- Alright, controversial item #2 for today. There’s been an incredible amount of press lately regarding Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez’s film “Gigli”, now known as “Tough Love”. Apparently, the film hasn’t been testing very well with audiences, the ending’s been changed, and some folks over at the widely read Aint It Cool News website have been ripping the flick to shreds. Not a good sign, for sure. But hey, that’s why studios test their films before releasing them to the general public, to try and work this stuff out ahead of time.
Why are we telling you all this? Well, we think the release of this film might also impact the release timetable of Jersey Girl. But more on that in a minute. Today’s Page Six had an item that continues the “Tough Love” saga and takes it to the next level”
By RICHARD JOHNSON with Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson
THE producer and director of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s upcoming “Tough Love” got into a shouting match after a test screening for the picture left the audience unhappy, sources said.
According to industry tipsters, early test audiences responded so poorly to the romantic comedy about a mobster, his lesbian love interest and a young retarded man that producer Joe Roth gave Marty Brest an extra $5 million to reshoot the ending.
But when Brest showed the new, more traditional ending to an L.A. audience the other day, the response was another resounding thud, and tempers went through the roof.
“Joe Roth and Marty Brest got into a huge fight,” our spy tells PAGE SIX’s Ian Spiegel man. “Marty said, ‘See, we did it your way, we did your Hollywood ending, and people hated it!’”
Roth “basically” responded, ‘[Bleep] you!’”
But before things got out of hand, Affleck came to the rescue. “Ben and J.Lo heard screaming, so he went outside and broke them up. He had to calm them down,” our source said.
The film has had a troubled history. Its title was changed from “Gigli.” Its release date has been moved back several times. Originally set for a November 2002 launch, it’s now due out in August.
A rep for Revolution Studios has a more gentle account. “There was a creative disagreement among the many people involved with the film,” she said. “The disagreement was not over scenes that were reshot, but over suggested cuts for the final feature.”
It all ended happily, says the rep. “There has now been a meeting of the minds, and everyone has come up with a cut that both parties are happy with.
“Ben was present during the disagreement but there was no fight to break up and no expletives were exchanged.” According to a reviewer for the Aint’ It Cool News Web site, everyone involved has plenty to wail about. The pseudononymous critic pronounced the movie “an unreleaseable piece of [bleep]!”
The writer trashed the dialogue, stating that J.Lo delivers a monolgue about her private parts “which is even more degrading and embarrassing than Liz Berkley’s “I am not a whore” speech in “Showgirls.”
“I’m actually surprised that J.Lo didn’t take a stand and say to Brest, ‘You don’t really expect me to say those lines, do you?’”
Hey, Ben’s a hero! Good stuff.
Alright, we’ll be keeping on top of this one: Our feelings are that if “Tough Love” ends up getting pushed back further, or even shelved indefinitely, Jersey Girl might hit theaters sooner than originally planned. Of course, that’s not necessarily true, but we do know that the studios aren’t going to want to release two Ben/Jen films in close proximity, and perhaps, even moreso, Miramax might want to bump Jersey Girl up just to beat out the release of “Tough Love”…After all, if the film really does play as poorly as rumored, they might not want that imagine in audience’s heads when the Jersey Girl trailers start to air.
Anyway, it’s a very interesting little saga going on here, and, while it might not affect JG at all, we thought we’d let you know the full story all the same. Our coverage of “Tough Love” will be limited, regardless, but we’ll keep you up to date on anything interesting.
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