Background:

American actor Ben Affleck was launched to stardom after he won the 1998 Oscar (shared with Matt Damon) for his spectacular writing in Good Will Hunting (1997). He next attracted public attention for his performance as Ned Alleyn in the Academy Award-winning Shakespeare in Love (1998, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes), in which he won the Screen Actor Guild Award in 1998. In 1999, Affleck netted a Blockbuster Entertainment Award after portraying Liv Tyler's boyfriend in the mega-blockbuster film Armageddon (1998). He again garnered praise for playing such roles as wayward groom Ben Holmes, opposite Sandra Bullock, in the romantic comedy Forces of Nature (1999) and alcoholic advertising executive Buddy Amaral, along with Gwyneth Paltrow, ..[Full version]