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.