By their standards, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have been real quiet the last few weeks. That was ostensibly because he was working on his Nike movie with Matt Damon – and it’s one of the reasons Bennifer managed to pull this off. Nobody was expecting this timing and nobody was expecting it to be how it happened. They were married this weekend and it’s not like they flew their private jet to a remote location for a destination without the paps… 

 

No, their wedding was in a major heatscore location – Las Vegas – on a f-cking Saturday night! In the middle of the summer! 

TMZ reported Sunday that there was a marriage licence. But shortly after, JLo took back her own scoop… ON THE JLO. 

What have I been telling you about On The JLo? Will she probably use our emails later for her own commercial gain? Probably. Am I willing to let her keep my email because she keeps on delivering her own exclusives? 1000 times yes. On The JLo is the best. And if you don’t subscribe, you missed out yesterday because every time she shows up in your email (email! In these times, LOL, she’s going old school with email! Email is like snail mail these days for the TikTok kids!) it’s a good day. 

The Bennifer wedding subverted expectations – let’s not pretend otherwise. Nobody was predicting it to happen this casually. And by casually, I mean that even though she had two wedding dresses, neither one of them was custom. She wore “a dress from an old movie”…

 

…and also dress from the Zuhair Murad bridal collection… 

I repeat, not a dress specifically designed for her. And she didn’t change in a castle or in a suite at a resort on a private island or a mansion on a vineyard, but in the break room of a wedding chapel on the Strip while Ben changed in the bathroom. 

 

Like I said, this is not the story anyone was anticipating – which is what makes it such great gossip. And, for me, what makes it that much more real. They just wanted to get married, it didn’t need to be the “celebrity wedding of the year”. And they clearly weren’t interested in all the chaos that would have accompanied the “celebrity wedding of the year”. Their kids were there, her ma, Guadalupe, was probably there, since Lupe loves the slot machines, and her glam team was there because, I mean, come on, she’s JLo after all; but for all the sh-t that people say about how much they love the attention (and I’m not saying they don’t), they have figured out all these years later (20 years later) how to manage their fame and their intimacy. And their timing.

JLo’s birthday is next Sunday. And, as already mentioned, for the last few weeks, Ben’s been working on the Nike movie. A weekend wedding mid-production on his film?! Married on Saturday and back on set Monday? More on the production schedule in the next post but the point here is the UN-extra-ness of it all from two people who we’ve known to be SO extra. 

 

But from a gossip perspective, from the moment they got back together, it’s been off-script. Think back to last year, when Ben was first seen leaving JLo’s place in LA – nobody saw it coming. Bennifer Part 2 seemed like pure gossip fantasy, the wildest of inconceivable predictions. In a way though, getting married Vegas style only adds to the Bennifer mythology. Because these two people who’ve been very famous for a very long time can somehow still surprise us. This is what makes them so good for gossip. And good for gossip that won’t be bad in a few years. No regrets, on so many levels. 

There is one side-eye though. As Duana texted me last night, with no prelude and no follow-up: 

“As if she changed her name.”

Nobody is calling her Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck, please. 

Also attached, JLo arriving at the studio in LA on Friday.