Timberlake and Spears in 2002
Justin Timberlake says his years-long relationship with fellow pop star Britney Spears began with love at first sight. "I was in love with her from the start," Timberlake tells GQ of his onetime Mickey Mouse Club costar. "I was infatuated with her from the moment I saw her."
Timberlake, 25, calls his romance with Spears "a distant thing," but he hasn't forgotten the sting of their breakup, which happened when he was 21. "When we initially parted ways I felt like she had a couple of opportunities to just sort of stick up for me, and she didn't," he tells the magazine. "Which is fine. But at that time, you know, I fought back."
Timberlake penned a hit song, Cry Me a River, in which he lashed out at Spears. "I used my mind," he says. "I came up with a song." Despite rumors that Timberlake once advised Spears to dump husband Kevin Federline, he says he and his ex no longer speak.
But he acknowledges that Spears, who recently described herself as "an emotional wreck," has had some tough times recently. "I wish her well, and I want to see her win," he says. "I don't think you can ever count somebody like her out. Because she may appear one way, but she's very clever."
Meanwhile, Timberlake is at a professional and personal highpoint. His sophomore solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, comes out Sept. 12, and he's been dating Cameron Diaz for three years.
He calls his low-profile relationship with Diaz, 33, "adult" – compared to the time he spent with Spears, which he deems "just so high school." "For me, this time around it's been important to stay, at least as much as I can, out of the limelight," he says. "And I think that's made it more enriching.
I've received so much more from it by keeping it just between the two people it's supposed to be between." He adds, "There's no pretense about anything. It's just a sort of coming together of two people."
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K-Fed Makes Prime Time
Kevin Federline
Who knew, but the kids are apparently clamoring for the K-Fed.
Mr. Britney Spears is set to take the stage at the 2006 Teen Choice Awards, marking his musical debut on network television.
The artist otherwise known as Kevin Federline has been tapped as the closing act for Fox youth-centric award show, airing Aug. 20 and hosted by Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook.
Federline is slated to perform the song "Lose Control," due to be the first single off his long-threatened forthcoming album, Playing with Fire, the network announced Wednesday.
The first legitimate single, at least.
The 28-year-old aspiring rapper recently claimed that his much-maligned debut single, "PopoZao," was released as "a joke" and was simply designed to attract visitors to his MySpace Website and spark media interest in his album, due out this August.
"At first, when I put out 'PopoZao,' people were kinda laughing at me," he said earlier this month. "I did it on purpose so people would look at me exactly the way they did. That way, when I come out with my real s--t, people are f---ing blown away."
Joke or not, the track was definitely a doozy of a publicity generator, drawing more than 2 million visitors, per Federline's count, to his site.
The track also resulted in a news special on MTV, Kevin Federline: The Luckiest Man Alive, in which the former backup dancer was seen groovin' and lip-synching along to his song, prompting the erstwhile performer to declare that the track was, without a hint of irony, "brilliant," and that Spears "loved it."
For those keeping score at home, K-Fed has foisted two other tracks on the world.
In November 2005, he released a clip from the rap track "Y'All Ain't Ready" via KevinFederline.com. And indeed, we all were not.
The tune generated plenty of giggles, especially for his malapropism of "pavarottis" in place of "paparazzi."
Which, if recent confessions are to be taken seriously, may have been his plan in the first place.
Then came his opus "America's Most Hated" in the spring, which immediately prompted a lawsuit threat by '80s pop star Thomas Dolby for allegedly sampling "She Blinded Me With Science" sans permission. Federline reposted the song to his MySpace site a week later after removing the pilfered hook.
In addition to his upcoming live performance, a booking that, if nothing else, pretty much guarantees a Spears appearance at the award show, the soon-to-be four-time father is also up for an award for, get this, Choice Red Carpet Style--Male.
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Pregnant Linda Evangelista, 41, in Vogue
Model Linda Evangelista holds a press conference in Sydney in this Monday, Aug. 9, 2004 file photo (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
NEW YORK - The modeling industry is all about who's young, who's hot and who's next. Or is it?
Linda Evangelista, 41 and pregnant, is on the cover of the August issue of Vogue. She's the first model, not a Hollywood star, to be featured on the magazine's cover in more than a year.
Her pals from the supermodel heyday a decade ago are also faring well: At 36, Naomi Campbell is still queen of the catwalk. Kate Moss, 32, is starring in a half-dozen designer ad campaigns this season, including a fall Versace campaign that also features Christy Turlington, Angela Lindvall, Carolyn Murphy and Daria Werbowy.
Evangelista never saw modeling as a means to another career.
"I decided when I was 12 that it's what I wanted to do and I count my blessings that I got to realize my dreams," she says. "Being a rock star was out of the question. I can't sing. I'm so glad this worked out for me, I do think I know how to be a good model. And I didn't have a Plan B in place."
It helps, too, that she's a fashion junkie and keeps up on the styles and trends, whether she's working or not. "I love that it changes every six months. I really love the creative process of making beautiful images. I so enjoy everything about it."
Turlington, 37, has gone on to other things, including marriage to actor-director Edward Burns, motherhood and her own activewear company, Nuala. Still, she was happy to be called back to duty for Versace.
"I started my career working with the Versaces and it had been years since I saw Donatella," she says. "It was great to spend a day catching up with old friends and familiar faces. Shooting the campaign was definitely more fun than work."
Evangelista, whose baby is due this fall, isn't worried about her post-pregnancy figure.
"I'm not freaked out at all, I embrace it. I believe I'm doing everything to go through this as smoothly as possible. I'm either doing yoga or exercising every day."
There won't be a "comeback" after the baby's birth, Evangelista says, because she doesn't plan on ever going away.
Sally Singer, fashion news director at Vogue, says someone with a full life, public recognition and a few (or more) years of experience is an even more effective model because the women buying clothes, beauty products and magazines can relate to her.
"Readers and customers respond to images of older women — women who've had lives, women who they know something about. They're more interested in a woman who's had children and still looks great. It's more inspiring than seeing a 14-year-old from a former Eastern Bloc country."
Fame is a factor, too.
"The more iconic models of the '90s have greater appeal because they are, in their own right, celebrities, and we all know celebrities and campaigns do work," Singer says. When even the jaded crowd at a fashion show cheers for Campbell as she struts the runway, they cheer because they know her, she explains. "It's a celebrity moment, not a model moment."
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2nd Woman Claims Cook Seduced Her at 19
Samantha Cole
A second woman has come forward to claim she had an affair with Peter Cook when she was 19, but before his marriage to Christie Brinkley.
Samantha Cole, a 29-year-old singer, told the New York Post in Wednesday's editions that Cook, now 47, proposed marriage to her in a last-ditch bid to win her back after she broke up with him in 1996. She refused, Cole said, and Cook became engaged to the supermodel a month later.
Earlier this week, 19-year-old Diana Bianchi, a former employee of Cook's, alleged the architect hired her and seduced her with lavish gifts, then attempted to woo her back with repeated notes and phone calls after she broke off the affair.
"I laugh at this, because our story is exactly the same," Cole was quoted as saying.
Brinkley, 52, announced last week that she and Cook, her fourth husband, had separated. The couple, who were married in 1996, have an 8-year-old daughter.
Cole said she was shocked to hear that Cook had allegedly cheated on Brinkley. "I never thought he would do something like that, being married, with his family so important to him."
A message left for Cook at his office wasn't immediately returned Wednesday.
When she learned that Cook and Brinkley were engaged, "I was pretty upset about it, pretty angry," Cole told the Post. "I was the last person he was with before Christie."
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McCready Found Not Guilty in DUI Trial
Mindy McCready
Mindy McCready was found not guilty Wednesday of driving under the influence in May 2005. But a jury found her guilty on the charge of driving on a suspended license. The DUI case centered on a video of the field sobriety tests the country singer took after she was stopped for speeding.
McCready, 30, refused to take a breath test, but the arresting officers said she smelled of alcohol, had watery, bloodshot eyes and was unsteady on her feet. They said she acknowledged she had been at a nightclub where she had several drinks.
Her attorney, Lee Dryer, said McCready wasn't impaired and that the field sobriety tests weren't performed properly. He also said she removed her shoes for the roadside test, but then found it hard to complete because her pant legs were too long.
The singer was stopped while driving a friend's car. The friend had asked her to drive him home because he was too intoxicated, Dryer said.The trial judge dropped a contempt of court charge against McCready for arriving 10 minutes late Monday for the first day of court.
McCready, who had a No. 1 hit in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time," faces a hearing later this year on charges of violating her probation on a drug charge by failing to check in with her probation officer and leaving the state without permission to go to Florida.
After her trial, McCready said she feels as though she's turned a corner in her personal life.
"This is one step in getting past a lot of things," she said.
McCready also said she might write a song about all that's happened to her.
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