Do you know how Jennifer Garner kept emphasizing that her family was celebrating Thanksgiving together, Ben included? She talked about the sports stations she had set up for the kids, the elaborate meal she was preparing, and the fact that Ben’s mom was going to be there.
“Ben’s mom, Chris [Boldt], will be in town and she and Ben will take the kids and I’ll have crafts set up and I’ll have T-Ball, soccer, I’ll have anything set up…
“If they will play with the kids and just let me cook, it is heaven for me/ “I will make homemade bread, I’ll make stuffing, I’ll make a turkey, I’ll make gravy, I’ll make sweet potato pudding, I’ll make pies. Just let me have that day in the kitchen.”
Ben used his family’s Thanksgiving plans as a talking point during his press tour as well but I tend to tune him out more. Now I’m wondering when exactly Lindsay Shookus flew in because you know she didn’t have Thanksgiving with Ben’s family, that would have been awkward. Did she have Thanksgiving with her ex and child? I doubt she has the same kind of conscious uncoupling arrangement as Ben.
Ben and Lindsay were seen out with iced coffees heading to lunch on Saturday. (The paparazzi agency captioned these photos that they were getting lunch. People reported that they were getting coffee.) Lindsay was in a button down blue dress shirt tied at the waist paired with black skinny jeans frayed at the ankles and white sneakers. She’s very calculated in her forgettable casual wear, as I’ve mentioned before.
I wonder how Ben took his ex’s interview that she would rather not be single and that she didn’t envision this life for herself. Jen also said that men shouldn’t be lumped into the same category and that “we can’t just assume that every man has done something awful or that every man is guilty; due process is important and has to take place.” She didn’t directly refer to Ben, but it’s assumed she was referring to his groping incidents, which Affleck wildly mischaracterized in an interview with Stephen Colbert. (I honestly thought he was referring to a different groping incident, not the one on video with Hilarie Burton, as that could in no way be mistaken for a hug with a misplaced hand, he reached out and grabbed her breast deliberately.)
Affleck also gave an interview a couple of weeks ago to Today, which we didn’t cover here. It seems like he’s just addressing one transgression in every interview and dismissing and talking around it. Remember how he issued a statement last month condemning Weinstein and claiming he had no knowledge of his abuses, but then got called out by Rose McGowan for lying about it? Well he just talked around the issue, like he always does. When asked about that, he said:
“I don’t really want to get into other people’s individual stories because I feel like those are their stories and they are entitled to tell as much or as little of those as they want. believe Rose, I support her, I really like and admire her tenacity and wish her the best.“
That’s Affleck, talking around things and sounding like he’s addressing them, but not discussing the reality of what happened and never admitting guilt. I hope Lindsay is enjoying her victory laps with Ben now. She’s earned it and she will continue to earn it if she stays with him.
Here’s a photo of Ben with his arm around Lindsay in New York on 11-17.
photos credit: Backgrid
he still looks very bleary eyed and bloated.
I agree!
Man, he is NOT aging well at all. He and Russell Crowe seem to be in a race to see who can go to seed fastest – Crowe has the excuse of simply being the elder one.
Now compare to Keanu, who is maintaining pretty well…
Alcoholic aging and liver damage looks like that.
Geez he looks terrible. The combination of not being sober, Botox or fillers and not maintaining his healthy weight has done a number on his face.
And sure everything is nice and rosy now but don’t expect this to go away around ben. Soon enough the stories will keep coming around him
Why does he look like he’s been up all night crying?
She seems like the anti-Jen in terms of family. Between long work hours and bicoastal traveling with her bf, I wonder how much time she’s able to spend with her kid.
Reminds me of Simon Cowells girlfriend…did she give custody to her ex husband you only ever see her in UK with the son she shares with Simon.
She shares custody with her ex. Simon bought a house there in New York for her. She flies back to the U.S. every other week to be with her son. It’s why she wasn’t there when Simon fell. She had flown to NY with her little one to be with her oldest son. Her ex has remarried.
When Simon’s house was broken into and jewels stolen while they were asleep, the safe was unlocked because Lauren planned to fly out early in the morning for NYC to be with her son, and didn’t want to wake him since he sleeps late.
Ben seems to be in NY to see her a lot more than she’s in LA, especially since SNL started up again. Maybe Ben is allowed to see/share time with Lindsay’s daughter when he’s in NY. Lindsay’s ex is a producer on the Seth Meyers show, so he would work just as long hours as she does.
I think it’s smart for him not to be seen with her daughter. The rag headlines would then be that he has abandoned his children to be in NYC with Lindsay and her daughter.
She and her ex live in the same building, so do seem to get along. He went along with her set-up pap photos. But Lindsay has parents and probably siblings and a daughter. So I imagine she spent Thanksgiving with some combination of her family and flew in Friday to see him.
Lindsay lives in the same apartment building as her ex, apparently so they can easily co-parent, and they have been papped out together with their child before, so it’s possible she does have “the same type of conscious uncoupling arrangement with her ex.” I don’t understand the mom-shaming.
Well, given the rumors of how Lindsay and Ben started up (each married to someone else), I have to say good on her ex for being the bigger person.
I think the “mom shaming” comes from the long affair. Both her and Ben chose to be with each other rather than their young children. I find them both repulsive. If a person is unhappy in their marriage either fix it or get out. Disrespecting one’s spouse and children is the ultimate low. 2 people should be in a marriage, not 3. As far as the victory lap, I don’t see him as any prize. My family has stopped supporting his movies and we don’t watch SNL anymore. I wish they would both just go away. …
I don’t know, I think there is more to the story here ….
Maybe Jen was threatening to take his kids away? There has to be a reason he stayed in limbo with her for over 2 years of separation when it is so obvious he doesn’t feel the same about her and never has…It’s pretty obvious they only got married because she “accidently” got pregnant.
She doesn’t strike me as the type to let go and maybe she used the kids as a tool to keep him around and living with her even after they separated. You can see how Jen still clings to him with their Thanksgiving plans..
@Miranda – I agree with you. In a perfect world, “2 people should be in a marriage, not 3”, but unfortunately, we live in a world where roughly half of all people, both men and women, will be unfaithful at some point in their marriage. Not saying it’s right at all – just that it’s relatively commonplace, so I certainly don’t have any illusions of celebrities holding up an even higher moral standard and wouldn’t base whether I watch their movies on it, but that’s just me.
@Mary, no. Jennifer Garner wasn’t being clingy, she was being gracious given his many failings, and thinking of the kids first. That’s what I respect about her – she put the kids first. Many couples transition through divorce by spending holidays with their young children. I did it myself. There are drawbacks, of course, but many couples do it. I do agree it’s obvious he never loved her the way she loved him. And he only “loves” this new woman because she’s an enabler. Give it a couple years, he’ll have the same bitch face he usually had with his wife. He’s a mess and likely always will be. These guys get into their 50’s and all they have left is the memories of their glory days and their money. Maybe he’ll pull it out of the dumpster, maybe not. It’s up to him.
These threads are always filled with a bizarre-level of vitriol for Shookus.
@Kitten
Yes it is. I’ve seen posters her for Ben drinking to bad press. They’ve called her a bad mother trashed her looks, it’s ridiculous.
You don’t think it’s equal-opportunity vitriol? There is nothing likable about either of these two. Maybe there is more to the story, but they give off a ‘selfish birds of a feather’ vibe.
@Tracking
We’re is the equal-opportunity here? Where is your judgement on Ben Parenting and why are you putting Jen parenting on a pedestal that others show be judged against.
I don’t get it. He’s divorced and dating. Is he not supposed to? And how on earth does anyone know how LS parents?
I don’t get it either. LS is not a famous person, and she is very well liked at SNL. Ben is a crappy choice, but he’s been a crappy choice for a lot of women. We don’t know about her mothering, and it is not fair to question something that is not reported, and there aren’t even rumors.
The sh.t parent is Ben effing Affleck. Full stop.
Without JG around nagging and working overtime to prop him up, we see him more transparently and it ain’t a pretty sight.
@magnoliarose: I agree with your points about Linday Shookus’s parenting and likely being liked at SNL, but why does Lindsay want to spend time with Ben Affleck? What it is about him that is so alluring, except the honeymoon phase blush? It will wear off. I give it a couple years. They might prove me wrong, but I doubt it. He’s a party boy, who lives in his head for work and partying, not relationships and kids.
He looks ill. He could have a great career behind the camera, yet he insists on playing movie star, pap walks, the whole nine. He’s still SO thirsty, sheesh.
Yeah I don’t get it either. His acting has always been fairly mediocre but I do think he has solid directorial skills that could even improve with time. He’s talented in that regard.
It is weird, right? He needs the spotlight.
His movie is out and he has nothing to promote, so why not lay low and work on his health.
@Guilia: Agreed. He’s OK in front of the camera (I do like him as an actor) but he’s obviously very intelligent, obsessed with ideas, etc. and capable of producing good movies. He should get clean and healthy, or go behind the camera and limp along with his addictions. Many of them do it.
@kitten: Agreed about the directing skills.
@sage: I agreed. He needs to work on his health, but he won’t until he has a death scare (not that he hasn’t already).
What an adorable, lovely couple the public just can’t get enough of. (insert my eye-roll.)
She’s the one of the worst kinds of women. Her smile says she eats children. Ben is an alcohol soaked log. Full of bloat.
Ben has Resting Misery Face
He does, lol. I get that, though, I have to force myself to pt on a perkier face sometimes because I know, like my mom, I look naturally grim.
That worked okay back when he was a hunk. Not so much now. LOL
Even in the first headshot pic, she looks bad, combination of cheap looking sunglasses and brassy blond hair.
Ugh to both.
He looks ill. Like his withdrawals might be pretty terrible and not just alcohol withdrawals, which could be already pretty terrible, but something heavier. In any case the fact that he’s back to allowed to drive is a clear sign that he’s clean again. But I’m not sure this will be the last rehab he does. Based on the fact that he went to rehab just because he had a movie to promote and working commitment where he could’t show himself like he did in the past press tours (remember his unzipped pants and his clear drunk mess image for Suicide Squad etc?) and also because otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten joint custody of his kids in the divorce in the state he was months ago. So once all that is resolved: divorce and end of working commitments, then will well see what his real intentions are about getting clean or not.
Fact is if Ben was really focus on his sobriety, he wouldn’t be doing rehab photo ops or leaking stories to the press. Celebrities that really focus on their sobriety go dark and get help.
I really don’t have words for Jennifer Garner at this point
She sounds really pathetic
I sawJustice League this weekend (wonderwoman ROCKS!) but Ben looks SOOOOO nipped and tucked. He did something to his eyes and bags under his eyes so he looks odd like this in his movie too. His hair was so pretty boy and ridiculous. As for his face, I think it’s filler
Ben cannot even tuck his shirt in anymore! If you look at pics just 2 yrs.ago, there is a huge difference in his appearance! He looks like he could care less about his appearance! He also is not good at lying….it always comes back to bite him! Lindsay will take him anyway she can have him! Sad she can’t see how unhealthy Ben looks!
If not for yourself, get healthy for your 3 adorable children!
Jennifer Garner was at San Francisco with the Kids for the last few days (Instagram, Facebook)
Can you post links?
I’d like to see links too.
Meh. None of these people are that interesting. FWIW, I think that Ben looks like most 45 year oldS I see at the grocery store ON THE WEEK-END. He’s aged out of being a movie-star leading man, (If he ever really was one) and Shookus isn’t an actress, so I don’t find their appearance strange.
What I do find kind of strange is the persistent vilification of these two when the Ben/Jen have been over for YEARS?
Please forgive the random capitalisation. Work can be distracting.
Yeah I agree. By the time Jen did her big Vanity Fair article in February 2016, Jen admitted Ben hadn’t kissed her in almost a year. Their relationship has been DOA for years. I think Jen should probably move on like Ben has. It might do her some good.
He didn’t have to age out at 45. That’s prime time for many leading men. It’s only his bad lifestyle that did that, not his age.
Liev Schreiber at 50 years of age at the beach this year.
https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/liev-schreiber-b89642df-affd-478f-9ddb-3ef14927d46b.jpg
I was perusing the latest People mag this weekend and there was an article about Ben and his alcohol rehab process. One interesting nugget is that it repeatedly cited an “Affleck source” basically minimizing/trashing the relationship with Shookus. Said that it is a fun fling but not a serious relationship. Also said that Lindsay means well but is not “strong” enough to support Ben’s sobriety. Meanwhile said Jen is basically an angel who will do all she can for him because she cares about him as her children’s dad.
Sort of in line with the recent US weekly cover that gave Shookus very short shrift and focused on Jen’s paramount role in his life.
Not sure about People’s credibility these days, but ok, let’s make it the responsibility of the women in Ben’s life to be strong enough to “make” him sober (eye roll). Apparently Jen wasn’t “strong enough” to do it either – or to “make” him stop cheating, gambling, etc. As for the seriousness of the relationship with Lindsay, sure it may be a “fling”, but not sure what more it should be at this point since he’s just getting out of a marriage. Either way, he certainly spends a lot of time with her.
Minivan peeps will eventually have to accept that whether he stays with Lindsay or not, he ain’t goin’ back to Garner. I’m wondering though – will any woman that Ben dates ever be able to overcome “the Garner factor”, especially from a media standpoint? It will be extremely hard for sure, with Ben being his messy self and moving on while Jen continues to play the martyr card – making sure the public knows she never wanted this, she doesn’t want to date, she’s only focused on being “mama bear” and she’ll “continue to be there for Ben no matter what” (also said by “sources) – all with a smile! She’s good, I’ll give her that.
Agree about the Garner Factor totally.
I can’t believe how much detail she goes in about their private family Thanksgiving plans. Got something to prove much? Give it up, lady.
@Tourmaline: Come on. She’s damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t. As someone who divorced when the kids were very young, I think she’s (1) doing the right thing (kids, decorum under stress); (2) stating how she really feels (authenticity); and (3) stemming the tide of ignored (non-informed) speculation and hate.
People magazine flipflopped so much during the separation phase that it is clear they don’t have real sources. Jen in fact called them out for it all when they put her on the cover and tried to make it seem like an exclusive interview. Zero credibility.
Ben’s duplicity just keeps going. Remember when he talked at the jL premier and then later on Live with Kelly how he and the family would be going to Matt Damon’s house sometime on thanksgiving. Well Matt and his family were spotted coming home to LAX on Saturday seemingly having spent the holiday in Boston. (Twitter restaurant citing). Ben should check with his buddy to find out what town he will be in before saying he is going to their house. 🙂
Poor Ben, he couldn’t escape to Matt’s house like he wanted to. I really wonder how long he stayed at Jen’s house on Thanksgiving. She seemed to think that he’d be there all day child-minding. I highly doubt that.
Now X17 is claiming that Ben and Lindsay went to Jen’s house after these coffee run pics were taken. Says that there was The Introduction and they stayed for an hour. IDK if I believe that. Someone upthread said that they saw on social media that Jen was with the kids in San Francisco on Saturday. Maybe Ben took Lindsay over to the house while no one was there? lol that’d be rich.
I think Ben’s mother stays at Jen’s house and we heard she was in town. So, maybe Ben and Lindsey went to meet Chris for an hour then. I saw a comment on instagram about Jen and her kids flying out of SFO Sunday, as well.
Chris invited Lindsay into the house where Jen’s kids live, while Jen was away? ROTFL! So best. I wish I could be there when Jen finds out. They couldn’t meet at Ben’s house? Or a restaurant?
@LTS – According to Casey Affleck on a recent podcast, Chris has become a nearly permanent fixture at his house in LA. He said he has to practically force her to go back to Boston, so I highly doubt she “stays” with Jen. My guess is she stays with Casey when she’s there and of course visits the kids at Jen’s or if they’re with Ben, etc.
As for Jen meeting Lindsay, maybe weird but also inevitable if Ben intends to continue seeing Lindsay. I’m sure Jen will want her say on rules/parameters, etc.
I don’t think Jen would care. It seems she and Chris are close, and I’m sure she trusts her. I really don’t think Jen gives a flying fig about what Ben does any longer, other than about the kids….
@Learning Sure, Jan.
@ everyone else: are we going by a tweet that Jen & the kids were in SF, or were there pics?
@Jojo, after recent photos of Jen and Chris there was an article that said Chris was staying with Jen. Since all of us are merely speculating, that’s just my guess. In the same scenario I wouldn’t care if my MIL had my ex and GF over to my house if she let me know, so….
I suspect Ben’s own Thanksgiving plans were still up in the air at that point, he wasn’t prepared to answer the question, so he defaulted to whatever his rehearsed answer was from last year. (I’m sure Shookus invited him to be with her and her family for the holiday. He has spent other holiday weekends with them.) Because Matt wasn’t even going to be in town, was Casey around? With Summer or Floriana? I’m wondering what Thanksgiving at Jen’s house actually looked like. She’s the one who went on about cooking and crafts like it was some Martha Stewart fantasyland. Reality IMO? Chris showed up early and watched the kids, Ben eventually showed up, spent most of the time looking at his phone and watching football. They sit at opposite ends of the table and talk to the kids but not really to each other. He went home after dinner and begged LS to come out, while Jen may/may not have headed to SF for some reason. Like, I don’t think it’s the Hallmark card scenario that they like to have people believe.
Ben’s pap strolls are tiresome. If he really cared about his sobriety, he would check into rehab and stay of the grid. He looks ridiculous.
I think it’s unfair and also probably inaccurate to speculate about what kind of co-parenting relationship Shookus has with her ex. Look at Paltrow and her new fiancee and ex-husband. Garner and Affleck aren’t the only people who are allowed to get along after a divorce, you know. Shookus and her ex don’t run to every magazine about how they spend their holidays.
Ben was looking pretty good there, until Thanksgiving. These family holidays don’t seem to suit him at all. Remember how he needed rehab and a detox nurse after the last two Christmases? Ben and Jen should just give it up. Coparenting clearly isn’t working.
Jen needs to move on. She sounds so pathetic.
How does she sound pathetic?
Jen is very active with many new endeavors that do not include Ben at all, and she mentioned cooking while Ben and his Mom entertain the kids on Thanksgiving Day. That was only after she was ASKED about it after Ben made a big deal of it on his JL press tour. They were both asked and both shared they would enjoy the meal together. They did the same last year – he was only with them on the one day last year as well, and then I believe he went to Vegas, if I recall the posts at the time.
If Ben looks poor after spending a holiday with his mom, kids and ex-wife, then he is the one with the issue, maybe? Do you really think he would put ANY effort into providing a positive holiday experience for the kids by himself? I feel pretty confident he just wants to show up and enjoy the fruits of others’ labors. No issue with that – but it doesn’t make ANY ex-wife/mother pathetic if she lets her kids enjoy their dad on holidays as a family unit, and it is much more common than I think you may be aware.
As a divorced single mother, I wasn’t interested in dating for several years, either. When you have primary care of the kids (even with help), and are working outside the home (and she clearly does), you choose to invest your time in your home, kids and job until there gets to be a time you feel like they require less of you and you feel you have more to offer a relationship. Why is a woman only determined to have “moved on” when she has a new man in her life? Aren’t we free from that stigma yet? Can we not be moved on when we are visibly living full lives in all other areas?
Why should she date? Being single is most likely a relief, and she is still recovering from codependency and her loss of her own identity. Dating is work, and emotionally I think she is doing the right thing for her children and her healing.
It could be she will be single forever by choice.
@LearningtheSystem: you’re one of the few clear voices of reason here about this entire situation.
Well, well, well, X17 now reporting that Ben and Lindsey had a sit down visit with Garner on Sat. and all went well.
Someone above said Jen was in San Francisco this weekend I don’t know how true that is.
1. He looks awful.
2. This jumped out at me: that she wants just that one day to cook and bake all those things. I laughed so hard. Proves she didn’t make T-day dinner at all. I assembled, prepped, and baked for about four to five hours a day for the three days prior to Thanksgiving, then cooked for 6 hours on the day to do all she describes (I had never done it alone before–never again, that was exhausting and I LOVE cooking). And that was just for FOUR people!
Lindsay and her ex live in the same frigging building to co-parent their kid. They don’t have the same conscious uncoupling situation? Uh, according to who? You? Seems to me like they do. We have no idea where LS spent Thanksgiving — prob in Buffalo with her daughter, family and maybe even her ex. Why would that be so hard to believe? We know nothing about these people.
Jen continues to lower the bar more than previously thought possible. Her Thanksgiving BS is just that — BS. Who here really thinks that they had had a great time and everything was hunky dory, love and smiles all around? Puh-lease. Ben looks like he always does after these family holidays — like he white-knuckled the day and went on a bender immediately after. Jen is still so delusional. Your marriage ended YEARS ago, move the hell on. Ben uses the family stuff bc he’s in a bad place publicly, had a huge movie to promote and thinks he needs to. What is Jen’s excuse? Such a doormat, forever.
Well, one thing is clear to me: Ben always looks terrible after these co-parenting holidays and this is no exception. If he can’t spend that time with his ex and their kids without drinking afterwards, then they need to drop this charade and split up the holidays. His sobriety is more important than convincing strangers how amicable your divorce was. (We don’t believe it anyway.)
Gossip Cop reports that the meeting between Lindsay, Ben, and Jen did not happen.
Not surprised. X17 is the worst. I see now that Jen posted pics of Half Moon Bay, near SF, on her IG story.
I guess after thanksgiving with Ben (and Lindsay coming to town)…a quick get away to SF
This proves once again that when Jen wants to go under the radar she can. The paparazzi don’t fallow her everywhere which is the opposite of what she wants the public to believe.
No one gets photographed as much as she does unless they have a deal with the paparazzi.
He looks awful. This man comes with lots of baggage.
I can’t recall the last time I saw a man in his 40’s so quickly ;ose his looks over a period of only a few years…maybe Charlie Sheen?
I imagine if the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man got Botox, fillers & grew a beard, he’d look exactly like Ben Affleck.