Rehab, Strippers & What Really Happened With J. Lo — Ben Affleck’s 25 Biggest Secrets & Scandals REVEALED
Oct. 1 2014, Published 8:29 p.m. ET
It seems like he’s been around forever. And you may think you know everything there is to know about Ben Affleck but the father-of-three just might surprise you. Here are a few tidbits that we unearthed about the world’s new Batman.
The full-frontal nudity scene in Ben’s movie Gone Girl may have got a lot of column inches but it’s not the first time Affleck’s penis has got attention. Speaking at the Producers Guild Awards in January 2014, Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre joked about the actor’s genitals, saying the new Batman is “sufficiently endowed to take on the role of the Dark Knight.”
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As a fresh-faced teen he appeared in a Burger King TV commercial. But in a 2010 interview with CBS News he says the ad was a flop. Ben said, “I mean, how do you fail in a Burger King campaign?”
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Ben was named after a Holocaust survivor. His middle name – Geza – is that of his parents’ Hungarian friend.
ben affleck voyage of the mimi
Like Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus, Ben is a former child actor. He got his big break at the age of eight on the PBS series The Voyage of the Mimi.
ben affleck and matt damon
He has been Matt Damon’s best friend for a long time. The future Oscar winners met each other when Ben was eight and Matt, who lived two blocks away from him in Massachusetts, was 10. They played Little League together and also took drama classes at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.
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He studied politics at George Washington University in Washington D.C. before transferring to New York’s Columbia University after his freshman year. He quit his studies altogether after his junior year.
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Ben may have won an Oscar in 1998 for Best Original Screenplay for penning Good Will Hunting with buddy Matt Damon but allegations persist that the two didn’t actually write it. According to different versions of the rumor either William Goldman – who wrote All The President’s Men – or Ted Tally, who is behind The Silence of the Lambs, wrote it. Both men have denied such claims.
ben affleck and father
Like Matt’s character in Good Will Hunting, Ben’s father Timothy was a janitor at a university. The actor told The Hollywood Reporter, “He was an auto mechanic and a bartender and a janitor at Harvard.”
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A huge baseball fan, Ben (along with Matt Damon and hundreds of others) was an extra in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, which starred Kevin Costner.
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Ben admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that his father Tim – who has been sober for decades – was an alcoholic when he was growing up. He said, “It was difficult. When one’s parent is an alcoholic it’s hard.”
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Shampoo commercials are not just for female celebrities. In 2003 Ben was the star of an L’Oreal ad campaign promoting the company’s shampoo. It aired in the U.K. but was not shown in the U.S.
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A decade after they broke up – and Bennifer was no more – the actor says he still sends Jennifer Lopez emails. He told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012, “We don’t have the kind of relationship where she relies on me for advice, but we do have the kind of relationship where there’ll be an email saying, ‘Oh, your movie looks great’.”
ben affleck and charlie sheen
In 2001 Ben entered rehab to address his hard partying lifestyle. And Charlie Sheen (then-sober) reportedly drove him to Promises – the exclusive drug and alcohol center in Malibu – to start his treatment.
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In 2003 Ben faced a tabloid scandal when it was alleged that he partied up a storm at a Vancouver strip joint called Brandi’s Exotic Nightclub. Defending his honor a dancer called Felicia told People magazine that Ben – then engaged to J. Lo – was a gentleman. She said, “He asked if I watched the news, then said he was excited about getting married.”
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More than a decade after he had his own issues with alcohol, Ben reportedly visited party girl and jailbird Lindsay Lohan during her 2013 stint in rehab.
ben afflek coffee
Yes, even Ben Affleck has a Starbucks alias. In 2013 he was snapped clutching an iced coffee from the popular chain. Scrawled on the cup was the name “Spencer.”
ben affleck and matt damon
Lifelong friends and joint Oscar winners, Matt Damon and Ben are actually distant cousins. According to the New England Genealogical Society the stars are 10th cousins once removed. They are descendants of William Knowlton Jr. an English bricklayer who settled in the U.S. in the 1630s.
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When it comes to his temper, Ben is a slow burner but once the pot boils, watch out. He told the U.K.’s The Sunday Times in September 2014, “I tend to be respectful, polite, get along, put up with, put up with, put up with…then, when it finally emerges, it’s not something I have a ton of control over.”
danielle fishel
He’s a superhero in real life. In her memoir Normally This Would Be Cause For Concern, former Boy Meets World actress Danielle Fishel says he once rescued her after she fell over in a pair of 5-inch heels. She wrote, “My first thought was something like, ‘Please don’t bleed on this handsome man, Danielle’ and my next thought was ‘Holy hell, this man is Ben Affleck’.”
ben affleck kevin smith
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According to his old buddy Kevin Smith, Ben had a type of Batcave built into his home. The director – who bought the star’s old house – told Entertainment Weekly, “He built a panic room and the entrance was built to look like a Batcave entrance. It’s a bookcase that you click a button and the bookcase slides back.”
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Conspiracy theorists believe Ben is a secret government operative and that his Oscar-winning film Argo was part of a secret mission. Writing for Iranian’s state news agency Press TV, Kevin Barrett quoted a U.S. intelligence expert who reportedly said the film’s purpose was to “convince the American people to go along with Israel’s plan to drag America into a war on Iran.”
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Ben shares a birthday with another Jennifer Lopez ex. Like her second husband Cris Judd, the actor’s birthday is on August 15.
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Speaking of J. Lo she once wrote a song – “Dear Ben” – about her love for the actor. The lyrics include the lines, “I love you, you’re perfect, a manifestation of my dreams…”
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He may be the new Batman but Ben also donned a Superman outfit in one of his movies. In the 2006 film Hollywoodland he played the actor George Reeves who portrayed Superman on TV in the 1950s.
ben affleck tattoo
He has a dolphin tattoo on his hip.
