Justin Timberlake is a successful musician who's also managed to make his mark in the
movie industry.
But his rise to fame has also been tinged with tons of tabloid gossip about his relationships
and behaviors behind the scenes.
From wardrobe malfunctions to manufactured drama, here are all the times JT has been
out of sync.
Bad breakup
Justin Timberlake dated Britney Spears when they were both still at the top of their teen
pop stardom, but their breakup was ugly in more ways than one.
After the split, Timberlake did an interview on 20/20 in which he revealed that he had,
in fact, been intimate with Spears — even though the singer had told press she planned
on remaining a virgin until marriage.
For her part, Spears was not happy with Timberlake kissing and telling and said, "It was two
years into my relationship with Justin.
And I thought he was the one.
But I was wrong.
I didn't think he was gonna go on Barbara Walters and sell me out."
Despite her embarrassed reaction, however, Timberlake continued to bring up his bedroom
history with Spears and even included a reference to it in his Saturday Night Live sketch half
a decade later.
"I'd like to think that at first he'll date a popular female singer.
Publicly they'll claim to be virgins, but privately… he hit it."
And Timberlake wasn't done punishing Spears with just words.
He went on to drop the passive-aggressive pop track "Cry Me a River" about a cheater
getting her comeuppance.
He even cast a Britney Spears look-alike and had his new paramour rock a halter top and
low-cut pants just to make sure no one missed the memo on who that song was about.
Blame game
Although Justin Timberlake had a direct hand in the wardrobe malfunction heard 'round the
world, he shouldered very little blame for the accidental exposure incident.
In 2004, while performing the Super Bowl halftime show with Janet Jackson, the routine concluded
in him pulling at a piece of her costume to match his lyrical promise to have her, quote,
"naked by the end of this song."
It's hard to tell what the intent was with him tugging at her top that way, but the move
left Jackson's jewelry-adorned nipple open for millions of viewers to gawk at, and the
fallout was massive.
Hundreds of thousands of complaints were filed with the FCC, and CBS had to fight a major
fine as a result.
And despite multiple apologies, Jackson's music videos were banned from several channels
and she was barred from appearing at the Grammys that year.
To this day, one could argue that her career never really recovered.
Timberlake, meanwhile, received little to no backlash at all.
Not only did he attend that season's Grammys — and win — he boasted after the incident,
"Hey man, we love giving you all something to talk about."
He even made light of the situation at the 2008 ESPY Awards.
And although the FCC chairman has since apologized to Jackson for the hubbub, Timberlake would
later say, "I'm not touching that thing with a 10-foot pole."
What a gentleman.
Twitter trouble
In 2016, Timberlake learned a lesson that many other celebrities have awkwardly grasped
since the beginning of social media age: think before you tweet.
Timberlake tweeted that he had been inspired by the speech that actor Jesse Williams gave
while accepting the Humanitarian Award at the BET Awards that July.
But he was met with immediate disdain, chiefly by journalist Ernest Owens, who wrote, "So
does this mean you're going to stop appropriating our music and culture?
… And apologize to Janet too."
Timberlake responded by writing, "Oh, you sweet soul.
The more you realize that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation.
Bye."
That, of course, only made things worse — so bad, in fact, that JT issued an apology mere
hours later, saying, "I feel misunderstood.
I responded to a specific tweet that wasn't meant to be a general response.
I shouldn't have responded anyway…
I was truly inspired by [Jesse Williams'] speech because I really do feel that we are
all one…
A human race.
I apologize to anyone that felt I was out of turn.
I have nothing but LOVE FOR YOU AND ALL OF US."
But for some, it was too little, too Timberlate.
Title troubles
2016 wasn't exactly a great year overall for Timberlake.
The singer was accused in three separate lawsuits of ripping off songs.
The first incident came in January, when two members of the '70s group Sly, Slick and Wicked
sued Timberlake's record label, alleging that the Timberlake-Jay-Z hit "Suit & Tie" sampled
its song "Sho' Nuf" and entitled the band to royalties.
The following month, Timberlake and will.i.am were sued by PK Music Performance, which alleged
that the 2006 song "Damn Girl" was "not the product of independent creation" and actually
copied portions of the 1969 song "A New Day (Is Here at Last)."
Then in April, Timberlake was sued by — believe it or not — Cirque du Soleil, over the song
"Don't Hold the Wall," which the theater company claimed copied its song "Steel Dream."
Boy band backup
Timberlake owes much of his career to the success of boy band 'N SYNC, which dominated
the pop music world in the late '90s and early 2000s.
But in recent years, Timberlake has done a lot to distance himself from his original
group.
For one thing, he didn't invite the other four guys to his wedding to Jessica Biel.
Then, despite inviting the guys to perform during his Video Vanguard celebration at the
2013 MTV Music Video Awards, they wound up barely appearing on stage, which allegedly
upset them.
Then, in February 2017, Timberlake spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about why he left the
boy band and claimed, "We were on a stadium tour, and I just felt like the whole thing
was too big.
It started as a fun snowball fight that was becoming an avalanche.
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.
I felt like I had other music I wanted to make and that I needed to follow my heart."
Granted, being forced to wear matching leather outfits and sing songs called "Digital Get
Down" sounds like a miserable experience, but come on: don't bite the hand that once
fed you millions of dollars.
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