Ben Affleck was in Texas last week, hard at work on his latest film. But he returned to LA over the weekend. He had to spend time with his lady, Jennifer Lopez, and he also attended the first screening/premiere of The Tender Bar. J.Lo didn’t walk the carpet with him – clearly, they’re saving the red carpet couple-appearances for the biggest events – but she was spotted with Ben at his house (they had breakfast/brunch with their kids) and at the Sunset Tower, where they had the after-party for The Tender Bar premiere. These photos are of Ben and Jen entering the Sunset Tower, plus some photos of Ben and George Clooney at the screening at DGA Theater Complex.
I’m glad J.Lo and Ben had some time together, but I will be very curious to see what happens with The Tender Bar during the awards season. George Clooney directed the film, based on the memoir by J. R. Moehringer, with Ben as the lead. Knowing Clooney, he’ll probably want some kind of awards campaign for the film, but we’ll see what the reviews say. Ben and George enjoyed working with each other, and Ben had a lot of nice stuff to say about George as an actor and director. I’d love to know what George thinks of the Bennifer Revival! I bet he loves it. Maybe he and J.Lo can have an Out of Sight revival, come on!!! (I would honestly love a 25-years-later Out of Sight sequel).
PS… J.Lo has done an amazing job cleaning up Ben.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty.
Damn, I too would date JLo is she can clean me up like she cleans up her men.
I was thinking the same thing !!!!! AHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
JLO please date me!!! I neeed a makeover !
Hahaha! Same!
JLo’s bag collection is fabulous.
Are those the Coach bags ? I love seeing celebs actually use the products they get paid to endorse. I remenber Britney in the naughts constantly gettin papped drinking coke when she was getting a ton of money from pepsi. Lol
@Noki: It looks like an Hermes to me.
Years ago a friend who had a drinking problem was getting divorced. He finally decided to stop drinking a bit later for the sake of his kids. His wife was so upset and kept asking “ why couldn’t I have been important enough for him to stop for me.” I totally got it.
JLo is important enough for Ben for him to clean up. Hopefully permanently. And the sad part is there was nothing fundamentally lacking in the other women ( okay, maybe the babysitter) . They just weren’t enough for him to inconvenience himself. It’s as if when they broke up the first time he stayed stuck in super child mode and now he is moving forward again.
I do feel sorry for Jennifer Garner, she put an enormous amount of effort in , and basically he’s telling her she wasn’t important enough.
He got sober way before jlo came into the picture. It has nothing to do with her.
My husband stopped drinking 2 months after I stopped drinking- because I had a Cancer scare. In my experience, you cannot ask/expect your partner to stop drinking if you are drinking yourself. My husband’s Ex (who drinks herself) is shocked that he is sober and fit after 30 years of drinking. He looks fantastic, and folks are asking ” what did you do to him?” I love him and support him in every way, and we are staying sober together.
@B
I’m with you. Don’t know where this idea that he sobered up for jlo came from? It looks like he got his shit together before she entered the picture
B, It is actually possible. He actually started to send his batsignal in early 2019. JLo seemed to have ignored him, because she agreed to Alex’s proposal, which happened just several days after Ben’s paying her compliments. I guess Alex saw his threat, and decided to act on.
@EllenOlenska: this is such an interesting take…I’m really intrigued by your theory. And yes, I also feel sorry for JenG. She put a LOT of effort into guiding Ben into being the best father (and husband) she could fashion. She’s gotta be feeling some kind of ouch looking at how Ben’s been steady on a healthy path (so far) with JLo.
If I am not mistaken, JenG probably had been knowing that JLo had been waiting in the wing for quite some time ever since she got divorced from her third husband in 2011. There actually were tabloids reportings (US Weekly which is pretty legit) that Ben decided to give another shot with JLo in 2010 (JLo’s mom even sent a secret email to Ben, asking for divorce advice, again US Weekly reported). Garner then used US Weekly to send a war signal to JLo that she would fight tooth and nail to save her marriage from Ben. Then Garner had a third baby which was a son which was always what Ben wanted, and she seemed to have won the 2010 around. Things started to die down until their messy uncoupling started in 2015 (this was also the year when Ben and JLo had a little flirt on the Oscar night, per tabloids), and again sources went to US Weekly to tattle that they almost got divorced in 2010, which then tied back to the aforementioned 2010 gossips.
These were all actually reported by celebitchy at the time. It only needs someone to piece them together.
I wrote her song breakdown for her 2020 single In The Morning in that other celebitchy article (the New York central park pap stroll/Global Live concert article) when I gave the background study of their reunion timeline. Worth a reading.
Oh, I also just found a nagget of information that may interest fellow gossip consumers: JLo changed her publicist to Ken Sunshine in late 2013, and he remains her services even when she started seeing Arod in 2017 and got engaged in 2019. Interestly, JenG stopped engaging Ken Sunshine’s services in 2016, when things between her and Ben began to unravel. And you know who else does Mr Ken Sunshine also represent? Bingo, our Benny boy. He has been Ben’s PR since at least early aughts. Perhaps like JLo, our Benny boy also likes mixing professional business with personal affairs.
Also worth studying is JLo’s 2016 single Aint Your Mama with the metatextures in its video.
That really is sad. I feel bad for your friend. I wish JLo could pull that betting commercial he does. I cringe whenever it comes on. I guess he got a ton of money for it, but it always reminds me of Ben on the skids partying with ‘friends’ in Vegas
I can see why an ex partner might think this, but I don’t believe it to be true. I think an addict has to decide that they are worth it. Ben needs to decide what version of himself he wants to be. The guy who falls out of clubs with 20 yr Olds or the happy family man who is happy with a global superstar. It’s not that a Jennifer is worth it, it is if Ben is worth a Jennifer, if that makes sense.
That makes sense. No other person can get and keep a loved one sober. It truly is an inside job. The beauty of this second chance story to be is seeing so publicly the transformation that comes when an alcoholic decides to get clean and sober for themselves. Because they finally believe they are worth it. It’s miraculous and beautiful to witness.
woahhh hold on. alcoholism is a disease and whether or not a person conquers that disease has nothing to do with another person. it usually comes from a decision within to try, and sometimes that is not even enough to conquer it.
The idea that Jenn G was worth it or not versus JLo being worth it is insane and toxic. Imagine being the child of a lifelong alcoholic, and believing this story- that mommy or daddy never got sober because I wasn’t worth it…but his new girlfriend is?
This
I wish this response were higher up because it’s very true and extremely valuable.
This, all day.
Thanks guys— you can probably tell I’m the child of an alcoholic who didnt get sober until I was about 23 years old. And yes, I spent most of my life thinking if he really loved me or our family he’d sober up. Adult me realizes that alcoholism isnt that simple. i really HATE the comments about Ben cleaning up “for” JLo.
I can understand how a former partner could feel like they ‘weren’t worth it’, but totally agree that’s not the way to look at the situation.
Bravo @Hello Kitty.
I completely agree, this is a really damaging perspective. It’s not “on” the women in his life to be the reason for him to be sober.
Additionally, he’s had MANY periods of sobriety in the past. He can do short periods of sobriety. He just can’t stick with it long term. But those are his demons to battle, not the women in his life.
Thanks for this comment too! As another child of an alcoholic this view is so hurtful, as if my father wouldn’t have given up anything to be free of alcoholism for the sake of myself or my sisters, whom he loved like crazy.
Hell, as an adult now I can’t even succeed at reducing calories lon gterm/keep weight off ‘for the sake of my kids’, I can’t imagine the struggle for alcoholics, it must be sooo sooo hard.
Actually I am the child of an alcoholic, and yes, it is a disease that runs thru generations of my family. And I don’t know that Ben will stay sober this time. He just seems to be putting in a bit more effort. He’s had numerous relapses in the past, and this may only be temporary.
As for my friends wife’s comment she was merely echoing what many of the people who live with alcoholics go through, wondering why their help/assistance/love/begging etc wasn’t enough to have an alcoholic seek help…and why they choose to do so with another person. Similar to that dating trope of being the girl that every non-committal guy dates and then gets engaged to the next girl he hooks up with.
I completely agree. The worth or not worth issue is totally insane. He got sober due to a lot of reasons together. No women or men has the power to make someone clean if they don’t want to do it themselves. Also we don’t know enough details about his relationship with both women. Garner is the mother of his children after all, pretty sure he loved her even if the marriage fell apart.
I thought 2006-2010/11 Ben was quite tidy and hot. His weight only started to fluctuate when he began to prep his physique for the Batman role, which was in 2013/14. From 2016 on, obviously he started to spiral until he got sober. He started to pretty up again around the Autumn last year (even Lainey noticed and wrote an article about it), which was actually when he saw a crack between JLo and Arod and decided to peacock himself.
Ben is looking really good, Jlo really did her thing.
I heard the first reviews for the tender bar seem to be positive. Finally a good movie for Clooney as a director? Lol
I think after all the drama with Ben, Garner maybe quite happy and enjoying the peace and calm.
Once her children are doing OK, that is what she or any mother wants, I saw a picture of Violet recently, she must be 6 ft tall.
Back to Ben, just waiting for the next shoe to drop and it will drop.
My ex is a very successful, very messy human being. Post-separation and divorce I love having my own space to be with my kids and live and work and breathe without constant chaos. I’ve worked through the loss of a life I imagined I’d have for acceptance of the life I have and appreciate. I imagine Jen G has too.
If by some miracle my ex gets it together and that coincides with a new relationship that’s healthy, I would be genuinely happy for them and my children.
Your situation might be different from JenG’s though, because there will always be a nagging thought that she was a rebound to Ben when he broke up with JLo, and that she wasted years on a wrong man, who might have love her, but not as enough.
@nans – anyone in the position of not wanting to get a divorce but knowing it’s ultimately the thing that has to happen, has to work through “was I enough”. Was JLo in the background of their marriage? Maybe. I’m just saying it’s very possible to get to the point where you can step back and not have anymore feelings of your own value tied to what your ex is doing and truly want the best for them regardless of the history there.
Why would you wait for the other shoes to drop? Hes a real person with 3 young kids so I hope he can hold it together.
Exactly. It’s so mean to anticipate someone’s downfall.
Amal looks amazing! Her husband, George looks good too.
Question: I don’t get why it is that Jennifer is surrounded by people wearing masks but she is not. Does the virus know she’s the STAH?
Yes to Out of Sight! That was the best movie for each of them. Oh that love scene.
I think Ana broke his heart. He did some deep soul searching and realized he is a middle aged drunk who was turning into a joke. Girls he tried to hook up with online posted embarrassing videos. He started thinking back to happier days and realized what a gem J-Lo was. He also made mention of her fantastic body on several news outlets. I could be reading waaaaay into this. But hey. Celebrity gossip. We are all here for the fantasy:)
I don’t know how heartbroken he was over ana because as soon as it was over he was emailing jlo 😂 and he’s been sending her bat signal since at least 2020. I remember raising my eyebrows because he couldn’t stop praising her
Lainey Gossip already did an analysis of his facial about the Raya thing and concluded it was in 2019. Ben actually mentioned Raya when he did an interview with Diane Sawyer in February 2020 and said he wasn’t on Raya any longer.
Also consider the timing of the Raya thing which happened right after PageSix broke Ben was taken to see JLo in her LA house at the end of April this year, and we all know Alex is pig who likes to sleep around. Think about the implicaiton here.
Finally, the BenAna thing was actually worth writing an article for. They were anything but love, and it may surprise you to learn Ben’s intention there. As for Ana, she was pretty obvious by the end of it.
I thought Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Good Night and Good Luck were both pretty good Clooney-directed films.
Despite this being an Ben and JLo article, I came to say I think Amal looks incredible!
Why no mask for JLo arriving at the Sunset Towers—she’s literally the lone bare-faced person in a crowd of masked people.
She wants everyone to see her.
Same reason Kate went to the vigil without a mask. So everyone can see her and get the pap shots.
I am so disgusted by mask-holes. Human petri dishes that the virus can use to develop a new variant and we are still waiting for the children’s vaccine. Reprehensible.
I have no patience with people who can’t mask, even JLo. Do better, Jennifer.
I really wish Ben and Jen Lopez the best. They are in their 50′ .Garner. need to feel relief that she don’t have Ben anymore.
I really wish Ben and Jen Lopez the best. They are in their 50′ .Garner. need to feel relief that she don’t have Ben anymore.
Ben looks good but those jeans make his legs look too skinny. Amal looks healthier than she has in years. Simply gorgeous
I adore these two together, and I’m rooting for them! I said what I said LOL
Amal’s shoes are AMAZING!!!