Blink and you would have missed a whole work of narrative nonfiction written about Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck this week. It’s like a novel by Charles Dickens or the podcast Serial, in the sense that it’s a serial. You simply gotta keep up.
The stories that have emerged in the past week include scene setting: Lopez is back in Miami from L.A. and putting “her abs on display!” Stakes setting: Jennifer Garner is allegedly, reportedly focusing on how important it is for Affleck to Remember the Kids! It’s love! They’re soul mates! They wanna take a big trip! More scene setting: Lopez is moving to L.A. but will be bicoastal—that is, also in the Hamptons sometimes this summer! She’s looking for schools for her kids on the West Coast! Intrigue: They discussed how they would handle the paparazzi, and Affleck’s reported mantra about it all is: “It is what it is!” Backstory: Affleck’s dad, Timothy, commented on the relationship. (Ben! Call your dad!) Affleck was at a casino with her mom, Guadalupe Rodríguez. What? Okay!
They were on the set of an undetermined Affleck project (It’s Ocean’s One Billion, right? It must be?) in Las Vegas. Slot machines were in the background. Here, I have to quote directly from Page Six, as I have not digested it entirely: “It is unclear whether Rodríguez—who once won $2.4 million at an Atlantic City casino and has been described as a ‘huge gambler’ by none other than J.Lo herself—is involved in the project. Lopez, 51, was not spotted on set.” Since Affleck’s dad got involved, Lopez’s mom had to as well. It’s only fair.
“They enjoy gambling together and have done it in the past. Ben had the opportunity to work in Vegas this week and she came out,” a source told E! News. Get you a man who’ll enable your mom’s hobbies, I suppose.
Anyway, meanwhile, here’s that bit of cold water on the whole thing, which this mad dash of a story maybe needs. Garner does not want to get involved. “She has completely moved on,” a source said of where Garner’s head allegedly is at. “She continues to focus on her kids and that is her priority. When the kids are with Ben, she hopes that is his priority too. What he does the rest of the time is not her problem. She has done everything she can to foster great relationships between Ben and the kids. But she won’t get involved with who he dates or his private life.”
It’s still hard to tell what kind of novel this is going to be. Or maybe it’s something more for the stage? So far it’s a romance, sure, but comedy or tragedy, we don’t know yet. It does somehow feel like the only story happening in the celebrity-scape. The sheer volume coming out of the fire hose from the Greek chorus is simply keeping us riveted. And people say no one reads anymore!
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