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On Thursday’s TODAY, Ben Affleck chats about his role as a congressman in the new thriller, State of Play.

Ben Affleck, who has become an outspoken advocate for relief efforts in the Congo, has taken a break from his humanitarian efforts to appear in a fun cover shoot for the April issue of Esquire Magazine.

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Actor Ben Affleck made his first attempt at amateur journalism by penning an article on the conflict in Congo for Time Magazine this weekend.

The star of the box office hit He’s Just Not That Into You, who took Nightline on a trip to the area last year, wrote the article to draw even additional attention to the embattled region of Africa.

“I’ve been traveling to Congo since 2007 to learn…” Ben began the nearly 1,000-word essay, titled “A Glimmer of Hope In Africa.”

“The warring parties in the east can be distilled into three main groups: the Congolese army; a breakaway faction composed mainly of Tutsis, led by a former general, Laurent Nkunda; and an outlaw militia, the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR), led by the same Interahamwe Hutu extremists who committed the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in neighboring Rwanda.”

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck welcomed the arrival of their second daughter last week, and now the Hollywood couple has revealed the new tot’s name.

It is Seraphina Rose Elizabeth Affleck, a rep for PEOPLE Magazine confirmed on Tuesday.

Seraphina was born in Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on January 6 . The couple already has a 3-year-old daughter named Violet.

What do you think of the name “Seraphina?”

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck are celebrating parenthood for the second time. Read the rest of this entry »