“Jersey Girl” star Ben Affleck is still getting political mileage out of last year’s box-office bomb “Gigli.”
At the Capitol on Thursday, the former dishwasher and waiter joked with lawmakers that he might have landed in another dead-end job after the movie tanked last fall.
Affleck was promoting an increase in the federal hourly minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 proposed by his home state senator, Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
“Perhaps the senator saw my movie ’Gigli’ last fall and figured I’d be working for minimum wage myself,” Affleck quipped. “Both of us understand what it’s like to be worried about job security.”
“Gigli,” a $54 million production in which Affleck costarred with then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, earned back just $6 million at theaters. Lopez plays a 15-minute role in “Jersey Girl,” which reaped $8.3 million in its March debut.
Affleck’s 1997 screenplay “Good Will Hunting” was inspired by his parents, who once worked as janitors at Harvard. “I know firsthand what a struggle it was to try to raise a family on such a small salary,” he said. “Nobody is going to get rich off of making $7 an hour.”