BEN, J.LO SMOLDER UP THE SET

By RICHARD JOHNSON with Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson

FOR all you cynics who think the Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez romance is a publicity stunt, Kevin Smith has something to say.

Smith, the writer and director of the duo’s latest picture, “Jersey Girl,” writes in his weekly diary on moviepoopshoot.com: “If you’re ever shooting a movie about two people falling in love, I can’t urge you strongly enough to cast a pair of people who are actually falling in love.

“The chemistry between Ben and Jen is so palpable, you could almost bottle it and sell it as an aphrodisiac. Take after take, we watched Ben and Jen [who we couldn’t have cast as love-at-first-sighters at a better time in their lives] flirt through a rapid-fire-dialogue dance of movie meet-cute.

“But this wasn’t just art imitating life,” Smith reports. “Somehow in the midst of all that smolder . . . the performances they gave were nothing short of spellbinding.”

One person definitely not enamored of Affleck is Lopez’s ex-father-in-law, Larry Judd. In a tell-all interview with the National Enquirer, Judd claims Lopez started cheating on her husband Cris Judd with Affleck after just five months of marriage. He says she also cheated on Sean “Puffy” Combs and lied to the press and friends when she left Cris to make herself look good.

“There was talk that Jennifer rebounded to Cris after Puffy, but I don’t believe that,” Larry said. “They had been dating long before [Combs’ club-shooting] trial began.”

According to Larry, Lopez pressed the marriage issue and all was fine until she started filming “Gigli” with Affleck: “She was leaving the house at 5 a.m. and she wouldn’t return until after 10 p.m. . . . Jennifer was spending more time with Ben, and Ben made [Cris] feel unwelcome . . .

“Then in May, she told Cris that their marriage was over and she would be seeking a divorce . . . Jennifer did not conduct herself as a married woman, and Ben did not respect the fact that she was my son’s wife.

“In May, she told Oprah Winfrey how happy she was being married to Cris. It was all a lie to protect her public image!”

As for those reports that Cris got up to $15 million in the divorce settlement, Larry claims his son took nothing: “Despite the fact his wife is one of the richest women in Hollywood, Cris chose not to seek his half of the community property split. As far as I know, my son walked away from his marriage with only his clothes, his new dog and his automobile.”

Cris has been singing a different tune, and in August told PAGE SIX spies that he took home close to $10 million and has just bought a $2 million house in the Hollywood Hills.

Cute street scene Tuesday: Ben Affleck giving movie daughter Raquel Castro a ride on his shoulders, over and over again, on Walnut Street outside the Forrest Theatre. The theater was “renamed” the Zsigmond (why, just like cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond) and the prop marquee read Sweeney Todd. (The marquee not facing the cameras read The Vagina Monologues, premiering Oct. 8.)

One more Jersey Girl baby story: John and Nancy Agnew’s sons, Jaden and Jagger, were born Aug. 14. A week later, the Agnews got a call at their Northeast Philadelphia home from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, saying that producers were shopping for newborns. Preferably two of a kind to play the title character as a baby. Two days later, the Agnews were in a trailer on the set. A knock. It was Affleck and movie wife Jennifer Lopez, who hung out for more than a half-hour. When John Agnew learned that the film baby would be a girl, “I was like, ‘This is not going to work.’ Then they put the [pink] outfits on them, and I said, ‘It’ll work.’ ”

BEN SPEAKS TO CHIO – After weeks of dogging Ben Affleck’s footsteps, court jester Diego finally got Affleck to talk live on Q-102’s “Chio in the Morning” show.

Chio was unprepared with questions because he didn’t think Diego could pull it off, what with tight security around the the star as he filmed “Jersey Girl” at the Forrest Theatre. But Diego stuck a cell phone in Ben’s hand and – voila!

Chio also was unprepared when Affleck claimed to listen to the show in the morning and promised to drop by the station in person. (Morning fem Christie nearly fainted when she heard this.)

(If he does visit, maybe Chio can ask Ben if he really dropped 100Gs at the blackjack table in Atlantic City’s Trump Marina, as the buzz is saying – but Ben’s press spokesman is not.)

CELEB SPOTTING – Actress Liv Tyler – casual in sneaks, jeans and sweater – led a party of six (including her “Jersey Girl” director Kevin Smith) to dinner at the Palm (Broad & Walnut) and picked up the $500 tab. The Lady had lobster bisque and lamb chops, The Director settled for grilled chicken breast. About $200 went for the Italian red wine she favors.

“I had the good fortune of being able to hang out for a week on the set of Kevin Smith´s film Dogma. I got to talk to some of the stars in the flick and soon came to realize that these people are not special. That´s right folks, famous people actually need food and water to survive. They use the bathroom. They have the same fears as you and I.”

Steven Spielberg wasn’t very cooperative when director Kevin Smith (”Chasing Amy”) asked Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment if he could use a clip from “Jaws” in a new film, “Jersey Girl.” “The word came back from Amblin that Spielberg didn’t want to license scenes featuring the shark, based on the primitive special effects in the flick (i.e., the shark looks fake),” Smith writes in a diary he’s keeping about making “Jersey Girl.” “When we chose another scene … the word came back that Spielberg didn’t want to license the use of any scenes in ‘Jaws’ that reminded people how scary the movie was.”