GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST

Production Information
The last place on earth anyone would expect to find Connor Mead would be at a wedding. More to the point, that last place would certainly be his own wedding, although it's tough enough to imagine him overcoming his allergy to matrimony long enough to attend anyone else's big day. But this is different. It's his brother's wedding, and for Paulie's sake alone Connor is willing to make the trek from his high-style New York City life to the Newport, Rhode Island home of his childhood, where the ceremony is scheduled to take place at their late Uncle Wayne's lavish estate.

Connor is expecting to be a little uncomfortable with the festivities, but that's OK; it's just one weekend. What he is not expecting is how he will feel when he comes face to face with his former flame Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner).

"Connor is used to being the confident guy, charming and funny, kind of edgy and always at the top of his game. He's really not out to hurt anyone, he just wants to have a good time. But he's also a guy who has lost his way and doesn't know it. He's been playing this role so long he doesn't even realize that in the end it's a lonely path,” says Matthew McConaughey, who stars as the story's perennial bachelor.

"Seeing Jenny again would be his first clue,” suggests director Mark Waters. Beautiful, smart and self-assured, Jenny could have been the best thing that ever happened to Connor… if he hadn't walked out on her years ago. Now the maid of honor, she is all business when it comes to her ex, determined that nothing—and no one—will mar this special occasion, and that means putting Connor on notice in case he's planning anything that would take the focus off the happy couple.

"Having experienced the Connor Mead treatment, Jenny has no patience for him,” states Jennifer Garner. "They were best friends as kids and really meant something to each other, then reconnected and dated as adults but, by then, he was well on his way to becoming a world-class playboy and totally disappointed her. He nearly ruined her faith in men. When they are reunited at the house there are definitely sparks flying but not necessarily the good kind.”

Waters views Jenny as "a combination of the girl next door and the one who got away, with a touch of something else that Connor can't quite pin down. There's a rich history between them and the sense that Jenny knows Connor in a way that no other woman ever will. For all her disappointment in what he has become, she knows the real Connor is better than that; consequently she calls him on his games and puts him in his place. Matthew and Jennifer really tap into that sparring rhythm and that undercurrent of competition that's a carryover from Connor's and Jenny's childhood together.”

"Jenny is the kind of woman we all hope to have in our lives, someone who sees us for who we really are and can bring out the best in us,” says producer Jon Shestack, who credits Garner with giving Jenny "the vulnerability and intelligence that conveys, despite her sharp words, the sadness she feels for Connor and how empty his life has become.

While it would be difficult to convince anyone who knows him that Connor Mead does, in fact, have an essential sweetness, deep-down, Jenny believes he does and she continues to look for it, despite everything he does to prove her wrong.”

But that sweetness, if it's still there, is buried mighty deep.

On the evening of the rehearsal dinner, Connor is pressed into delivering a toast. Out of his element, rattled by the sight of Jenny, feeling hemmed in by a house full of white tulle and flowers and emboldened by too many trips to the bar, he spews forth a predictable but no less appalling speech denouncing marriage and everything it stands for. He then beats a hasty retreat in typical Connor f

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