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Ben Affleck details racism Jennifer Lopez endured when they were dating

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James Devaney/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — (NOTE LANGUAGE) Ben Affleck revisited his “Bennifer” days and detailed the racism Jennifer Lopez endured during their brief engagement.

Speaking Thursday to The Hollywood Reporter for its Awards Chatter podcast to promote his upcoming film The Way Back, the 48-year-old actor recalled the abuse tabloids hurled at Lopez when news broke of their romance.

“There’s always a story of the month, and me dating Jennifer Lopez happened to be that tabloid story at the time,” the Gone Girl star explained. “They needed something to write about and we were that thing.”

“People were so f****** mean about her… sexist, racist,” Affleck continued. “Vicious s*** was written about her in ways that, if you wrote it now, you would literally be fired.”

“Now it’s like, she’s lionized and respected for the work she did, where she came from, what she accomplished — as well she f****** should be,” the two-time Oscar winner quipped, noting how hard Lopez worked to be where she is today.

Added Affleck, “I would say you have a better shot — coming from the Bronx — of ending up as like [Justice Sonia] Sotomayor on the Supreme Court than you do of having Jennifer Lopez’s career and being who she is at 50 years old today.”

The two began dating in the early 2000s and announced their engagement in 2002.  During their whirlwind romance, they starred in two movies together, Jersey Girl and Gigli.  Lopez even invited Affleck to star alongside her in her 2002 music video “Jenny from the Block.”

The couple were set to wed in 2003, but postponed their nuptials and, the following year, ended their relationship.

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'The Mandalorian' becomes first streaming show to top Netflix numbers in streaming

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Disney+(LOS ANGELES) — Disney+’s The Mandalorian has become the first program on a streaming platform other than Netflix to top on Nielsen’s streaming rankings, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Star Wars series created by Iron Man director Jon Favreau drew 1.34 billion minutes of viewing time in the week of December 14-20, for its finale — its highest weekly total to date. 

The Mandalorian also notched its record eighth consecutive week in the top 10, according to Neilsen numbers — moving ahead of last week’s #1 show on streaming, NBC’s The Office, which logged 1.31 billion minutes of viewing. Netflix’s The Crown finished third. 

It should be noted that streaming platforms contend that Nielsen’s methodology doesn’t capture the full scope of viewing on devices other than TV sets, and only measures U.S. audiences, not those in other countries.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

By George Costantino and Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lisa Kudrow spills more details on 'Friends' reunion

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Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.(LOS ANGELES) — Nearly a year after HBO Max announced that Friends cast members Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow had agreed to a Friends reunion, the special finally seems to be back on track.

During an appearance on Rob Lowe’s podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe, on Thursday, Kudrow gave an update on the project, which was delayed after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.

The 57-year-old actress, who played Phoebe on the series which aired between 1994 and 2004, revealed the special is definitely on and shooting will begin in the “early spring.”

“I pre-shot something for it already,” she added.  “So we’re definitely doing it because I already shot a little something.”

Kudrow also offered a few deets on the anticipated reunion, confirming, “It’s not a reboot.”

“We’re not portraying our characters,” she explains.  “It’s us getting together, which doesn’t happen a lot and has never happened in front of other people since 2004, when we stopped [filming Friends].”

Perry also took to Twitter back in November to announce that the Friends reunion had been rescheduled for the beginning of March.

“Looks like we have a busy year coming up. And that’s the way I like it!” he wrote.

By George Costantino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Anthony Mackie and Damson Idris explain why previous roles didn't influence their 'Outside the Wire' characters

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Netflix(NEW YORK) — Anthony Mackie brought more than his superhero experience when playing Captain Leo, a super powered android, in the new Netflix sci-fi thriller Outside the Wire.

Along with co-star Damson Idris, who plays drone pilot Lt. Thomas Harp, the two developed a natural chemistry that allowed Mackie to ad-lib certain lines like, “I can do this all day” — a very direct tease to another Captain role in a forthcoming project. 

“That was me,” Mackie laughs, confirming to ABC Audio that he intentionally added the infamous Captain America phrase. “Once Damson and I got on set, the script evolved massively just because of our relationship and because of our personality. And the two of us being together.”

While Mackie’s inserted line serves as a quick nod to his past work, the actor assures fans that Captain Leo is nothing like his Marvel character Sam Wilson/Falcon.

“With this character and with all the other physical characters I’ve played, the only thing they have in common is the physicality of the role,” he explains. “The way they look at the world… around them is vastly different. Sam would never be able to do those things or look at the world the way Leo does in this movie. So, it’s just a completely different character reacting to the world around him in a completely different way.”

Mackie’s co-star Idris agrees, noting that, with his character of Harp, there wasn’t many connections to his Snowfall character of Franklin Saint, a Los Angeles drug dealer.

“Everything was from a beginning stage,” Idris says. “To go from a crack cocaine dealer to a drone pilot is a big shift. So it was just about reading and understanding the mind state of someone who has that job.”  

Outside the Wire is now available on Netflix.

By Candice Williams
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Macaulay Culkin joins petition to edit Donald Trump out of 'Home Alone 2'

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Erik Voake/Getty Images for Adult Swim(LOS ANGELES) — Fans aren’t the only ones who are on board for editing President Donald Trump out of Home Alone 2, so is the movie’s star Macaulay Culkin.

It all started when a fan of the 1992 holiday classic put the idea forward on Sunday, tweeting, “Petition to digitally replace trump in ‘home alone 2’ with 40-year-old macaulay culkin.” 

Culkin replied to the notion on Wednesday with a simple, “Sold.”

The former child star portrayed Kevin McAllister in the beloved Christmas film, which featured a brief cameo by Trump. In the clip, Kevin finds himself in New York’s Plaza Hotel where he stops a stranger — aka Trump — and asks where the lobby is. “Down the hall and to the left,” Trump answers before walking away. 

The call to clip this section of the movie comes after the riots at the U.S. Capitol that occurred on January 6. However, it seems the scene had already been cut out years prior by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The day after Christmas in December 2019 many fans took to Twitter to express their thoughts on Trump’s absence from the film. 

“As is often the case with feature films adapted for television, Home Alone 2 was edited for time. The scene with Donald Trump was one of several that were cut from the movie as none of them were integral to the plot,” the CBC said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “These edits were done in 2014 when we first acquired the film and before Mr. Trump was elected President.”

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.