Ralph Fiennes Was Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Relationship Decoy’ for Her Relationship With Ben Affleck During ‘Maid in Manhattan’

usmagazine.com:

Playing his part, Ralph Fiennes recalled being a “relationship decoy” to distract from Jennifer Lopez‘s relationship with Ben Affleck in the early 2000s.“I was set up,” the Grand Budapest Hotel star, 59, revealed during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on Tuesday, November 15, before sharing the story behind the paparazzi shots of him hugging his Maid in Manhattan costar, 53, in June 2002. “I was asked out to dinner with J.

Lo and her manager and her agent … We had a nice dinner, chatty chatty chatty. … [Afterward,] I think I was walking home, but [we gave each other a] peck on the cheek goodnight.”However, just as Fiennes and Lopez were saying their goodbyes, “a paparazzi — just one — pops out” and snaps a photo of the two of them. “But somehow, the pictures were angled so that as she’s walking away, [it looks like] I’m walking after her.

And I think it said the next day [in the New York] Post, ‘It’s Ralph!'”Despite accidentally becoming a part of Lopez’s epic love story with the 50-year-old Gone Girl star, Fiennes doesn’t hold a grudge. “My reaction [when I learned they got back together] was, ‘Good luck to them,'” the King’s Man star said.The “On the Floor” singer and Affleck fell in love on the set of Gigli in 2002 and were engaged by November of that year.

Their relationship was highly-publicized from the start, and the couple cited “excessive media attention” as one of the reasons that they called off their September 2003 wedding.