How do you celebrate the biggest awards victory of your life? If you are Ben Affleck, and Argo just took home the Oscar for Best Picture, you finally make your famous wife happy… by shaving your bushy beard! As first reported by TMZ, Affleck has returned to the land of the clean shaven by actually giving himself a shave in the hallway of a Beverly Hills restaurant. Why did he finally ditch the look? Sources say Jennifer Garner wasn’t a fan. But were you? Which Ben Affleck do you like best? And the Winner is? Bearded! Click Here To Vote for Bearded! Clean Shaven! Click Here To Vote for Clean Vote now and decide: Which version of Ben Affleck do you like best? View Poll »
Jeremy Renner is set to star in a whole different kind of born franchise. Insiders confirm to Us Weekly that the actor revealed to Eva Longoria at the Golden Globes on Sunday that his unnamed ex-girlfriend is pregnant and he’s going to be a father for the first time. The child is actually due next month, with sources telling the tabloid Renner is being “ultra-secretive” about it all. “They used to date but it wasn’t serious,” says this magazine mole, explaining that the expectant mother is currently living in Renner’s Los Angeles home. It’s unclear why the Oscar nominee is so quiet about it all. Last year he grew quite perturbed over rumors over his sexuality, exploding to The Hollywood Reporter over chatter that he was gay with: “I want my personal life to be personal, and it’s not f-cking true.” This should at least clear that talk up.
Two people have been killed in a college parking lot in Kentucky, according to reports. The shooting occurred as a result of domestic dispute; a gunman fired into a vehicle, killing a man and a woman and wounding a 12-year-old girl. He has been charged with murder and attempted murder. The violence late Tuesday in a college parking lot locked down the campus as police searched the two buildings of Hazard Community and Technical College. Hazard, Ky., Police Chief Minor Allen said the shooting resulted from a dispute between the alleged gunman and a woman who was one of those killed. Dalton Stidham, 21, was charged with two counts of murder, 20-year-old Caitlin Cornett and her uncle, 53-year-old Jackie Cornett, and one count of attempted murder. The wounded girl was Jackie Cornett’s daughter, and remains in critical condition Wednesday morning at University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington. Caitlin Cornett, a student at the college, and Stidham had a child together and met to exchange custody of the child. Police aren’t sure what led to the shooting. College President Stephen Greiner said that at the time of the shooting, there were probably about 30 students on campus, and that staff responded quickly. “Our thoughts and sympathy are with the families of the victims of this tragedy,” he said.
Jennifer Lopez taped an interview this week with Ellen DeGeneres and when talk turned to Ben Affleck winning Best Director at the 2013 Golden Globes, the beauty had nothing but great things to say about Argo and the man she once agreed to marry. “It was a nice to see him [Ben] have that moment,” J. Lo tells the host in the following clip. “I was really happy for him.” Is the ex- American Idol judge being sincere? It sure seems that way – and it helps when you have someone such as Casper Smart by your side. Watch the exchange now: Jennifer Lopez Speaks on Ben Affleck
Steven Spielberg will screen his Oscar contender in the U.S. Senate. Also in Thursday’s round-up of news, Casey Affleck is eyeing a crime thriller; Tron is making another return; records were released surrounding TDKR Colorado shooter James Holmes; and Glenn Beck & Vince Vaughn are developing a documentary filmmaker competition. Lincoln Invited to Screen U.S. Senate Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has invited Steven Spielberg to screen Lincoln in the Senate chamber later this month. The film screened by invitation of President Obama at the White House on November 15th, Deadline reports . Casey Affleck Eyes Boston Strangler Pic Affleck hopes to star in the thriller about the desperate search to find the mass murderer who gripped Boston in fear in the early ’60s. Warner Bros. picked up the thriller, Deadline reports . New Tron Back in Development A Tron 3 sequel to 2010 reboot Tron: Legacy is back on track. Plot details are being kept secret, but Joseph Kosiniski, who directed Legacy is attached to direct the new pic, THR reports . TDKR Shooter’s Records Released as Theater Is Set to Re-open The documents reveal a romantic relationship accused killer James Holmes had and one of his professors feared for her students’ safety. The theater where the shooting occurred is set to reopen January 17th during a ceremony that will be attended by Colorado’s governor, THR reports . Glenn Beck and Vince Vaughn Teaming for Documentary Filmmaker Competition Show The conservative personality is working to start a reality show called Pursuit of the Truth with Vince Vaughn in which 20 documentarians will compete for financing and distribution of their films and is accepting “filmmakers of all walks of life,” Indiewire reports .
Ben Affleck ‘s Argo is in the running for a host of possible Oscar nods this season. And while the film, which he directs and stars in is now just shy of making $100 million in the U.S. (it’s closing in on $150 million internationally) critical acclaim and the big bucks mask some of the pitfalls of moviemaking. For the first time, Affleck had to give some actors the boot while shooting the feature based on a true story set during the Iranian hostage crisis. “I’ve fired a couple of actors. It’s the worst thing in the world because I know, as an actor, what it’s like,” Affleck said during THR ‘s directors roundtable discussion via Access Hollywood . “I was a child actor, and the director threatened to fire me. That traumatized me. I was 13 years old. And I went around in fear of being fired.” The Good Will Hunting Oscar-winner first went behind the camera as director with Gone Baby Gone in 2007, but was forced to sack a few actors during Argo . “This movie [Argo] was the only time I really fired people, but I had to do it,” he said. “I had all these Persian actors who were supposed to speak Farsi. And often they would audition in English and I would say, ‘You can speak Farsi, right?’ ‘Oh, yes, yes.'” Affleck recalled one actor who hammed up his part as an Iranian during production, using some stereotypes that prompted Affleck to call him on his tricks. “A guy came in for a really crucial part, and on the day of shooting, we were blocking the scene, and this guy’s got this mini speech,” he said. “And the guy did it, and it was just terrible. He was sort of like, you know, twisting the mustache and being the Iranian villain and having the accent and adding all these flourishes. A couple times I said, ‘Just do nothing and say your lines. Let’s try that.” And another actor ran afoul after trying to grab camera time, also getting the boot after one incident. “There was this guy who had a little bit in the movie, but it was so nice,” Ben said. “And then when this other guy was blowing it — and not just blowing it, but hamming it up — it made it easy to say, ‘No, you know, you’re trying to ruin my movie.'” [ Source: Access Hollywood ]
South Park is either getting seriously meta, or bizarrely free-associative in its advanced age. The beginning of Wednesday night’s new episode of the Comedy Central series saw the relentlessly cheerful and naively optimistic character Butters Stotch become a pint-sized rageaholic that is initially attributed to his Hawaiian roots, but later turns out to be about the charmed life of Ben Affleck . After arriving on the island of Kaua’i to engage in a rite of passage that, presumably, will cure him of the furies, Butters inexplicably vents about Affleck, wondering how after the mediocrity of Daredevil , the actor/director “can hit a home run that everyone loves,” a reference to Affleck’s critically well-received Argo . “You shouldn’t be able to be good looking, and be with Jennifer Lopez and be a good director,” Butters wails ” Argo is a good movie! It holds up! Ben Affleck has everything, Braaaaa!” (Affleck and Lopez were featured in a famous 2003 South Park episode called “Fat Butt and Pancake Head.” At one point, Butters summons up enough rage to sink a cruise ship with a golf ball. His battle cry: “Stupid Ben Affleck!” The cure for his vexation: Jennifer Garner . Butters cools his jets when someone points out that Affleck is no longer with JLo and is now married to Garner. “He’s just married to Jennifer Garner? Oh my gosh, I feel so much better!” Butters says, setting up one of the most creative insults I’ve heard on South Park . “Ben Affleck has a lot going for him,” Butters says as he walks off into the Hawaiian sunset with Kenny. “Not everything, but a lot.” Maybe I’m reading too much into this plot point, but I wonder if creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are making a bigger point here, or whether they were just free-associating at such a high speed that things appear to mean more than they do. Regardless, there are some interesting coincidences that have me looking for a larger meaning. For example: -Is there some kind of connection to be drawn between Butters’ ire and the fact that Garner’s latest movie is titled Butter ? -Are Parker and Stone somehow also having some fun with Argo producer George Clooney? One of the subplots of the South Park episode is about residents of Kaua’i claiming to be natives of Hawaii when they’re just longtime residents who got there before the more recent tourists, whom they despise. Although Clooney’s name is not mentioned in the episode, I was reminded of the plot of Alexander Payne’s 2011 movie The Descendants , which starred the actor and got him an Best Actor Oscar nomination. In the movie, Clooney plays a genuine Hawaii native who’s grappling with selling his family’s 25,000 acres of pristine Kaua’i land to a developer. -Am I spending too much time looking for meaning in South Park episodes? If anyone out there can make sense of this, I’d love to read your interpretation in the comments section. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
