Gone Baby GoneSep 10 2008

Ben Affleck's status as a lightweight is hereby permanently suspended. This is a serious movie by a serious, thoughtful director. The film also fits into a theme that's been developing around these parts lately related to switched identities: Switched at Birth, The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar, and Don Draper.

Speaking of mining the archives of kottke.Feb 12 2008

Speaking of mining the archives of kottke.org, I just found this post that quotes a message board post by Ben Affleck about why he posts his thoughts to the web:

I think there is some responsibility on the part of those folks who benefit from the attentions of some section of the public to be responsive to that group.

It's worth noting that Affleck was one of the first celebrities to post online in a bloggish manner...he'd answer people's questions on his site's message board. (His site is now dead, but a couple of instances of the board were collected by archive.org.)

I remember one post of his in particular (which I can't find on archive.org). Ben was up late, at like 3am, playing Everquest (or maybe Ultima Online?) because he was addicted and couldn't stop. He also mentioned that he was essentially playing the game instead of being in bed with his girlfriend at the time, Gwyneth Paltrow.

Ben Affleck on the culture of celebrityDec 19 1999

Ben Affleck on the culture of celebrity and why he posts his thoughts on the Web:

I think there is some responsibility on the part of those folks who benefit from the attentions of some section of the public to be responsive to that group.