TheEternalCherry — 9 years ago(February 08, 2017 11:53 AM)

Timberlake has been so famous for so long as the youngest member of the wildly successful 1990s boy band NSYNC, as a multiplatinum Grammy-winning solo artist (26 million albums sold) and, increasingly, as an accomplished screen actor (he'll be co-starring with Kate Winslet in Woody Allen's next movie) that he's learned to wear his celebrity like a pair of comfy old hammer pants. Indeed, he only can barely recall a time when he wasn't dodging paparazzi and making headlines for things like dating Britney Spears (and making a music video about their breakup) and accidentally setting off
Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at Super Bowl XXXVIII (even today, not a topic he's eager to talk about)
.
the earworm took off on the charts to become Timberlake's first No. 1 single in 10 years, selling 2.4 million downloads (and streaming nearly 700 million times). For the few who impossibly haven't yet heard the number, there's an excellent chance he'll be singing it at the Oscars "it's being negotiated," is all he'll say though
don't expect to see Timberlake at the Feb. 12 Grammys, which snubbed the tune for the big prizes
and nominated it only for best song written for a visual media.
Timberlake will be playing golf at Pebble Beach that weekend.
When he was in fourth grade, he heard about an open call at a Memphis mall where talent scouts were looking for contestants for Ed McMahon's Star Search ("the original American Idol," Timberlake calls it). He sang his heart out and got flown with his mom to Orlando for a slot on the show.
He ended up losing he blames the Garth Brooks song he was coaxed by the producers into singing
Technically, NSYNC never officially broke up; they announced a "hiatus" in 2002 and have not appeared together since. "We were on a stadium tour, and I just felt like the whole thing was too big," says Timberlake, explaining why he decided to bail. "It started as a fun snowball fight that was becoming an avalan2000che. And, also, I was growing out of it.
I felt like I cared more about the music than some of the other people in the group.
And I felt like I had other music I wanted to make and that I needed to follow my heart."
Aside from the junior sketch comedy he'd done on The New Mickey Mouse Club, Timberlake had acted only once, in a 2000 Disney TV movie called Model Behavior, playing a male fashion model who falls for a waitress
(much eye-rolling at the mention of the title)
. But after his appearances on SNL, acting offers started falling into his lap.
Of course, for serious thespians, the ultimate status symbol remains a part in a Woody Allen movie, even if these days that honor is mixed with moral complications (Timberlake sidesteps the ethics: "I chose to not get into it I really don't dive into any of that stuff with anybody").
Here's to the mess we make.