appearances on other networks.”

Asked about the hardball tactics with guests, Dunn said, “We care deeply about the quality of our guests.”

Fox Business Network is owned by News Corp., which owns The Post.

Zachery Kouwe

Black book

Talk about payback.

Cathie Black, the president of Hearst Magazines, which publishes Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and O, the Oprah Magazine, has just been knighted with virtual bestseller status for her new self-help book – thanks to an upcoming appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.

The show, which was taped on Oct. 16, is slated to air on Tuesday, the same day that Black’s book – “Basic Black, the Essential Guide for Get ting Ahead at Work (and in Life)” – goes on sale nationally. Crown, an imprint of Random House, has already gone back for a third printing in order to put 100,000 copies on shelves in anticipation of the expected bestseller status.

Usually, even a brief appearance by an author on the top-rated talk show boosts a book onto the list. In Black’s case, she is getting the royal Oprah treatment – the entire show will be devoted to Black.

Of course it probably helped that Black splits the profit on the O, the Oprah Magazine with Harpo Productions, which produces the top rated talk show. The magazine has become the second most profitable in the Hearst stable – even after Oprah extracts her split.

Keith J. Kelly

business@nypost.com