Take that, Jeff Vice: Ben likes me more

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- I don't want to brag or anything, but Ben Affleck likes me more than he likes Deseret Morning News movie critic Jeff Vice.

Not that that's necessarily much of an accomplishment.

OK, so Affleck doesn't like me more than he likes Jeff. But he does like TV critics more than he likes movie critics. Not that he likes any of us all that much.

"First of all, I want to say that it's nice to be in a room that's just full of critics," Affleck deadpanned in the midst of an appearance to promote the upcoming third season of "Project Greenlight," which is moving from HBO to Bravo. "That's sort of always been my dream.

"And you know what? You can hide it, but I feel the love. Critics love me, let's face it."

Coming off "Surviving Christmas" and "Gigli," it's not surprising that Affleck is feeling, well, a little bit critic-shy. But those were theatrical films.

TV critics, on the other hand, have been quite kind to "Project Greenlight," which chronicles the struggles of neophyte filmmakers chosen by Affleck and Matt Damon's production company to produce a theatrical film. And TV critics generally gave their "Push, Nevada" film good reviews.

OK, I didn't like it much, so maybe Affleck doesn't like me that much more than he likes Jeff. But I did give Affleck's 1993 series "Against the Grain" a great review.

"Yes, TV critics, it's true, have been kinder to me. You're all very nice," Affleck said. "It's those (bleep)ing (bleeps) who do the movie writing that I don't like. You guys are wonderful, wonderful people."

Yeah.

How could you not like this guy?

And it's not just us TV critics Affleck likes; he likes working in TV.

"One of the things that keeps me coming back is that I'm able to do it as a writer and as a producer without kind of putting myself out there -- without having to be the face of it, and that's really rewarding," Affleck said. "Maybe I'm more comfortable with that.

"We've got two or three more pilots in development, stuff that we're doing, and it's fun. . . . As a writer, you have more control in television. You know, you write movies and they just get swept away and somebody else works with them, whereas in television it's really interesting, and you have the chance to foster other people's talents."

Not that Affleck is a total fan of all TV. He sees it as one of the reasons his private life has become so public; i.e., the round- the-clock coverage of his romance with Jennifer Lopez. "One of the interesting things about the television business these days is you have this proliferation of channels and you have proliferation of magazines and . . . they have a bigger appetite. They need more content. They have more churn. You're publishing a magazine every day or you're the E! channel and you've got to put something on."

And all that coverage of celebrities "just becomes more irrelevant or inane or insignificant or superficial, and that's why more and more actors kind of get drawn into this. Actors become like watching a soap opera."

He isn't real happy about being a soap star, quite obviously. "It's not something that I completely understood before I got into this business. And it seems that I have more of the soap opera than some, less than others. A few others, I think."

Affleck said he just tries to ignore all the roar from the tabloid coverage. "I don't read about it, and I don't listen to it. I'm actually doing OK."

And he likes me better than he likes Jeff.

Copyright C 2005 Deseret News Publishing Co.