drinking – Movie Smack Talk

Ben Affleck has been busy the past couple weeks, promoting his latest film, ‘The Tender Bar‘ which was directed by George Clooney.

The 49-year-old movie star was on ‘The Howard Stern Show‘ this week, and during the conversation, Affleck talked about his drinking problem. He admitted that if he were still married to Jennifer Garner, he’d most likely still be drinking daily.

We probably would’ve ended up at each other’s throats. I probably still would’ve been drinking. Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped. I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’ And what I did was [I] drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.

Affleck and Garner got married back in 2005 and divorced in 2018. They have three children together. Some of you may remember that Garner was very supportive when Affleck entered rehab for alcoholism. She was right there by his side, which is why some people have a problem with Affleck’s comments.

They feel like he’s blaming his drinking on Garner, but I don’t think that’s what he was trying to say. I think he was simply saying he felt trapped in his marriage and didn’t have the proper tools to deal with it.

And he spoke highly of Garner during the rest of the interview, saying she’s a great mother who he still loves, but just shouldn’t be married to.

Everything you read [in the news about the divorce] was bulls–t. The truth was we took our time, we made our decision … We grew apart. We had a marriage that didn’t work. This happens. She’s somebody I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer.
We did it amicably. We did our best. Did we have moments of tension? Did we have disagreements over custody? Was stuff difficult for us? Did we get angry? Yes, but fundamentally it was always underpinned with a respect.

These days, Affleck is with another Jennifer, Jennifer Lopez. They are still going strong.

This is certainly an interesting strategy. Instead of waiting to see if the allegations against him came out, Morgan Spurlock decided to release the allegations himself. It was almost like a confessional on social media.

The Super Size Me documentarian, who recently sold his sequel doc Holy Chicken! to YouTube Red for $3.5 million, revealed that he can no longer sit back and wait. He doesn’t want to be part of the problem anymore. Instead, he wants to be part of the solution, and the first step in that? Coming clean.

He started out his confessional by writing…

“As I sit around watching hero after hero, man after man, fall at the realization of their past indiscretions, I don’t sit by and wonder ‘who will be next?’ I wonder, ‘when will they come for me?’ You see, I’ve come to understand after months of these revelations, that I am not some innocent bystander, I am also a part of the problem.”

So what exactly did he do? In the letter, Spurlock reveals he had a sexual encounter in college that ended with his female partner claiming rape. He and this girl were drinking all night, they went back to his room, kissed and fooled around a bit, but she stopped things and stated she did not want to have sex.

“Then we laid in the bed and talked and laughed some more, and then began fooling around again. We took off our clothes. She said she didn’t want to have sex, so we laid together, and talked, and kissed, and laughed, and then we started having sex. And then she started to cry. I didn’t know what to do. We stopped having sex and I rolled beside her. I tried to comfort her. To make her feel better. I thought I was doing ok, I believed she was feeling better. She believed she was raped.”

And then eight years ago, Spurlock settled a sexual harassment allegation at his office. He called his personal assistant “hot pants” and “sex pants,” when he needed her assistance. In the moment, he believed it was funny, but then realized he “had completely demeaned and belittled her to a place of non-existence.”

When she quit, she threatened if he didn’t pay her a settlement, she would tell everyone…

“Being who I was, it was the last thing I wanted, so of course, I paid. I paid for peace of mind. I paid for her silence and cooperation. Most of all, I paid so I could remain who I was. I am part of the problem.”

And finally, he admits to cheating on his wife and every girlfriend he’s ever had. He claims to have a severe drinking problem, revealing he started drinking at 13 and hasn’t stopped for more than a week in 30 years..

You can read his full letter by clicking on this link.