Yesterday we questioned a recent People report detailing Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s activities over the weekend, when they celebrated their 9th wedding anniversary. I wondered if the PR was being laid on too thick. It’s possible that Garner and Affleck are just too famous at this point to avoid it, but there’s something questionable to me about all these stories coming out in the wake of Affleck’s gambling mini scandal.
Now there’s a follow-up story and it begs the same question: is this too much? These two are of course big stars and it looks like someone from the restaurant in Michigan spoke to the press. Does that mean that the restaurant staff are breathlessly giving the press details or that a PR person is crafting a narrative? This job has made me cynical. (I’ve always been like that.)
So People, US Magazine and Radar have stories about Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s anniversary dinner. People’s platitudes make it sound like their source is in the Affleck camp while Radar states that someone at the restaurant spoke to them. They even have the guy’s name. I’m including People’s article below.
For Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, nothing says “happily married” like a steak and seafood dinner.
The down-to-earth actors celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary Sunday with a cozy dinner at Bistro 82 in Royal Oak, Michigan — not far from where Affleck, 41, has been filming Batman vs. Superman in Detroit.
“They looked like a great couple. They paid a lot of attention to each other,” a restaurant source tells PEOPLE, adding that the stars shared “a great bottle of wine” at the local hot spot.
Also on the menu: steak, salad, and oysters. And Batman proved he’s a meat and potatoes kind of guy, telling staff that the french fries served with béarnaise sauce and parmesan were the best he’s ever had.
Garner, 42, and her hubby noshed on the French fare for about an hour and a half, ringing up a food bill around $150. The parents of three were both dressed casually (she in a black dress, he in a button-down and jeans) and thanked the bistro’s workers as they left smiling, another diner tells PEOPLE.
“Everyone was freaking out in the restaurant,” says the source. “I was starstruck.”
After seeing Hollywood’s cutest couple eating fries at your local haunt, who wouldn’t be?
People: “Hollywood’s cutest couple” and “happily married.” It does just look like a case of the outlets’ different styles. Radar named their source at the restaurant and included more factual and down to earth quotes like “They were very low key” and “They were dressed very casually, just like anyone else at the restaurant.” So I do think it’s just someone at the restaurant going to the press. If you take it at face value, it’s a nice story about a couple reconnecting. Plus I just did a search on the restaurant, Bistro 82’s, social media accounts and they’re posting to Facebook and Twitter about this so it looks legit. This story makes me hungry for french fries and oysters.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are shown in January and February, 2014. Credit: FameFlynet, WENN and Pacific Coast News
They seem to normally have a better PR game soooo… Maybe not planted?
Those French fries sound amaaaazing
That’s all I got of this story myself
Where I used to live, most cafes would serve crispy potato skins with aioli and bacon. I can’t begin to describe the pleasure.
Really. Two people go out to dinner. Story at 11:00.
@goodnames: breaking news, couple eats french fries … in public!!
Might as well talk about the food; could give a sh*t less for the couple…
When I was with my abusive el b@stardo ex, I loved Ben Affleck because of how much he physically reminded me of said ex. Now, Ben and the ex make me want to hurl.
If they wanted publicity, why wouldn’t they get all dolled up and go to a fancy, shmancy, restaurant, where they know the paps hang out? This is exactly what I like to do for my anniversary. Dress casually, and go to a fav restaurant, and just enjoy each others company. To me, that is perfection!
They do not have to do that when their publicists have People mag on speed dial!
This story is straight from their pr team. They wanted this story published.
@HRH exactly! If People is involved then you automatically know it came from a celebrity’s PR team.
This “story” is designed to stop the negative publicity of Ben’s gambling in the area, and Jen leaving in a huff with the children. Shows that all is well with the golden couple and she is no longer mad.
I have to agree….the post seemed too sugary-coated and edited beyond belief. I’m all for them to try and have a good marriage, but MARRIAGE is hard y’all. I only know of one or two marriages that are successful, and that is out of the 200 people I know!
I am tired, however, of ALWAYS seeing them carrying a coffee cup. I know Jennifer is raising a brood-full of kids, but she always dresses so “dowdy”. Doesn’t her husband make enough money that she could dress better?
Even though the source is named as “Justin Near of Near Perfect Media, which represents the bistro’s AFB Hospitality Group”??
More likely this is from the restaurant not a pr stunt. I’m going to assume that they don’t many celebrities so they got excited. But Ben and Jennifer may not go back since the employees run to the tabloids.
I agree.
I grew up “in the heartland” and we had a movie filmed nearby one summer. The papers reported EVERYTHING they did, where they ate, how long they stayed, etc. Much like the staff that waitied on those stars, these folks also seem very excited to have them in the restaurant.
Maybe it’s different because they were in Detroit, but in L.A. if someone in a restaurant leaks details (especially on the record), it’s because they’ve been given permission or asked to. Otherwise that person is getting fired.
It could be that the restaurant wanted the press, not Ben and Jen, though.
it reads like an ad for the restaurant.
cozy place, best food an A list actor has ever had, affordable but not-too-affordable-to-be-mainstream….
… sounds like it’s PR for the restaurant!
+1
Bennifer wanted to be seen also to reply to all the rumors
According to Radar,they dinnered in front of the window
But isn’t the window typically the best spot for the view?
It seems like obvious PR to me.
PR for both the restaurant and the happily married couple.
wow He does look like Nick , his character from Gone Girl. He looks MISERABLE. lol…
It’s obvious PR it’s not one isolated story which would be something entirely different it’s one of a series of positive and detailed stories from their camp that have come out since Ben’s gambling problems emerged. It’s changing the story from gambling, and rumored misbehaving and marriage problems to cute dimpled babies, jewelry shopping, and anniversary dinners.
It’s not from their camp. The source is “Justin Near of Near Perfect Media, which represents the bistro’s AFB Hospitality Group.”
And who gave him permission to talk to People???? He did not just call up People mag.
Their camp told People Jen was in Detroit. Their pr team gave details about his jewelry buying .
Their camp said Jen is the most patient wife ever. How bad is Ben if she has to be so patient????
Yes this story was the restaurant , and the week before it was the jewelry store, next time it will be a valet guy or a hotel attendant but the message will be the same. They are happy, the kids are cute, Ben is behaving, nothing to see people move along.
This is Jen and Ben PR hard at work.
They’ve been going to restaurants, jewelry stores and going out of town for years with no story being sold. Why would the restaurant and the other places go to People and not OK or US magazine? and How would People Mag know when Jen was in Detroit when there are no pictures?
These PR stories only came out after the rumors of them having trouble in their marriage. Then in the last 3 weeks we get 3 inside info stories from People Magazine coincidence I think not.
If it’s in People magazine it’s from their camp.
“And who gave him permission to talk to People???? ”
Ummm….if he is the PR spokesman for the restaurant group, then that would be the restaurant group. You don’t need permission from stars to write about what they do in a public place.
I think people are taking the “its in People, it must come from their camp” thing a little too far and a little to seriously! People is known for only printing POSITIVE things about celebs. It is when it is negative that is usually comes from their camp. No celeb is going to scold a publication for taking positive gossip and printing it. It is the negative gossip that they get permission for.
My girlfriend met Henry Cavill at a suburban Detroit dog park last weekend. He was there with his Akita puppy, Kal. She said he was lovely and smelled great (Henry not the puppy lol).
the bottle of wine— I thought Ben went to rehab- was it for drinking/drugs/gambling – all of the above?
Officially it was drinking but this People article from the time period also mentions his excessive gambling as part of the problem too. Clearly he isn’t sober.
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20135136,00.html
I wholeheartedly agree. This story makes me very hungry for fries with Bernaise and parm.
Very much a PR. I don’t want to say anymore. He does not want her to have male friends and he went g… and talked about JLo’s butt? Very conflicting. Can a psychologist make us understand this please?
The only thing that interests me about this story is the french fries with bernaise sauce and parmesan cheese because I have never heard of that combo, but do I ever want to try! Woof. As for Ben and Jen, all I know is I wouldn’t want to be married to either of them.
I’ve never really thought these two had chemistry or looked like a cute couple- granted, I’ve never met them IRL. They just look like brother and sister to me.
News flash! Going to dinner with your husband on your anniversary isn’t necessarily a sign that all is well in a marriage. Far from it in fact – look at the super lovey way Chris & Gwyneth were acting at the Oscar’s – just weeks before they split. In many cases, celebrating an anniversary is sort of obligatory – like Valentine’s Day or a birthday. Having been married for 15 years, I can attest to the fact that, some years, it’s “something you do regardless of how things are going between you.”
I don’t understand “they shared a bottle of wine”. If that is factual, he isn’t sober.