Ben Affleck

[soccer mom]

What did happened to "Man About Town?" No distributor picked it up? I heard that it opened overseas, but nothing here in the states.

[twodollars]

According to IMDB (take with a huge grain of salt) "Man About Town" is being distributed by Lionsgate for a U.S. theatre release.

I am really looking forward to "Hollywoodland" and "Gone Baby Gone". His other movie "Smokin' Aces" has a great cast - Jason Bateman, Andy Garcia and Jeremy Piven. Hopefully, these movies are successful to redeem him in the eyes of Hollywood's TPTB.

[soccer mom]

I heard he was a terrific impressionist; so character roles may redeem him after all. Or is Jen and daughter credited with redeeming Ben's personal life?

[Deleted]

I think redemption of his private life started when he and JLo broke things off. I think most people looked at that relationship wondering what the hell happened to him, how he could go from one of the Oscar winning, hard working, Boston boys, to a total and complete bronzed up, greased up Ken doll. He disappeared for a while and then re-surfaced with Jennifer Garner, whom I think most would agree, is a generally well-liked actress by the public and is certainly perceived as being a down to earth woman.

But I don't think his redemption is complete. Most articles about him still rip apart his acting ability, and many still seem to question what JG is doing with someone like him. I think it's gonna take some critical success for Hollywoodland and Gone, Baby, Gone in order for him to no longer be everyone's whipping boy.

[Deleted]

I hope he does some promotional work for Hollywoodland. I'm such a sucker for Ben interviews, he's such a great guest and a charming guy. I think I'd turn into a puddle of goo hearing him talk about Violet.

[indygirl]

I hope he does as well because until I saw the trailer at a Devil Wears Prada showing, I had no idea this movie existed, much less that he was in it!

[slashgirl]

He looks great and so does Hollywoodland. Guess he picked the right Jen this time. Hopefully, Ben will keep being an actor/filmmaker and stop being a movie star.

[grumpygirl]

purpleppleater said:

I hope he does some promotional work for Hollywoodland. I'm such a sucker for Ben interviews, he's such a great guest and a charming guy. I think I'd turn into a puddle of goo hearing him talk about Violet.

I saw him on Bill Maher and he was actually charming, intelligent and funny. I was startled. It made it so much harder to disregard him as another Hollywood boy. He was on with Salmon Rushdie, who was also disarmingly funny. It was freaky.

Anyhow, calling it off with JLo, getting together with Jennifer 2.0 and being smart on Maher definitely gave him more credibility with this ticket buyer. However, I wouldn't actually make it a point to see a movie he was in. On the other hand, Matt Damon -- yeah baby, I'd be there.

[kafka]

I was watching this E! show on Las Vegas and they talked about Ben Affleck's gambling. Apparently, he once won $700,000 in one night. On another occasion, or perhaps the same one (it wasn't clear), he tipped the waitresses and poker dealer a total of $150,000! (That part I found rather impressive and nice.)

The show was done in 2005 and they never said when this gambling incident took place but I'm wondering if he's been able to give up his passion for it since his marriage and baby. I hope so but I have to question if it's possible for an inveterate gambler to give up old habits so easily or to do so permanently.

Anyone know if he's still at it?

[Deleted]

He's pretty well regarded in the poker world, so I'm not surprised that he's won a ton of cash. And I've heard a lot of stories about him being a great tipper. I remember reading numerous items about him tipping young watresses in Vegas huge amounts of money and J Lo getting pissy about it and taking the money back. Then Ben would sneak back in and gave the waitress the money.

As far as gambling, I think Kevin Smith said that he still plays a bit online.