Bennifer Blame Media for Wedding Delay

Sept. 10, 2003 -- Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's on-again, off-again wedding ceremony is off again, and the Hollywood's hottest couple is blaming the media.

"Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone the date," Lopez and Affleck said in a joint statement.

"When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate 'decoy brides' at three different locations, we realized that something was awry."

Wedding Delay Follows ABC Report

The big wedding may have been inadvertently put on hold by the mother of another bride marrying that day, who feared that the crush of celebrities and media would ruin her family's big event.

In an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS Radio, Vivian Terhark of Spooner, Wis., said Lopez and Affleck were holding their reception Sunday at the same location as her daughter — the Four Seasons Biltmore — and they were using the same caterer.

With a crush of celebrities expected, the hotel was imposing ultra-tight security, she said. The bride was instructed to tell every guest — even members of the bridal party — to keep their invitation on hand at all times.

"As the mother of the bride, I have to hand-carry my invitation because of security purposes," Terhark said.

If they didn't, they could be mistaken as gate-crashers and booted from the hotel, Terhark said.

The hotel refused to comment on the matter, as did a representative for Lopez and Affleck.

Hours after the ABC interview, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight reported that the celebrity couple had changed their plans. They later issued their own statement.

Hollywood Couple Plays Guessing Game

Earlier this week, Us magazine reported that the Four Seasons would be catering the big wedding at an estate near the hotel.

To preserve secrecy, about 400 guests got invitations by phone, along with instructions that final details would be hand-delivered four days before the ceremony, the magazine reported.

But Lopez and Affleck have been playing a guessing game with the public for weeks. At first the couple was believed to be marrying in Hawaii, then in Georgia.

While promoting the flop Gigli, Affleck even broke his silence and said the wedding would be moved to South America in October. But then his publicist later said the star was only joking.

Reports of the wedding delay come as J.Lo speaks to W magazine about her fiancé's visit to a Canadian strip club, an issue that raised speculation that the wedding was off.

"For me, it wasn't an issue," she says in the magazine's October issue. "We talk every day. I know what he does. He knows what I do. We don't have those kind of secrets."

"It was ridiculous, because I knew he had gone. We sat and read the articles together and said, 'This is just insane.' "

If the wedding ever happens, it will be the third for Lopez, 33, and the first for Affleck, 31. The couple met two years ago while filming Gigli.

ABCNEWS Radio's David Blaustein and ABCNEWS.com's Buck Wolf contributed to this report.