Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez share £51m home sale

The saying suggests that you ‘marry in haste and repent at leisure’. But J-Lo and Ben Affleck are proving that maxim wrong by untying the knot quickly and quietly.

Sources say that the A-list pair, who separated in April, are working through everything they need to. So far there are no big issues or sticking points. It’s thought that both are leaving the marriage with what they had going into it, and they have agreed to sell their $68 million (£51 million) house and split the money in a way that they feel is fair.

There’s no question of either party asking for or receiving maintenance (she is worth $400 million and he is worth $150 million). And nor – from what I hear – are either of them using expensive matrimonial ­lawyers. J-Lo self-filed for divorce and seems to be steering clear ­of them altogether this time around.

Perhaps that civilised situation explains their relaxed demeanour at lunch at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel last weekend.

Sam West tries to land his father an acting role

Sam West says he’s not optimistic about his chances of landing his actor father Timothy a guest role on All Creatures Great & Small, the hugely popular Channel 5 series based on the novels by vet Alf Wight (James Herriot).

‘There are not, quite frankly, that many parts for 89-year-old actors,’ said Sam, who plays vet Siegfried. 

‘There was a part in last year’s series he might have played – but it was taken by James Bolam, who performed it beautifully.

‘The other problem is that we look increasingly like one another. We have these tiny little eyes that disappear when we smile. And unless we played people who were actually related, I think it would be quite confusing.’

Hemsworth’s kids unimpressed with their transformer father 

Chris Hemsworth plays the Transformer who becomes Optimus Prime in the new movie, Transformers One, out this week, but says that his kids were unimpressed. 

One told him: ‘Bumblebee [a small black and yellow robot] is my favourite.’ 

Hemsworth said: ‘Yeah, thanks. It kind of humbles you, right?’

Florence goes the extra mile for her new film

If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium — well that’s how the 1969 film went. Florence Pugh must be feeling a bit like that at the moment. She was in New York at the start of the month, before heading up to Toronto, and then jetting to London. Next week she’s off to San Sebastian in Spain.

It’s all in the service of the weepie indie movie We Live In Time, which is attracting Oscars talk for her (and to a slightly lesser extent for co-star Andrew Garfield).

The pair play a couple who live in London, and there’s a scene where she gives birth in a service station that will stick in the mind.

As Pugh said: ‘It was amazing. I mean, you saw like seven minutes of it. We did 15-minute births EIGHT times. It was insane. The only ­problem was, I didn’t have a baby,’ Pugh said. ‘So I was just so exhausted and sweaty and tired, and I got no endorphins or anything.’

The other problem was with snack manufacturers. Pugh revealed that Jaffa Cakes, Twix and Ginsters were all happy to be featured — but ­Snickers refused to allow their brand to be featured.

The film will be released in the US on October 11 and in the UK in January.

Broadway calls for Operation Mincemeat… 

Operation Mincemeat, the hit West End show which started life as a fringe production, is on its way to Broadway.

I hear that the show, which claims to be the best reviewed in West End ­history, is to open in New York next year — possibly with the original cast.

Sources reveal that negotiations with a theatre in the Big Apple are nearing the end; and an ­announcement is imminent.

The musical is a comic retelling of the real-life Second World War plot to fool the Nazis into believing that the Allies were about to invade Greece and Sardinia – when their real ­objective was Sicily.

Fake plans and maps were planted on the body of a dead tramp, who was then dressed as a soldier and released by submarine close to the coast of Spain. Originally slated for an eight-week run, the comedy has just received its tenth extension and will now play in the West End until March next year.

In the spring, Mincemeat won big at the Olivier Awards. It took the prize for best new musical, and one of its cast, Jak Malone, was voted best actor in a supporting role. The hope is that it will follow in the footsteps of the musical Six, which also originated on the British fringe and went on to be a big hit on Broadway, winning multiple Tony awards.

The show has many devoted fans, known as Mincefluencers, one of whom has been to see it more than 140 times.

Geri and Christian’s company is in the red 

Geri Halliwell-Horner and husband Christian aren’t having much luck with their property lettings company, Estelle Ward.

The firm, of which both are directors, just filed its second year of accounts, which show it’s in the red by £53,000.

Luckily, it’s pocket change for the couple who are worth £33 million (Geri) and £41 million (Christian), from pop music and motor racing.

Oh, and their horse-racing firm OMBI Ltd, is going great guns.

Do you want more proof? Sex sells!

Gillian Anderson’s book compiling anonymous female sex fantasies, Want, is hot stuff — selling nearly 13,000 copies in its first week of publication.

It seems to have generated rather more excitement than Anderson’s previous tome We: A Manifesto For Women Everywhere, which sold just under 3,000 in its first week on sale in 2017.

More famous faces on the West End? 

Is there anything Hollywood stars love more than a splashy stint at the theatre?

Actress Brie Larson is the latest to sign up to appear in the West End – she will play Elektra at the Duke of York’s from January.

Sigourney Weaver takes on the role of Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in December.

And Cate Blanchett will star as ­Arkadina in Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Barbican in February.

Meanwhile, Robert Downey Jr is already in a play on Broadway, and George Clooney is preparing to star in a ­production of Good Night, And Good Luck also on Broadway in the spring.

Rob Beckett hacks the commute

Rob Beckett thinks he has the answer to a tricky modern piece of etiquette.

The stand-up comedian, whose nickname is The Mouth Of The South, said: ‘I had a work colleague – who I used to get on with – and I bumped into her on the commute. 

‘But very early on in the commute, like still 50 minutes to work on the Tube. She had her headphones on and she said, “Sorry, I don’t talk before work.”

‘I respected that. We just carried on with our own headphones.’

The father of dragons is not happy

Not enjoying the second series of House Of The Dragon? You are not alone.

Writer George R.R. Martin, on whose books it is based, isn’t a fan of the HBO show which goes out on Sky either.

He wrote in a since-deleted blog post that he was soon going to share ‘everything that’s gone wrong’ with the adaptation.

Meanwhile, J.D. Payne, who is the showrunner on Prime Video’s not-that-well-received megabucks The Rings Of Power, said of the critics: ‘It wouldn’t be a journey through ­Middle-earth without some trolls along the way.’