As Sarah just mentioned, there is a chance that the strike could be coming to an end soon. A chance. Let’s not call it prematurely. For now, and for another weekend, the strike is still on and there are still few opportunities for celebrities to get themselves onto red carpets for award season visibility, which is why the LACMA event on Saturday was even more well-attended than it usually is. 

 

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were there – and they’ve been keeping a lower profile, by their standards, than usual these last few months. I don’t know if it was because of the strike and the optics of it but whatever the reason, we haven’t seen a lot of Bennifer, and definitely not a lot of fancy Bennifer. 

But here are at the LACMA gala, both in Gucci, and obviously shutting down any bullsh-t that they’re not good. You know what kills me about her? And I love it? She posted a photo of them but she made it the last shot in her carousel. 

 

As it should be! Because her look is more important! 

 

To go back to the work, though, and this night was work for many celebrities who are in awards race, it was work for Bennifer too. Because while Air was released many months ago and may not be super top of mind for a lot of voters, Ben’s chances aren’t entirely non-existent. I mean, yes, they’re slim. But it’s not impossible. Especially not when the Gotham Awards are presenting him with the inaugural Visionary Icon and Creator Tribute in a few weeks. He directed Air so, technically, he can promote it as a director, just not as a cast member. Yes, the lines are a little blurry there, the way they’re blurry for Bradley Cooper and Maestro. But this is also basically a lifetime achievement award, so there’s probably a technicality that applies here and besides, the Gothams are still three weeks away, we don’t know what the strike will be by then. 

 

The point is, though, that an award like that, recognising Ben’s career, is a good boost for Air if Ben’s actually trying to get into the Oscar nomination conversation. And he should be there, maybe for Screenplay and one of the ten Best Picture contenders? No chance of a win, but they’re not going for wins in this case. They’re going for nominations, period. That’s the goal of the Air campaign. Will be interesting to see, especially if Ben was supposedly the “architect” of one of the proposals that the A List stars presented to SAG-AFTRA about movie star compensation, if his goodwill among the actors and in the industry might be a factor here for his film. 

Also attached – Bennifer holding hands at the flea market yesterday. He really loves that t-shirt, I wonder how many of them he owns.