The public turned their backs on celebrities during the pandemic. 'Bennifer' is here to save them and us.

• Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's rekindled romance has captured the world's attention.
• It comes as celebrities faced a tough era as fans grew weary of them amid the pandemic.
• "Bennifer" 2.0 offers pure nostalgia for those looking for more normal times.

The internet is a cynical place. We're constantly reminded how much the world, and everyone in it, sucks. But one story has united us all: the return of Bennifer.

Since the end of April, rumors of a rekindled romance between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have been flying. But the news that the pair were on holiday together in Montana has only further ignited hopes that after 17 years apart, Bennifer is indeed back on.

"They have a strong connection," one source told People. "It's all been quick and intense, but Jennifer is happy."

Sounds exhilarating.

TMZ reported that the pair had been emailing for months, despite it only being a month since Lopez's break-up with her fiancé Alex Rodriguez, whom she had been dating since 2017, was announced.

Online, the response to the news has been nothing short of ecstatic. Comedian Michelle Collins noted in a viral tweet that the reunion has made Affleck "hot" again. (A drastic change of tune after the Dunkin' incidents.) Jennifer Lawrence even chimed in on how "excited" she was.

-Michelle Collins (@michcoll) May 10, 2021

No one took Bennifer seriously the first time around

But the public wasn't always so quick to embrace their relationship.

For those who aren't familiar, Affleck and Lopez met on the set of the critical and commercial failure "Gigli" in 2002. After Lopez divorced her then-second husband Cris Judd in July of that year, by November, she and Affleck were engaged.

Most notably, Affleck made an infamous appearance in the 2002 music video for Lopez's magnum opus, "Jenny From the Block," in a role referred to by Mel magazine as a "video hoe."

In the video, filmed partly from the perspective of the paparazzi covering their relationship, the two are seen canoodling at a restaurant, a gas station, and a yacht where Affleck affectionately kisses Lopez's behind.

Naturally, their whirlwind romance made them a tabloid staple. Despite that, just days before their wedding, the pair called it off due to the constant media attention. Their story was ubiquitous - and also hated.

That's why the elated response to their reunion is surprising. March 2020 not only marked the beginning of the pandemic, but also a reckoning with celebrity culture with many realizing we simply don't need it.

During the pandemic, celebrity culture was in its flop era

When we were all stuck inside, experiencing the same new normal, the inequalities became all the more apparent.

Actors and musicians were giving Zoom interviews with lavish homes and untouched bookcases as their background. Celebrity couples were doing laps around their neighborhoods in a desperate attempt for publicity. There was the occasional moment of respite - Dakota Johnson's house tour, Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt's reunion, to name a couple - but as a whole, celebrity culture was in its flop era.

With so much hindsight, it's also downright shocking to realize that Gal Gadot's tone-deaf "Imagine" video arrived mere days into lockdown. A bunch of A-listers reassuring us that it's all going to be OK only affirmed how out of touch they are. Just because you have a platform, doesn't mean you should use it.

As for Affleck, his short-lived relationship with "Knives Out" star Ana de Armas reached a crescendo when the now infamous cardboard cutout of the actress was photographed being thrown into the trash. It was almost symbolic of how we've come to view celebrity culture: disposable.

In the past year, every day seemed to feature a new controversy that had the internet crying, "the celebrities are at it again."

The universal indifference to the famous is perhaps emblematic with the rise of gossip Instagram accounts like DeuxMoi, an anonymous-run account that "publishes rumors & conjecture, not facts," according to its website. Instead of couples or controversies, the celebrity news of the day was someone randomly spotting Bradley Cooper at a restaurant, or the revelation that Timothée Chalamet is actually nice by a fan who had bumped into him.

We lost interest in the glamour and became fascinated by the mundane. Not even Zendaya at the Oscars could pull us back in, as evidenced by its abysmal ratings.

Bennifer is good because it is pure nostalgia

Considering the universal exhaustion with stardom, the eager embrace of Bennifer 2.0 is strangely uncharacteristic - so why the sudden change? In short: nostalgia.

Nothing takes us back to 2003 quite like the relationship that pretty much invented the celebrity portmanteau. (Sorry, Brangelina.) Places are reopening, celebrities are quietly hooking up again, things might just be reverting back to normal.

Affleck and Lopez's rekindled relationship also harks back to an era of celebrity culture that has passed. Although it's great that social media has given celebs more autonomy over their image, it's also undeniably refreshing to see everyone scrambling over paparazzi photos again.

It's reflective of a time when the divide between the famous and the public was more legible, when celebrity was elusive and aspirational. This news reminds us that, no, the rich and famous aren't always just like us, and that's OK!

And as pessimistic as we are, we love a sign that maybe love is actually real.

Long live Bennifer.