Matt Damon doesn’t want to hear about Ben Affleck going through any career slump. “People forget that Ben is a terrific actor,” Damon tells Chicago Sun Times reporter Cindy Pearlman. “And maybe through some fault of his own, Ben hasn’t made the best choices in the last couple of years. I ust think it’ll be funny when his new movie, Truth, Justice, and the American Way, comes out and he plays George Reeves [TV’s ‘Superman’]. Everyone will be like, ‘Ben, it’s a comeback!’ I’ll sit there and say, ‘What the f—? The guy has always been great. He never went anywhere.” Loyalty and support is what friendship is all about, but Affleck’s stock has been sinking since the Bennifer/Gigli/Paycheck dog days of ’03 and Surviving Christmas only underlined the problem. Wearing those blue tights and then shooting himself in the head in Truth, Justice, et. al. may bring him back (I hope it does) but there’s also Mike Binder’s Man About Town (done and, I’m told, waiting to make a big debut at Sundance ’06) and Affleck’s direction of Gone Baby Gone, whenever that’s supposed to happen. Will it? Calling Patrick Whitesell!