Free Republic

Two years after the star couple separated, a source told People magazine that they “are giving things another try.” They love each other, said another source, and they “really, really love their kids, and those kids love their parents.” For many couples, though, this isn’t enough. Though the divorce rate has decreased since the high point of Baby Boomer splits in the 1980s, it’s still almost 35 percent for couples who married in the ’90s. And frankly, it’s only that low because more and more Americans don’t bother to marry at all. (Cohabiting couples have an even higher rate of...

Even before "State of Play," his new movie celebrating the watchdog role of newspapers, Ben Affleck was partial to print. He grew up a reader of The Boston Globe and can't imagine his hometown paper going out of business. "I was definitely shocked to hear about the Globe," the actor told us, referring to The New York Times Co.'s threat to shutter New England's newspaper of record unless it gets concessions from the paper's unions. "I fundamentally misunderstood what was going on. Boston.com has 5.6 million readers a month, and yet this hugely successful news gathering operation is going out...

...some others had heard that Ben has also been talking to Paramount about possibly playing a lead role ina new Star Trek film from J.J. Abrams. Apparently Abrams is coming down to visit the set in a few weeks, to visit Michelle Monaghan, whom he directed in Mission: Impossible 3, so that might add some more fuel to the fire. If it comes off, he's apparently playing the hero. Don't know if that's Captain Kirk or some other protagonist...but that's the gist of it.

Actor Ben Affleck has made it very clear where his sympathies lie in the Leakgate affair -- and it isn't with the White House. Appearing on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," Affleck charged that President Bush "probably also leaked” CIA agent Valerie Plame's name and so "if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!” He continued: "You could be killed. That's not a joking around Tom DeLay 'I'll do a year, I bribed the state officials with corporate money.' That's like they shoot you in the battlefield for doing that.” Affleck also called DeLay a "criminal."

Call it Bennifer: Part Deux. Nine months after they started dating, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are engaged, People and Star magazines are reporting. Citing a "close friend" of Affleck's, People says the "Pearl Harbor" actor has been privately spreading the news. A friend of Garner's told the magazine in February that she expected Affleck to propose. Affleck's publicist, Ken Sunshine, would not comment on the reports. A call to Garner's rep was not returned. As you may have heard, Affleck got engaged to Jennifer Lopez in 2002, but they called it off in January 2004. As opposed to the...

On Saturday, 'Bennifer' went out shopping at a Savannah Mall where Affleck bought a shotgun, and sources say, $5,000.00 worth of ammo to go with it. He had applied for a gun permit on Monday.The couple also hit the Barnes and Noble, where Ben picked up a copy of David McCullough's John Adams biography and J-Lo bought some magazines.The retail therapy continued Tuesday. A listener told a Savannah radio station that she ran into the couple at the Gateway Country Store that night shopping for a plasma TV. Earlier in the day, they had bought a pickup truck.Armando Ramirez told...