Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Jennifer Lopez
files for divorce
from Ben Affleck
LOS ANGELES | After a relationship that spanned two decades, two engagements, two weddings and headlines too numerous to count, Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck.
The filing Tuesday in Los Angeles brought to an apparent end a celebrity coupling — or at least the second installment of it — that dazzled from the very heights of the pop culture firmament and emblazoned countless tabloid covers. The pair became known, even before such power-couple portmanteaus were ubiquitous, as “Bennifer.”
Court records showed Lopez filed the petition Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The news was first reported by the TMZ website. TMZ reported further that Lopez listed the date of separation as April 26, 2024. It added that she did not mention any prenuptial agreement.
After meeting, falling in love and getting engaged in the early 2000s — and starring together in 2003’s infamous “Gigli” and 2004’s “Jersey Girl” — the couple parted ways, blaming in part the pressure of the public eye.
But to the delight of many and perhaps the skepticism of others, they reunited two decades later and married — twice — in 2022.
“Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient,” wrote Lopez, announcing their first, quickie Las Vegas wedding that July, and signing off as Jennifer Lynn Affleck.
“Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at 12:30 in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with,” she wrote in her newsletter.
The couple had flown to Las Vegas, lined up with their license with four other couples and were wed just after midnight at A Little White Wedding Chapel, where Lopez said a Bluetooth speaker played their brief march down the aisle. She called it the best night of the couple’s lives.
A month later, they had a much grander wedding at Affleck’s house in Georgia, in front of friends and family.
A timeline of ‘Bennifer’ 2.0
Both of them had been previously married. Affleck, 52, married Jennifer Garner, with whom he shares three children, in 2005. They divorced in 2018.
Lopez, 55, had been married three times before. She was briefly married to Ojani Noa from 1997-1998 and to Cris Judd from 2001-2003. She and singer Marc Anthony were married for a decade, having wed in 2004, and share 14-year-old twins. She started dating former baseball player Alex Rodriguez in 2017, but the couple called off their engagement in 2021.
All along, it had been Lopez who was more vocal in describing her and Affleck’s journey. When asked earlier this year whether she was harder on herself because her relationships had been so high-profile, Lopez agreed.
“Oh yeah. 100%. It’s made me doubt myself and really feel bad about myself at times. Made me feel like I wanted to quit at times. But at the end of the day, I feel like you kind of have to do this thing where you learn how to navigate it,” she told The Associated Press. “You take the things that could be constructive about that and use it, and the rest you kind of just throw away as kind of like haterations or, you know, other things like that and just be like, ‘Whatever. I know who I am, I know what I want to do.’ “
Affleck himself expressed admiration for her self-possession, telling the AP last year that he agreed with the idea that Hollywood was unsure how to capitalize on her wide-ranging talent.
“I think she’s in her prime,” Affleck said then. “She’s doing extraordinary work in large measure because she’s taking that step to take responsibility for what she’s doing rather than say, ‘This is what I’m being offered.’ “
Lopez is starring in the upcoming “Unstoppable,” under Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity banner.
In May, she starred in the Netflix movie “Atlas.” At the end of the month, she suddenly canceled her 2024 North American tour, saying she was “heartsick and devastated” to be letting fans down but the move was necessary. “Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends,” organizers said in a statement.
Lopez described love in her latest album, ‘This is Me… Now’
The tour was to be her first in five years, in support of her first solo album in a decade, “This Is Me… Now” and its companion film. a fictionalized look at her long love life, and a documentary.
“When I was a girl they’d ask me what I’d be. A woman in love is what I grew up wantin’ to be,” Lopez sang on the title track.
The album, she said, was inspired by her rekindled relationship with Affleck. But the film was more “about your journey as a person, it’s about one person’s journey and what it takes to get from heartbreak back to love. Or a hopeless romantic’s journey in their search for love.” In the movie, she played a character called The Artist who, similarly, had decided as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up: “in love.”
But the road was rocky. In an early scene, The Artist is on the back of a motorcycle, riding across a beach, with a hunky man, face shielded. Then the motorcycle crashes.
“Not all love stories have a happy ending,” she says.
Florida quietly removes LGBTQ+ travel info from
state website
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. | Key West, Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors and St. Petersburg are among several Florida cities that have long been top U.S. destinations for LGBTQ+ tourists. So it came as a surprise this week when travelers learned that Florida’s tourism marketing agency quietly removed the “LGBTQ Travel” section from its website sometime in the past few months.
Business owners who cater to Florida’s LGBTQ+ tourists said Wednesday that it marked the latest attempt by officials in the state to erase the LGBTQ+ community. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis previously championed a bill to forbid classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, and supported a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, as well as a law meant to keep children out of drag shows.
“It’s just disgusting to see this,” said Keith Blackburn, who heads the Greater Fort Lauderdale LGBT Chamber of Commerce. “They seem to want to erase us.”
The change to Visit Florida’s website was first reported by NBC News, which noted a search query still pulls up some listings for LGBTQ+-friendly places despite the elimination of the section.
John Lai, who chairs Visit Florida’s board, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. Dana Young, Visit Florida’s CEO and president, didn’t respond to a voicemail message Wednesday, and neither did the agency’s public relations director.
Visit Florida is a public-private partnership between the state of Florida and the state’s tourism industry. The state contributes about $50 million each year to the quasi-public agency from two tourism and economic development funds.
Florida is one of the most popular states in the U.S. for tourists, and tourism is one of its biggest industries. Nearly 141 million tourists visited Florida in 2023, with out-of-state visitors contributing more than $102 billion to Florida’s economy.
Before the change, the LGBTQ+ section on Visit Florida’s website had read, “There’s a sense of freedom to Florida’s beaches, the warm weather and the myriad activities — a draw for people of all orientations, but especially appealing to a gay community looking for a sense of belonging and acceptance.”
Blackburn said the change and other anti-LGBTQ+ policies out of Tallahassee make it more difficult for him to promote South Florida tourism since he encounters prospective travelers or travel promoters who say they don’t want to do business in the state.
Last year, for instance, several civil rights groups issued a travel advisory for Florida, saying that policies championed by DeSantis and Florida lawmakers are “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.”
But visitors should also understand that many Florida cities are extremely inclusive, with gay elected officials and LGBTQ+-owned businesses, and they don’t reflect the policies coming from state government, Blackburn added.
“It’s difficult when these kinds of stories come out, and the state does these things, and we hear people calling for a boycott,” Blackburn said. “On one level, it’s embarrassing to have to explain why people should come to South Florida and our destination when the state is doing these things.”
King Charles III meets with survivors of stabbing rampage
LONDON | King Charles III met Tuesday with survivors of the stabbing rampage that killed three young girls in northern England, viewing flowers and teddy bears laid in remembrance of the victims and signing a book of condolence as Britain recovers from widespread unrest fueled by misinformation around the tragedy.
The monarch traveled to the seaside town of Southport, northwest of Liverpool, for a private meeting where he heard the experiences of some of the children who were attacked at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29.
After the meeting, Charles signed the book of condolence at Southport Town Hall, adding, “In deepest sympathy.”
The king’s visit came as people throughout Britain assess the implications of a week of anti-immigrant unrest that followed the attack after right-wing activists used social media to spread false claims that a Muslim immigrant was behind the stabbing.
But in Southport, the community has focused on the three young girls who lost their lives in the attack: Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9.
On Tuesday, Charles offered his support.
Crowds cheered the king outside Southport Town Hall, where mourners have placed bunches of flowers and cuddly toys in tribute to the slain children.
Among those meeting the monarch were Paige Whitby, Harriet Neal, Naomi Taylor, all 13, and 10-year-old Emie Todd. The children said they raised 2,000 pounds ($2,600) for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital by selling lemonade.
“It was shocking to meet the king,” Naomi said. “We were excited and nervous.’’
Charles also met with police, paramedics and other emergency service workers who responded to the attack and the disorder that followed, as well as local people who helped each other out in a time of confusion and distress.
That included siblings Antony and Jenna Johnson who run an ice cream shop in Southport and gave free treats to local children in the days after the attack.
“We wanted to give out ice creams after the riot because the kids had all been terrified,” Jenna Johnson said. “We wanted to give them something to come out of the house for.”
The U.K.’s worst unrest in more than a decade led to some 1,100 arrests. The government pledged that rioters who hurled bricks at police, looted shops and attacked mosques and hotels used to house asylum-seekers would feel “the full force of the law.”
—From AP reports
