Affleck rehearses for another role he thinks he can play

It's been a weak week, what with the Dems stealing all the good lines over in Boston. Fortunately, we have one Hollywood star descending on the real world to act out some of his political fantasies -- we at Noise live for this sort of thing, which is pretty pathetic if you think about it too much. We don't.

Stump it up

Ben Affleck finally may have found a relationship that will last. He has been hunting up some good will for the Democrats, stumping for the Johns at the Democratic National Convention. The New York Daily News quoted him telling delegates at a Boston breakfast how he saved $1.5 million in taxes last year.

"I really appreciate that President Bush saw fit to give me, who already has a ton of money, a bunch more," he said. "He didn't want to waste that money making sure that everyday Americans could afford health care. Or properly equipping our men and women in Iraq -- who have to buy their own body armor."

Some political pundits have speculated that Affleck is trying on politics, in rehearsal, you might say, for his own run sometime in the future.

It isn't so far-fetched -- heck, look at Ah-nold!

Besides, Affleck himself once admitted to political aspirations. Christy Lemire at The Associated Press found an Affleck interview published in GQ in 2001:

"My fantasy is that someday I'm independently wealthy enough that I'm not beholden to anybody, so I can run for Congress on the grounds that everyday people -- be they singers or poets or bankers or lawyers or teachers -- should be in government."

Or actors.

And on Tuesday Affleck told The Washington Post that he finds being on the stump "exciting. . . . In some ways I'm better at this than acting. I mean, not that I think I'm bad at acting, but I love this."

So we now know of at least one person in America who doesn't think he's bad at acting. (Yeah, yeah, he's got an Oscar. But it's for script-writing.)

Affleck has played down the rumors, saying he's just one Beantowner helping out another Beantowner. (Funny that neither man was actually born in Boston: Affleck was born in California; John Kerry in Colorado. Both did grow up there, Kerry in decidedly swankier digs than Affleck, who was raised by his schoolteacher mom in Cambridge, Mass.)

Affleck doesn't seem ready to take the plunge into the political swamp just yet. He has admonished fellow Hollywood types for bad- mouthing George W., saying it detracts from the real issues. "I don't like the environment of hostility and negativity around campaigning," he said.

Later, when asked about running for office, Affleck told AP, "It's a tough fight, you know? I mean, if I think that the entertainment press is tough on me now, I can't imagine what it would be like to have a political agenda, as well."

Yeah, and just imagine the furor if the pundits ever get around to watching "Gigli."

She liked Guy No. 3

If he ever did run for office, though, Affleck would have at least one vote in the bag: his ex-future-mother-in-law, Guadalupe Lopez. J- Lo's mom, caught taking a break from the slots at Atlantic City, was overheard saying she doesn't like her daughter's new husband, Marc Anthony. She far preferred Ben, the New York Post reports.

Maybe it's just that Affleck speaks better Spanish.