Entertainment
Matt Damon shares shocking thing about wife and bestie Ben Affleck
Matt Damon surprised fans by sharing a long-kept personal detail about his wife, Luciana Barroso, and his lifelong best friend Ben Affleck, revealing that when they first met, Barroso initially found Affleck more attractive.
The candid confession came during Damon’s appearance on The Howard Stern Show on Monday, Jan. 12, and quickly became a standout moment of the interview.
“This is f****ing completely true,” Damon, 55, said when Stern asked whether Affleck, 53, was around the night he met his future wife.
Damon explained that the truth came out months into their relationship, after he met Barroso’s best friend from high school.
The two women had gone to see Good Will Hunting together years earlier, and their opinions about the film’s stars were very different.
Damon recalled, “After we’d been together for a little while, probably a few months, she admitted that — I think I met her best friend from high school and it came out that the two of them went and saw Good Will Hunting together and her best friend thought I was the cute one and she thought Ben was the cute one.”
Damon said he jokingly confronted his wife about it at the time, telling Stern, “So she admitted to me… I’m like, ‘You got the wrong one?!’ She told me that 23 years ago.”
When Stern asked whether hearing something like that lingers over time, Damon and Affleck pointed out that their bond has only grown stronger, both personally and professionally.
Barroso, now 49, currently works closely with both men and serves as a producer on The Rip and Affleck’s upcoming directorial project Animals.
Affleck joked that he never sensed any romantic tension, saying Barroso is “a great producer and a really good friend,” adding that whatever attraction existed clearly faded once she met him in real life.
“Finally she met him and all that went away,” Damon replied, drawing laughs in the studio.
The conversation turned playful when Stern suggested it would be “devastating” if Barroso ever left Damon for Affleck.
Damon agreed without hesitation, saying, “If my two favourite people just exited my life? Yeah, that would suck.”
Damon and Affleck famously rose to fame together with Good Will Hunting, which earned them Oscars, and Damon later met Barroso in Miami while filming Stuck on You.
The couple married in 2005 and share four daughters, Alexia, Isabella, Gia and Stella.
Affleck, who has witnessed their relationship over the years, praised their marriage, calling it “a really gorgeous marriage and friendship.”
Damon also revealed that he barely remembers who was with him the night he met Barroso because he was so taken by her.
“I couldn’t remember who I was with ’cause all I remembered was her,” he said, a comment Affleck jokingly qualified by saying Damon was “hammered” but smart enough to phrase it romantically.
More than two decades later, Damon’s story landed as a reminder of the deep friendship and humour that still define his bond with both his wife and his best friend.
Entertainment
Fans slam Anne Hathaway over Met Gala snap with Blake Lively
Anne Hathaway is facing a wave of online backlash after being pictured cosying up to Blake Lively at the 2026 Met Gala.
The controversy erupted after a photo, posted by Variety on Tuesday morning, showed Lively with her arm around a smiling Hathaway inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Fans were quick to scold the Devil Wears Prada star for the association, particularly as Lively’s bombshell appearance came just hours after she settled a highly divisive and explosive legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni.
The reaction on social media has been swift and brutal, with many fans expressing deep disappointment in Hathaway.
One X user urged the actress to get away from Lively before she was sued, while others questioned why Hathaway would risk her hard-won public popularity by posing with someone many have labelled a “bully”.
The anger has even spilled over into calls for a boycott of Hathaway’s latest film, The Devil Wears Prada 2, with some disgruntled viewers claiming she has ruined the movie’s release by associating with Lively.
Lively’s presence at the star-studded event was a major surprise to those following the Vogue livestream, as it marked her first public outing since the conclusion of her lawsuit.
The legal drama, which began in December 2024, saw Lively accuse Baldoni and his production company of sexual harassment and retaliation.
However, a judge recently dismissed the majority of her claims, including all of the sexual harassment allegations, leaving the two parties to settle the remaining counts of breach of contract and retaliation out of court on Monday.
Despite the heavy atmosphere surrounding her legal woes, Lively appeared completely unbothered on the night, wearing a colourful archival Atelier Versace gown from 2006.
The settlement between Lively and Baldoni was framed by their legal teams as a way to find closure and move forward in peace, yet the public’s reaction to the Met Gala snap suggests that a “respectful environment online” remains a long way off.
While the film It Ends With Us was a box office hit in 2024, the off-screen friction clearly continues to shadow those involved.
For Hathaway, what was likely intended as a simple social moment has turned into a significant PR headache, as fans continue to slam the actress for her choice of company on fashion’s biggest night.
Entertainment
Kadeem Hardison calls ‘Euphoria’ costar Zendaya ‘a boss’
Kadeem Hardison has described his former Disney Channel daughter and current Euphoria co-star Zendaya as “a boss”, following their surprise on-screen reunion.
The pair, who starred together as father and daughter on the hit show K.C. Undercover a decade ago, have reunited for the latest season of the gritty HBO drama.
Hardison joined the cast as Big Eddy, a character working alongside Zendaya’s Rue in a strip club managed by drug lord Alamo.
The reunion has been a long time coming for the duo, who stayed in touch after their Disney days.
Hardison revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that it was Zendaya herself who introduced him to Euphoria creator Sam Levinson during a holiday dinner.
He admitted that when he first watched the show at its premiere, he was “wildly uncomfortable” seeing the intense world it depicted, which was a far cry from their family-friendly beginnings.
However, after meeting Levinson and visiting the set, he eventually landed the role of Big Eddy.
Reflecting on how much Zendaya has changed since she was a teenager, Hardison noted that while she has matured, her leadership qualities were visible even when she was 16.
He recalled being impressed that she was an executive producer on their Disney show, and he is even more struck by how she has expanded that role into her film career.
“She’s always been that person and she’s always been a boss,” he said, jokingly referring to the multi-award-winning actress as his “little big sister” because she is often the more mature one of the two.
The latest episode provided plenty of dramatic meat for both actors, with Hardison’s character caught in a violent drug war.
He confessed that watching Zendaya’s performance now is a shock compared to their early work, admitting he didn’t know she had such “depth” and felt he had to work hard to keep up with her.
For Hardison, whose career stretches back over three decades to A Different World, the experience was a full-circle moment that proved his own advice to fellow actors: as long as you stay in the game, the next big hit is always just around the corner.
Entertainment
Jimmy Kimmel roasts Donald, Melanie Trump even after warning
Jimmy Kimmel is pressing ahead with jokes about President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, brushing off White House pressure and calls for him to be taken off air.
On his Monday, 4 May, show, Kimmel took aim at the president’s late-night posting activity on Truth Social, singling out a photo Trump shared of his wife.
“At 11:04, he posted this even more unbelievable picture of Melania smiling,” Kimmel said to laughter from the studio audience.
“I don’t know the last time we saw that.”
He also picked up on Trump’s weekend remarks at a Florida retirement community, where the president claimed Melania “hates” when he dances on stage to Y.M.C.A. by the Village People, which Trump called “the gay national anthem.”
“Melania hates when you do things? No way!” Kimmel quipped. “What a buzzkill.”
The jokes come as Kimmel finds himself in the middle of a serious escalation with the White House.
The dispute flared after a 23 April episode in which he described Melania as having “a glow like an expectant widow.”
Two days later, a gunman rushed security at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
The suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was subsequently charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
Melania, who had attended the dinner, made a rare public statement ahead of the court appearance, directly criticising Kimmel.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” she wrote on X.
“Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung called Kimmel a “s— human being” and said he should be fired “immediately.”
Kimmel defended the original remark, describing it as an “obvious” joke about the age gap between the president, 79, and the first lady, 56.
He also addressed Melania directly, expressing genuine sympathy about the scare at the dinner.
“I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am. Just ’cause no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary.”
Trump himself weighed in during a Newsmax appearance, calling Kimmel “a lowlife, whether he apologized or not” and saying he “shouldn’t be on television.”
The president had previously threatened to “test” ABC after the network briefly suspended Kimmel in September over remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
ABC and its parent company Disney are facing mounting pressure from the administration.
The Federal Communications Commission last week ordered a review of ABC’s station licences, citing a probe into possible violations of federal law and FCC rules at local ABC stations.
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