According to the New England Genealogical Society, best buddies Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are tenth cousins, once removed.

Talk about the born identity.

Society researchers dug up evidence that both Damon and Affleck are descended from William Knowlton Jr., a bricklayer who came to the United States from England in the 1630s and settled in Ipswich.

The society said Friday that Affleck has lots of other famous relatives, including 16 U.S. presidents - Barack Obama among them - and the late Princess Diana.

Huh? If Affleck has all those famous relatives and Damon is related to Affleck, doesn't Damon have the same famous relatives?

And does this mean that Princess Diana and Barack Obama are related through Ben Affleck?

Plus where does Kevin Bacon come into this?

He's 'Mad,' alright

John Slattery, who plays advertising executive Roger Sterling on "Mad Men," is fighting plans to build a $346 million sanitation-department building in his Manhattan neighborhood.

NYC officials say that the new building on Spring Street will get trucks off the street and into a garage, and will provide the trucks direct access to the West Side Highway.

But Slattery says that his neighbors are worried about pedestrian safety, with garbage trucks expected to add hundreds of visits to the neighborhood each day.

Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, told the New York Daily News that the city plans to free up nearby space used by the Sanitation Department and convert that space into parkland.

Tattbits

* Prince Philip, the 88-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth, is bemoaning the complexity of TV remote controls, saying that attempts to record programs often end up with him lying on the floor with a flashlight, a magnifying glass and an instruction manual.

The comments came in an interview posted Saturday on Buckingham Palace's official YouTube channel.

With all the servants they have in Buckingham Palace, you'd think the prince could find one who could program a DVR.

* Director Mike Nichols (aka Mr. Diane Sawyer) has been chosen to receive the American Film Institute's 38th life-achievement award next summer.

Nichols ("The Graduate," "Working Girl," "Silkwood" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?") is a Tony Award-winning stage director and made the Emmy-winning miniseries "Angels in America."

And more importantly, he directed "Spamalot."

* According to The Learning Channel, Mackynzie Renee Duggar was born at 6:39 p.m. Thursday. She is the first child of Josh and Anna Duggar and the first grandchild for Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, stars of TLC's "18 Kids and Counting."

Mackynzie's birth comes as Michelle Duggar is pregnant with her 19th child. She is due in March.

Josh, the eldest of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar's children, is 21. He and Anna married last fall.

You better keep pumping 'em out Michelle. Josh and Anna mean business.

* We know of NBC's desire - thanks to years of Olympics coverage - to label every young woman "America's Sweetheart," but that term has officially jumped the shark.

Upper Darby's Tina Fey is beloved here at Tattle, but no matter how many times NBC says so in its "30 Rock" commercials, her character, Liz Lemon, is not "America's Sweetheart."

Don't they watch their own shows? Or is that supposed to be irony?

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

E-mail gensleh@phillynews.com