Stars working it out for ‘Jersey Girl’

What are Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez doing five or sometimes even six times a week? Sometimes with Liv Tyler as well?

The Jersey Girl stars are working out with Lopez’s personal trainer, Gunnar Peterson, who flew in from Beverly Hills last month for the film shoot. Peterson, who also trains Christian Slater, Penelope Cruz, Sylvester Stallone and others, found discreet local gyms. He says the actors – “in great shape in every way” – do 60 to 90 minutes of weights, interval training, “super setting” (two exercises back-to-back before resting), and “peripheral heart action.”

They love it. “Exercise doesn’t have to be that foreboding thing that hangs out there that we all dread,” Peterson says. “They come in happy, they laugh, we get it done.” Longest he’s been out of his studio was four months, when he trained Mike Tyson. “I called my wife [in California] the other day and said: ‘I’m a Philly guy now.’ ”

Sure. The one with the rock-hard abs.

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They came to play

Settlement Music School got a call late Sept. 13 – the Friday night of a three-day weekend – for an 18-piece adult orchestra for Tuesday morning. Settlement’s Bill Hughes managed to pull together faculty, who wore concert black and sat on stage at the Forrest Theater while Jersey Girl cameras filmed a scene from Sweeney Todd. Ben Affleck and young costar Raquel Castro watched from the balcony. The players played… not a note. Singers in the scene were miked, but music will be dubbed in later. “They wanted to make it look authentic,” says violinist Monique Johnson, surmising why she and fellow musicians put in an 11-hour day.

Writer/director Vincent Pereira’s career in film began at an unlikely place, a N.J. Quick Stop. There, mired in the mundane, he’d spend long hours talking with a fellow employee about films, hashing and rehashing the art while vowing to do it better if given the chance.

A lot of times, that’s where the dream begins and ends for most convenience store workers. But Pereira’s Quick Stop partner was Kevin Smith, who was working on a script he called “In Convenience.” Thanks in part to Pereira’s encouragement, Smith went on to develop what became “Clerks,” the quirky hit that launched Smith’s career into the stratosphere.

Smith didn’t forget his old friend when Hollywood called. He helped fund Pereira’s first film, “A Better Place,” which is showcased this month on the Independent Film Channel.

In this DIY Reporter interview, Pereira talks about how two Jersey guys who loved talking about films wound up making them….

First, Friday night Now You Know played to a full house, who all seemed to enjoy it very much. Kevin’s cameo was well received, with much whooping and hollering from the audience. During the Q & A after the screening, Jeff gave Kevin some props, and said showing him the film was like “getting approval from his dad.”

Yesterday, Joey Lauren Adams did an “Actors on Acting” panel with Chris Gore. He asked her what she thought her best moment on film was and she said “hands down, no question” the exterior hockey rink scene in Amy. She then said she still had that speech memorized, and gave us the first handful of lines in super fast-forward. She was very cool, staying about an hour after her segment ended, talking to fans outside one-on-one.