If you’ve been following the ongoing saga of Bennifer Collapse 2.0, you may recall one of the factors insiders have suggested is causing the problems? Failure.
Specifically, we’re talking about Jennifer Lopez‘s album, documentary, tour all simultaneously flopping. Supposedly that caused a ton of stress in the household, even moreso because Ben Affleck was a big part of the movie aspect. Much hoopla was made about how the Oscar winner helped J.Lo with the This Is Me… Now film project, and the whole thing just kind of ended with a whimper. She apparently even shifted her live shows to more of an Eras Tour model, focusing on her classic hits instead as the new ones weren’t moving the needle.
A source spilled to The US Sun last week:
“Jennifer is having an undeniable career crisis on the music side of her work and she’s calmly addressing it and keeping her fingers crossed for the best possible outcome, even though things are not looking good right now and she’s getting some of the worst press of her career. But Jennifer can handle doing twenty crisis meetings in one day and it’s a lot harder for Ben to do that because he has to blow off steam and check in with himself more.”
Because Ben is always trying to fix everything, he’s stressed about her failures more than she is — especially ones with which he was so hands-on. Enter… Atlas.
J.Lo’s new sci-fi epic follows the Love Don’t Cost A Thing singer as a scientist/soldier in sort of a semi-romantic buddy cop mode with an AI called Smith. And according to co-star Sterling K. Brown, it was Ben’s voice Jen actually used when getting to that trusting place. He told Entertainment Weekly she enlisted her movie star hubby to play the part opposite her:
“Every once in a while, Ben would read the lines for Smith. And I think the newlyweds, still very much in love, I think she just wanted to hear his voice. And so sometimes, the reactions that you got from her were because she was listening to her husband’s voice.”
How did it go? It dropped on Netflix Friday, and it’s not a good start. Atlas is getting pretty savaged by critics, currently holding an abysmal 14% on Rotten Tomatoes and 38/100 on Metacritic. Andrew Webster from The Verge wrote:
“Atlas was a chance to take an urgent AI conversation and explore it in an approachable Hollywood package. It could’ve been fun and smart — instead, like a lot of AI right now, it’s neither.”
The AP‘s Courtney Howard called it “a shrug.” And for a movie with barely any hype, being released on a streaming service which gives projects roughly 24 hours to sink or swim… this feels like a sinker. Sounds like Atlas is yet another big failure for Ben to feel the weight of on his shoulders.
Remember, J.Lo has been asking Ben for help with the “second act” of her career. His award-winning movie instincts are supposed to be turning things around for her. But even with his help, she’s floundering on all fronts? That’s gotta sting. And not just her. If his stress over these failures is worse, this has got to be another kick while they’re already down. Could Atlas flopping just be another big light telling him he was right to move out?? If so, ouch…
Maybe the answer is just to keep their working lives separate? Don’t s**t where they eat, so to speak? There’s always going to be ups and downs in this business, but both these stars have proven they’re capable of picking winners without the other’s help. The Venn diagram of their tastes just ends up giving, well… Gigli. And no one wants that.
What do YOU think, Perezcious readers??
[Image via Jimmy Kimmel Live/Netflix/YouTube.]
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