Jennifer Garner, the actress tabloids would like you to believe is a long-suffering sad sack even though I’m fairly sure there are few happier people in Hollywood, hung out with some of her gal pals (Chelsea Handler and an unidentified brunette) Wednesday night at Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi, where ex-husband Ben Affleck and his new girlfriend dined just days before.
While People’s headline suggests this was an act of aggression—as if she dared to trespass on a piece of territory Ben had recently pissed on—the full story reveals that the two were fans of Giogio Baldi throughout their relationship. So I’m choosing to read this as an example of two adults behaving respectfully by allowing each other to have joint custody of a favorite restaurant. Ben’s taking Shookus there? Garner goes somewhere else. Garner’s showing up with a big appetite and her Capital One card? Affleck and Shookus order Seamless.
Try as the tabloids might to make Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck’s post-split relationship out to be some kind of contemptuous horror show, they can never quite sell it. When reading a story like this one (and others about their co-parenting), I see two people who are good at being divorced.