Ben Affleck has a lot to atone for.
For the next, excruciating five days, Ben, 40, plans to take a quickie jaunt to an exotic locale — the land of poverty tourism.
Ben has vowed, along with egocentric celebs and Hugh Jackman before him, to subsist this work week on the miserly sum of $1.50 a day.
That’s roughly the cost of a single, poached oyster. In 120 hours, enough time to lose a few unwanted pounds, organize a press conference, and make emergency reservations at Nobu, Ben intends to prove that he’s down with the poor folks he sees through limousine windows. Even Ben’s ex-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow, who tends to exist on lemon juice and Prada, could never hack it.
From the comfort of one of his luxe homes, from California to Georgia and Massachusetts, Ben is hooking up with the Global Poverty Project’s Live Below the Line campaign that challenges the guilt-ridden to be one with the 1.4 billion humans who, the charity says, live on crumbs.
Ben’s brief, cleansing fast is intended to make a statement about hunger. But Ben seems motivated by an intense desire to restore himself as Hollywood’s most endearing lefty. For Ben has committed a sin that, by Tinseltown standards, is worse than starring in the mega-bomb “Gigli.”
He produced, directed and starred in last year’s masterful “Argo,” a film that glorifies America and the CIA while condemning Iran’s Muslim villains.
Ben was denied a nomination for Best Director by an irate Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which also snubbed Kathryn Bigelow, director of the patriotic, Islamic-averse “Zero Dark Thirty.” (“Argo” managed to win Best Picture.) There go the invitations to Sean Penn and Michael Moore’s houses!
Trouble is, Ben’s attention-grabbing foray into the realm of the impoverished is offensive — to the poor. These folks can’t jump into $70,000 Tesla Model S electric sedans at the conclusion of self-imposed starvation.
Had Ben done his homework, he’d know that obesity is a far bigger problem in this country than hunger. The United States provides a generous safety net. As Mayor Bloomberg famously said of New York’s homeless shelters, “You can arrive in your private jet at Kennedy Airport, take a private limousine and go straight to the shelter system, walk in the door, and we have to give you shelter.” Ben wouldn’t even have to make his bed.
Assuming Ben was truly broke, he’d be eligible for $200 a month in federal food stamps, enough to keep him in Jelly Bellies. If he put his entire family on stamps — wife Jennifer Garner and three little kids — they’d get $793, enough for jumbo-sized jars of Costco mayonnaise. It doesn’t end there.
In an alternate universe, where Ben procreated with his ex Jennifer Lopez, his film career collapsed after “Good Will Hunting,’’ and he squandered every dime on poker, he’d be eligible for welfare. California offers the second-highest benefits in the nation. New York is No. 1.
Ben could collect up to $351 in Los Angeles as a single man, $966 for a family of five. If he filed for welfare in New York, the average individual here gets paid $480, maxing out at a handsome $613; family benefits go up to $1,119. Plus, his kids would be served free lunch and breakfast in school, and Ben’s brood could get free health care through Medicaid. Conveniently, Ben might withdraw welfare cash with an Electronic Benefits Transfer card — useful at many bars, strip clubs and XXX-rated gay and straight porn video shops throughout the city, as The Post’s Kate Briquelet first reported.
Feeding America may not be enough. There’s a whole hungry world to dominate. But Ben should know after establishing his pet charity, The Eastern Congo Initiative, that starvation is most often caused not by poverty, but war.
Throwing money, or his famished body, at Africa will achieve little. If Ben wants to help solve intractable problems, he should get on the ground, work with established aid groups. Or, take the Madonna approach and remove poor children one by one from their native lands to raise as his own.
And why five days? Why not live on pennies for a year? I guess Ben might get too weak to host “Saturday Night Live” May 18.
Ben Affleck’s hunger stunt is designed to bring glory to himself. It’s insulting to the people he claims to want to help.
Write a check, Ben. And eat something.
Making it plane: No place for a mosque
Is this a sign?
The city was jolted back to its darkest day Friday as surveyors working behind 51 Park Place — site of the “Ground Zero mosque” — found what appears to be a piece of landing gear from a hijacked plane flown by Islamic terrorists into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
The irony is plain. The gear was wedged behind the spot where developer Sharif El-Gamal vowed to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center, complete with sex-segregated swimming pool, a stone’s throw from the destroyed Twin Towers. (Cops are looking into whether the gear might have been planted by mosque opponents.)
Meanwhile, Gamal seemed to be giving up. Last week, he talked about turning the so-called Park51 building, which he leases from Con Ed, into something more profitable: condos, The Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil reported.
A towering mosque has no place near Ground Zero.
Bicyclists are wheel terrors
Bike nannies? Really?
As the city hunkers down for next month’s rollout of its bike-sharing program — in which 10,000 two-wheel kamikazes and klutzes prepare to terrorize pedestrians — nearly a dozen Department of Transportation workers have been deployed to bike lanes in the East Village.
They hold up placards telling cyclists: “Stop’’ or “Wrong Way.’’
Officials won’t say how much this costs taxpayers or what a bike counselor can do when an entitled cyclist inevitably whips over his foot.
Get ready for mayhem on the streets.
Blame game amid grief
A beautiful actress is dead, a tragedy. Who’s to blame? The bartender who served her whiskey? No.
Shana Dowdeswell, 23, who’s in the new Robert De Niro movie “The Big Wedding,’’ downed shots at The Basement in the Village in December, then staggered to her stoop at 2:30 a.m. and passed out.
She died five days later.
Shana’s heartbroken mother, Laurie, told cops that bar employees let her know that Shana had downed four shots. (The manager says three.) Mom insists the barkeep should have cut her daughter off.
The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Shana died of “natural causes due to complications of acute and chronic alcoholism.’’ Her problem did not start that awful night.
I wish her family peace.
Starlight, star blight
Gwyneth Paltrow topped Star magazine’s list of the “20 Most Hated Celebrities in Hollywood,’’ then was named People mag’s “Most Beautiful Woman in the World.’’ The skinny elitist then removed her underwear and donned a bare gown at the premiere of “Iron Man 3.’’ Gwyn told Ellen DeGeneres, “Everyone went scrambling for a razor.’’
It’s tragic when a celebrity’s head explodes.