I hate the Hollywood rumor mills which percolate homes every day. Via television shows, tabloid publications and the Internet, it’s a conglomerate of who said what and who’s dating whom, but recently the gossip circles have gone too far.
J-Lo and Ben Affleck are engaged (but will they elope on Valentine’s Day?); they have been caught necking in a traffic jam; Lopez placed $250,000 bet in the Super Bowl (but not Ben), and I couldn’t care less, but trying to avoid the wrath of these gossip mongers is hopeless.
Everywhere I turn are J-Lo and Affleck. When I go to the grocery store they’re on the cover of every tabloid newspaper on the shelf, not to mention the fashion magazines, and if you look closely you can see the two showing up inside more respectable publications like Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report.
Surfing the Internet, J-Lo and her soon-to-be hubby are found on the front page of CNN’s Web site. Oh look, there they are again on MTV’s Web site. I thought MTV was music television, but I suppose they consider J-Lo’s new album “This is Me…Then” slightly above mediocre.
And isn’t that what this whole fascination is about — two ordinary entertainers who are tying the knot. They are the vanilla ice cream of their respective fields of entertainment — plain and average.
Lopez can’t sing, act, design clothes or produce perfume with a pleasant bouquet. Watch her new movie “Maid in Manhattan” and listen to her new single with LL Cool J “All I Have” and you’ll experience the most average person in the world trying to be something she is not. Truthfully, she still is Jenny from the block.
Name a movie that Ben Affleck was in that was good. Try. You thought he was good in “Good Will Hunting.” Yeah, he co-wrote the screenplay, but he was barely in the movie, and the new “Daredevil” flick will prove my argument that he is an average Joe trying to make a buck with his pretty face.
Yet, as average and boring as these two are, the dogged pursuit of their private lives seems to captivate the entire planet. Even I fell victim to this curiosity machine that recently has brought conspiracy theories to my mind.
I find myself wondering how they will get married without anyone finding out the location. Or maybe they already are married. Could this J-Lo and Ben Affleck romance be a scam to intrigue the public enough to buy their average music and watch their bland movies?
If so, the con worked because Lopez has the No. 1 song in the country, while Affleck’s “Daredevil” is destined to be a smash hit with discussion of a sequel already in the works.
This rampant exposure of their personal lives is obnoxious and grossly annoying. There is a world crisis with the Iraq situation — not to mention the ever-slumping economy — and the only thing certain factions of the media discuss is what Lopez and Affleck’s wedding invitations will look like.