Ben Affleck named as one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people...

With rumpled allure and a wicked sense of humor ("He's one of the few people who can make me blush," says his Forces of Nature costar Sandra Bullock), Ben Affleck is, in Armageddon producer Jerry Bruckheimer's words, "a unique combination of all-American kid and sexy bad boy." He's also way casual about appearances. While others gush over everything from his smile ("It's mischievous," says Chasing Amy's Joey Lauren Adams) to the Native American tatoo on his shoulder ("So beautiful," says Forces costar Meridith Scott Lynn), Aflleck himself "will walk past a reflective surface, take a glance and move on," says Kevin Smith, who directed him in 1997's Chasing Amy and the forthcoming, controversial Dogma.

But the Cambridge, Mass.-bred Affleck did fine tune his act by the time he began work on last summer's megahit Armageddon. For the role of space-hero, the film's producers had him slim down, pump up the pecs on his 6'2" frame and get his teeth capped. Recalls Smith: "When I saw him on the dailies for [1997's] Going All the Way, I said 'Oh my God, you are a movie star!' He was just cut and built, and he had matinee-idol looks." The effect apparently isn't lost on the 26-year-old actor, who has remianed unattached since his January breakup with Gwyneth Paltrow. Though Affleck vowed to return to his burgers-and--beer regimen after filming... well, some promises are better not kept. "That dude's Diet Coke all the way," says Smith.

Action-flick action lands Affleck in Vancouver General Hospital
by Vancouver Province Staff Reporters

Movie star Ben Affleck found madness in his method acting this weekend after taking a tumble and injuring himself filming a fight scene. Sources say Affleck was rushed to Vancouver General Hospital after falling and banging his head during takes of a brawl being filmed at John Oliver high school. Doctors insisted on keeping him in hospital for overnight observation in case of a concussion.

Affleck is in Vancouver filming the thriller Reindeer Games. The accident happened late Friday night, and followed several days of intense work on the feature film, directed by John Frankenheimer. Sources said the injury was not thought to be serious, but was enough to briefly slow down the actor, whose star has risen at a meteoric pace.

Paltrow, Affleck ponder ``Bounce''
By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - Proving that Hollywood breakups don't need to be nasty affairs, former lovers Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck are set to work together again in another movie.

Miramax Films is near deals to bring its ``Shakespeare in Love'' stars aboard ``Bounce,'' a drama with romantic overtones to be shot this fall by writer/director Don Roos (``The Opposite of Sex'').

Affleck would play a womanizer who gives up his seat on an airplane to a guy who wants badly to get home to his wife. After the plane crashes, Aflleck's character develops guilt over the other man's death and becomes an alcoholic. One year later, he resolves to check up on the dead man's widow (Paltrow). They slowly fall in love with each other, she unaware that he played a role in her husband's death.

In a departure from what usually happens when actors end a true-life romance and find it uncomfortable to work together, Paltrow and Affleck have remained friendly, with Affleck even making a cameo appearance on ``Saturday Night Live'' when Paltrow hosted. When Paltrow accepted her best actress Oscar last month for ``Shakespeare in Love,'' she thanked Affleck.

Reuters/Variety