Jennifer Lopez will want to make sure she’s out partying on Saturday night – because her ex-fiance Ben Affleck is planning to poke fun at their romance on national TV in America. The movie hunk will host weekly comedy show Saturday Night Live this weekend, as part of his promotional schedule for new movie Jersey Girl, and he seems more than happy to mock his own high-profile romance. He says, “What I really want to do is get Kevin Smith to do the cameo during the monologue at the beginning of the show and say, ‘Thanks for ruining my movie and making me cast your girlfriend!’ That would be a funny bit.”

BEN AFFLECK – Dateline NBC, Interview with Jane Pauley, NBC, Friday, March 12th.
JASON BIGGS – The Ellen Degeneres Show, syndicated, Tuesday, March 16th.

Ben Affleck Slams Media
Life in the spotlight isn’t easy for Ben Affleck, who vents his frustration with the press in Jersey Girl (opening March 26). He plays a music-industry publicity flack frustrated by balancing fatherhood with work who breaks down during a press conference, telling off a room full of music reporters. Firing back at the press felt cathartic for the 31-year-old Oscar winner, whose breakup with J.Lo has sold lots of tabloid rags this year.
“It wasn’t too tough to film,” Affleck laughs. “When we were shooting, it was at the pinnacle — actually [what] I thought was the pinnacle — of the madness. I felt like I had the inside track on the character.
“For the most part, in my experience, people in the press happen to be bright, interesting, smart, thoughtful, professional people with standards,” he adds diplomatically. “It is a few-bad-apples thing with the media, mostly in the tabloid media, that creates sort of the lowest common denominator, where magazines that used to do straight-ahead journalism now feel they have to compete with screaming headlines and a gossipy angle.”
Affleck knows the press wields great influence over moviegoers’ viewing choices — just look at what media coverage has done for The Passion of the Christ. So he hopes critics will look favorably upon Jersey Girl. “The press always has to be able to say something that is new,” he sighs. “I think the hook [for Jersey Girl] will end up being, ‘This is not Gigli’ or ‘Hey, this movie is actually good!'”
Although Bennifer swept the Razzie Awards with Gigli, Affleck hopes we’ll give him and his famous ex another chance. “Last year was an interesting year. I had a movie that did really well (Daredevil), a gigantic bomb (Gigli) and a movie that performed more or less on par with where it should have (Paycheck). The one that is the biggest Ishtar-like catastrophe is the one that everyone remembers.
“It is actually really nice to have [Jersey Girl] happen now, because it is sort of counters that,” he points out. “I’m really proud of this film. Professionally and personally, being that Jen is in it — even for 10 minutes — it leaves that whole thing on kind of a positive note. It gives me positive memories of my professional experience working with her.”

Kevin Smith: ‘Gigli’ Flop Means ‘Jersey Girl’ Won’t Make Number One
Movie maker Kevin Smith has given up hope of hitting the number one spot with his new movie Jersey Girl – because Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have given the project the kiss of death. The Clerks director thought he’d landed movie gold when the then-couple agreed to appear together in his romantic comedy, but the huge failure of their last joint screen outing Gigli made him realize people don’t want to see the pair together. Smith, a longtime friend of Affleck’s, thought they made a great couple in real life, but admits he can only hope that Jersey Girl isn’t a flop at the box office. He says, “I had the benefit in the beginning of knowing that the movie wasn’t all about them. We kept it real quiet in the beginning because we wanted to have a big surprise but it got punched to the audience with, ‘Guess what, she dies.’ Once Gigli happened her death became a marketing hook. In all honesty, Gigli did kind of wing us and still kind of stings to this day because when I put the movie together it was Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler and Jennifer Lopez and we had a great shot at being the number one movie the weekend we open. After Gigli opened I realized, ‘We’ll never be the number one movie and we’re handicapped at this point.’ ” But Smith’s still confident it will be a hit: “As long as they hear our picture is a little better, I think people will turn out.”

The Movie: Chasing Amy
The Offense: Ben Affleck makes fun of Smith because he was just dumped by Joey Lauren Adams. (Maybe Smith can get some revenge on the Jersey Girl track.)
The Movie: Dogma
The Offense: I think that whole bit on the Dogma commentary where the talk about who was getting laid during the filming is in pretty bad taste.
Kevin talks about how all the actors were great to work with except for Linda Fiorentino, who was always being difficult.
The Movie: Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
The Offense: (Kevin Smith & Jason Mewes) – Jason Mewes leaves midway through to go to the washroom.