British comic Ricky Gervais has one kicky concept behind his directorial debut, The Invention of Lying. On an alternate earth, humanity lacks the capacity for lying so truth-telling is just telling. People may speak the truth, but have no sense of humor and no idea of fiction. As a result, they do reveal it all–including how inflated their views of themselves can be.

As Mark Bellison (Gervais) struggles to survive at a mediocre television company, the pug-nosed, pudgy writer endures a rivalry with the better looking, more successful and far more arrogant Brad Kessler (Rob Lowe). Mark suffers through miserable dates his mother encourages him to go on. When he meets tall, gorgeous Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner) on one of those dates, he falls for her and she tells him that despite the fact they get along, and that he’s a nice guy, she can’t continue to see him–let alone marry him–because she’s way too out of his league; she’ll never have his children. Since he’s just not up to her in looks or physique, their relationship has to remain platonic. … read more »

Jennifer Garner is ensconced on a plush sofa in a fancy hotel suite. Although some actresses have displayed a lot of flesh during the Toronto International Film Festival, she is primly attired in a pastel sleeveless sheath. Her long dark hair is perfectly coiffed. Garner looks dressed more for a garden show than one of the world’s largest film festivals.

Although she and Ben Affleck wed almost five years ago and his made-for-the-National Enquirer romance with Jennifer Lopez seems in the distant past, it is still hard not to think of Affleck’s second Jennifer as the antithesis of his first. Cool, not hot. … read more »

“It is absolutely crazy in our house,” Jennifer Garner said. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The actress is married to fellow actor Ben Affleck, and they are the parents of two daughters, 4-year-old Violet and Seraphina Rose Elizabeth, born in January.

“The goal is that everyone is just happy and healthy,” Garner said.

“The second child is easier, and the experience of bringing a baby into the world is easier,” she conceded. “But the overall thing is chaos. It’s happy chaos. Let me just say that life is very full these days.” … read more »

Jennifer Garner may have her hands full with two kids and a new film, but that didn’t stop her from taking time out to increase awareness as an ambassador for Save the Children.

The Invention of Lying star spoke to reporters about her passion for children and why she has no problem asking for help as a working mom. … read more »

Jennifer Garner is one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen in my life, and she’s also one of the most pure.

“I am a horrible liar,” the kind-hearted actress, 37, admits at an Invention of Lying event held during the Toronto International Film Festival. “I can’t do it. Even if I have your birthday present and your birthday is not until November, and I get a present, I have to tell you. I can’t lie and say I don’t have it. I can keep a secret if you need me to, but otherwise, it doesn’t work out.” … read more »

Jennifer Garner may downplay her mom abilities, but she has no shortage of ideas about encouraging her kids to think creatively, a friend says.

“Every day, you feel like you are off-balance one way or another,” Garner, at Monday’s Hollywood premiere of her comedy The Invention of Lying, told PEOPLE about the secret to juggling career and motherhood. “You just take it one day at a time. Oh gosh, let me know when you figure that out. I don’t think anyone has it.” … read more »

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck may be among the busiest actors in Hollywood, but their first-born daughter Violet has her own ideas about what her parents do for a living.

“The older one thinks that I work in a trailer. She thinks that my work is getting hair and makeup done,” Garner, 37, told reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival press conference for her new movie The Invention of Lying, costarring Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and Ricky Gervais, who directed it. … read more »

Some teachers might, every once in a while, get a greeting card from a former student thanking them for making an impression or helping them learn.

But Annyce McCann got a big pat on the back from one of her most successful former pupils in a national magazine.

The retired Kanawha County librarian got a shoutout from Jennifer Garner in the September issue of “O, The Oprah Magazine.”

Garner was spotlighted in the magazine’s regular monthly feature, “Books That Made a Difference.” She lists her top favorite reads, among them a biography of John Adams, “The Razor’s Edge” and “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.” She also pays tribute to the teacher she credits for shaping her imagination and helping her love of language bloom. … read more »

The Invention of Lying star travels with cookbooks (and makes soup on location), swoons for a particular American historian, and remembers blissfully diving into a pile of novels.
As a kid in West Virginia, I had a very rich imaginary world. And my dream was to grow up to be a librarian, because I had a librarian named Mrs. McCann who I thought was the most magical woman on the planet. She used to publish little versions of my stories, typing them on manila folders and illustrating them with pictures of me and my teddy bear: T-Bear Goes to Mars and T-Bear’s Trip to the Moon. She was my first mentor—the first person who really took an interest in me for me, which when you’re a kid is a major deal. I’ve had other mentors, and those relationships were based on reading. They gave me a sense of who I was.

My mom grew up in poverty in dust bowl Oklahoma, and the thing that got her out was education. She had three daughters, and she did all the housekeeping, all the cooking, all the driving—just like moms do—and was also a teacher. But somehow, at night, she was in my room and we read to each other. I would read a page and she would read a page. And I felt like a different person because of that. Once I had kids, I looked at my baby and thought, “What am I supposed to do with you?” Nobody tells you how you need to play with them to help their brains develop. Mothers all over the country want what’s best for their kids, but they might not have had a mom or dad like mine who took a keen interest in the way their minds worked. Yet they don’t love their kids any less than I love mine. That’s what made me become a Save the Children ambassador, and it’s why I’m so passionate about early education in particular. I know that it was reading that helped me define myself. … read more »

Unlike most of us, Jennifer Garner does not get road rage. Unlike most of us, she does not blow a gasket, scream at her GPS, or cut off other drivers when she’s lost on the streets without a clue as to where to turn. No, when she veers off course, which, she notes, is an all-too-frequent occurrence, she often actually finds peace in those moments and may even stop to notice a gorgeous tree. Really. Garner has her mother to thank for her wonderfully well-adjusted perspective. “She is a comfy, smart, wise lady,” Garner says of her mother, who imparted her motto, “Happiness is your responsibility,” to Garner and her two sisters during their upbringing in West Virginia. Since then, happiness — and the decision to seize it — is something Garner just hasn’t been able to shake, even during those times when she’s driven down the wrong road in life. … read more »