It’s hard not to both like and admire Ben. His honesty in taking accountability for his part in perhaps starting the backlash is refreshing (he did make some bad career choices on his part with Gigli being the prime example). He deserved some bad press for the bad career choices, and in a way he did give off a fame whore image with the way he conducted himself in his romance with JLo. But the criticism was way out of whack. He was always a professional, never dissed the press or the public, and never hurt anyone.

Kristen Stewart would probably be the person today who gets the most flak and frankly she actually has done quite a bit to deserve it some of the negative attention with a pretty significant history of having a bad attitude, dissing both the press and the public while at the same time courting publicity, and yes, she did hurt some people (I know she wasn’t the only one). But having said that, the negative press and hate she inspires is way out of whack as well. In fact, I’d say the hatred Kristen gets makes Ben’s bad press look like a love letter to him. So far, it hasn’t hurt her career, she’s been resilient. She’s also looked great promoting Breaking Dawn Part 2 so maybe she’s not a lost cause after all.

Kristen hasn’t really dissed her fans lately, I’ll give her that. But while promoting the first two Twilight movies she definitely did and there are too many examples to count. Fans overlooked it because, well, they’re fans. I’d disagree with your assessment of Kristen doing a “great job” with Balenciaga. She does a job that meets contractual obligations and appears to be available for promos for them which is more than can be said for some actresses, she doesn’t do a great job promoting the brand. She doesn’t wear their clothes when not contractually obligated to, came to the live sit down unprepared (her answers to questions were pretty inarticulate). She has been doing a great job with both OTR and BD2 promotions, I’ll say that’s true as well (and looked great at both the U.S. and London premieres of BD2). But even in promoting BD2 she couldn’t answer the simple question of who designed her dress. I’ve never seen an actress fail at that one. It’s not like you don’t know the question’s coming. Kristen has acted the part of a rebel, handled press badly, on numerous occasions did things to feed the firestorm against her, rarely takes accountability for her own part in the crazy storm she’s in (compare her behavior to Ben’s quotes above as an example of handling something with grace) and therefore made the media glare on her worse, and her affair with Rupert Sanders certainly doesn’t show a great strength of character. Again, I think the attacks on her are way out of line and she doesn’t deserve the way she’s being treated, but she certainly brought negative press upon herself by her own actions. The best thing she can do is exactly what she’s doing right now, keeping her professional commitments, looking fantastic, smiling (for once we are not seeing mopey pics of her at premieres), and keeping her attitude positive in her interviews. If she doesn’t do that, she will start to be hurt. Her fan base is mainly teenage girls and they are a fickle bunch.

Hello people…? This editorial is about Ben …. So ,Mr. Affleck , I agree with you. The treatmentyou recieved was hogwash basically…the paparatzi have become like a viruse and i do feel that a large majority of actors & actresses do this as a career because they have incredible talent and a passion for acting. I do not believe any level headed businessman or woman goes into this field to literally have their every move taped and every mistake blown way out of proportion. Think about it ,if you were a movie star right now in your prime ,I bet stepping out for a smoke or to grab a six pack is no longer the same freedom as non-celebs have. Just because the prettiest & most handsome smiles can also hide the most utterly lost feeling of sadness.