Let’s get the garbage out of the way first. Near the end of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s film, Air, Matt’s character, Sonny Vaccaro, delivers a monologue for Michael Jordan and his parents as he tries to persuade the Jordans to sign with Nike. It’s a goosebump moment because we know that everything he says in the speech comes true. Michael Jordan would go on to become the greatest. Michael Jordan would eventually mean more to sports and culture than anyone could imagine – and all of that significance is represented in a shoe that, as we all know now, is not just a shoe.
This weekend in a new campaign ad, Donald Trump made those words about himself. The way Matt Damon described Michael Jordan? Trump’s team used that audio so that it sounded like Matt was talking about the incompetent loser criminal piece of sh-t 45th president of the United States. Without permission. So Matt and Ben’s company, Artists’ Equity, has issued a f-ck you:
“We had no foreknowledge of, did not consent to and do not endorse or approve any footage or audio from ‘Air’ being repurposed by the Trump campaign as a political advertisement or for any other use,” a spokesperson for Artists Equity told Variety on Sunday “Specifically in terms of any and all rights available to us under U.S. copyright and intellectual property law, we hereby, expressly give notice that in the case of any use of material from ‘Air’ by the Trump campaign where approval or consent is required, we do not grant such consent.”
This isn’t a surprise on any level. It’s not a surprise, given what we know of Matt and Ben and their politics, that they would not want to have anything to do with Donald Trump. But it’s also not a surprise that Trump and his people would just, you know, steal sh-t. Copyright law is nothing to these people. The law, period, is nothing to these people. He absconded with classified documents! The man is rotten, a total crook. What’s a scene from a movie?!
Anyway, in other less illegal news, back to Ben and Jennifer Lopez and their appearance last night at The Flash premiere. Last time they were on a carpet the internet played Photo Assumption with their body language and came to the wrong conclusion that there was trouble. There was no trouble. The money always tells you if there’s trouble and since then they dropped $60 million on a new home and as you can see, they were serving good energy only last night… for HIS event.
Because that’s another theory about these two: that when they’re together to promote his projects, he doesn’t have his grumpy face on but when it’s her sh-t that they’re there to promote he’s definitely not as jacked. This one I can buy – he definitely seems less comfortable as a plus-one than he is when he’s the guest of honour. Which was an issue for him 20 years ago when they were initially together. As awkward as he is in those situations though, these days he appears to have accepted, maybe even embraced, the fact that she’s THE JLo, one of only a handful of Mega Superstars in the culture. I mean, look at her. This outfit is SO good. The long sleeveless zip-vest with the high collar over a flowy beige skirt and the perfectly straight long pony? She consistently shows up for him and, for now at least, he looks like he appreciates it.
