Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are in town today, thanks to Affleck having agreed to be the commencement speaker at Falls Church High School. The WaPo explains that the actor agreed to lend an unusual amount of starpower to the high school graduation ceremony thanks to his friendship with Falls Church senior Joe Kindregan. Kindregan and Affleck met when the actor was filming 1998’s Forces of Nature at Dulles Airport. Kindregan has ataxia-telangiectasia, a rare degenerative disease, and since then Affleck has become a fundraiser of the search for a cure.

We can only hope that Affleck will use his speech this afternoon to impart valuable lessons to the graduating seniors on the dangers of too much tabloid exposure and picking crappy movie roles — though in all likelihood he’ll use his time to speak about working hard to achieve your goals blah blah blah. Still, we can’t help but be a little envious of these graduates — the most famous high school commencement speaker any of us ever had was the superintendant of the school district.

The Post story mentions that several other area high schools got big names for their graduation speakers this year: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will speak at McLean High School, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell delivered a commencement speech at Forestville Military Academy this morning, and California first lady Maria Shriver is scheduled to appear at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.