Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell has come down with an illness that’s bound to get him much more coverage than the press tour for their new album he’s had to postpone – Littrell has contracted the dreaded swine flu! Oh no! This isn’t the only H1N1 celebrity story in the press this week – production has been shut down on the Fox show Bones because lead actor David Boreanaz has the flu.

Those pigs just ruin everything! First Bones and now BSB!

The Backstreet Boys have been forced to put their media blitz for their new album—This Is Us, out tomorrow—on hold as Brian Littrell has been diagnosed with swine flu.
Needless to say, New York appearances scheduled for today and tomorrow have been canceled in light of the illness.

“We were really looking forward to spending time with our closest fans and friends in NYC,” Littrell says in a statement. “I hope we can come back soon and do everything we can to help.”

Thankfully, doctors declared Nick Carter, Howie Dorough and A.J. McLean are H1N1-free, but prescribed Tamiflu to the group and their touring party, who had just returned to the U.S. from Tokyo.

While swine flu is no oinking laughing matter, something tells us this diagnosis may provide healthier awareness for their album than that media blitz.

[From E! Online]

My son, who’s five, got the flu on Saturday. We didn’t take him to the pediatrician as he was much better by Monday and it was a holiday here on Saturday. (Plus I’ve read that the recommended treatment, Tamiflu, isn’t that great for kids.) He came down with a fever of 102, was caughing and felt sick to his stomach with a headache. Those are symptoms of the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, but they’re also the symptoms of regular flu and we never got confirmation of what he had. I was a little freaked out at first, but he was acting fine after taking children’s ibuprofen so I put aside the initial urge to take him to the emergency room. My husband and I are achy and run down with some stomach problems but are otherwise ok. I’ve had much worse cases of flu.

I do suspect my son had the H1N1 virus and that he’s mostly recovered now. I feel relieved after all the scary things I’ve read. There’s some rumblings that it’s been needlessly hyped by the media, but my husband is a scientist and he says that it’s kind of warranted because of the way the virus mutated. As it is, a lot of people have caught it and recovered. According to the CDC swine flu isn’t more deadly than regular seasonal flu at this time of year although more people are seeking treatment for it. We’ll have to see what happens this flu season and if it gets worse. You can’t say people aren’t aware of it, that’s for sure.

The Backstreet Boys are shown in Berlin on 9/7/09. Credit: Fame Pictures

Lou Pearlman has been in a Florida jail since June after he was finally arrested for a ponzi scheme in which he took hundreds of millions of dollars from investors and just moved it around without investing it, taking at least $150 million for himself. He was on the run from the law for eight months on that charge, having been seen in June Indonesia by German tourists, who tipped off authorities.

He’s best known for starting the careers of several successful boy bands, including NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys, Take 5, and LFO. Pearlman screwed all the musical acts he represented out of significant shared of income, using legal tactics and methods to take 75% of revenue off the top, and insure he received an ongoing percentage of merchandise and tour revenue. Every musical act he’s worked with except one has sued him.

Pearlman also started a talent search agency that bilked people out of millions. It was the subject of multiple lawsuits and was eventually closed by the state of Florida.

Not only is Pearlman an accomplished con artist, he’s said to be a pedophile too. There’s an upcoming story in Vanity Fair, covered by Page Six today, that details alleged incidents of molestation of the young boys Pearlman worked with:

“I would absolutely say the guy was a sexual predator. All the talent knew what Lou’s game was,” Steve Mooney, an aspiring singer who was Pearlman’s assistant, told VF’s Bryan Burrough. “Some guys joked about it. I remember [one singer] asking me, ‘Have you let Lou [fellate] you yet?’ ”

Mooney said he once asked Pearlman, who was known as “Big Poppa,” what it would take for him to get into a band. “I’ll never forget this as long as I live. He leaned back in his chair, in his white terry cloth robe and white underwear, and spread his legs,” Mooney told Burrough. “And then he said, and these were his exact words, ‘You’re a smart boy. Figure it out.’ ” Mooney added that a singer groped by Pearlman told him, “Look, if a guy wants to massage me, and I’m getting a million dollars for it, you just go along with it. It’s the price you got to pay.”

Phoenix Stone, an early member of the Backstreet Boys, tells Vanity Fair Pearlman was “definitely inappropriate” with Nick Carter. Nick’s mom, Jane Carter, wouldn’t get into specifics, but said, “Certain things happened and it almost destroyed our family. I tried to warn everyone. I tried to warn all the mothers . . . I tried to expose him for what he was years ago.”

Tim Christofore, a member of Take 5, recalls that during a sleepover at Pearlman’s house, the music czar swan-dived onto his and another boy’s bed and wrestled with them wearing only in a towel, which came off. “We were like, ‘Ooh, Lou, that’s gross.’ What did I know? I was 13,” Christofore told Vanity Fair.

Rich Cronin, lead singer of LFO, recalled Pearlman told him of an “ancient massage technique that if I massage you and we bond in a certain way, it will strengthen your aura.”

[From NYPost.com]

And as I was researching this story, I came across a statement by Justin Timberlake in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone. Timberlake got his start in the business in the band NSYNC, managed by Pearlman. He said “Looking back at those days… I was being monetarily raped by a Svengali.” [From Wikipedia]

This guy should go away for the rest of his life. It turns my stomach to think of someone taking advantage of young boys like that. The only way he could be a lower form of human is if he was a serial killer, but he’s not too far from that level.

With all these 90s bands getting back together again, I feel like I’ve come full circle and am cool again. Except, it wasn’t exactly cool back then to be a fan of the Spice Girls or Take That or…the Backstreet Boys!

After a two-year layoff and the departure of Kevin Richardson, the all-grown-up Backstreet Boys are readying the release of their sixth studio album for Oct. 30.

The yet-to-be-titled disc will be issued by Jive Records and marks the Backstreeters’ 10th anniversary with the label that launched them to superstardom.

E! Online

Backstreet’s back indeed. On August 27 the new single, Inconsolable, will be shipped to radio. This is their first single since 2005’s Incomplete, and after that I really hope they creat an In-trilogy. Actually, how about Incontinent, since the band are so old? 35! They’re not boys anymore.

Another 90s band doing the cash raising rounds is Guns N Roses. They (only original member Axl Rose) toured recently for the Chinese Democracy album (the album took years to make, at least politics move slow in China).

Now Guns N Roses are thinking about a reunion, after playing this week without Axl!

With the big “Appetite For Destruction” 20th anniversary show behind him, original Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler is looking forward to taking his Adler’s Appetite band worldwide. But he’s also holding out hope for a blowout reunion bash with his former bandmates.

“I believe I made it this far for some reason,” Adler tells Billboard.com. “I want to finish what we started, and … with the love and support I got from those guys, I think we can (reunite). I’m gonna leave it up to Axl [Rose]. That’s gonna be Axl’s call, and I love Axl and I know he’ll make the right call.”

Billboard

Actually, I desperately hope this doesn’t happen. I really like Slash’s new band Velvet Revolver with Scott Weiland, and also don’t want to have to suffer through any GNR concerts with my hair band loving partner. I think I could give Backstreet Boys a miss too, although I am very sorry I’ve failed in my one-woman bid to make my town Spice City.

Picture note by Celebitchy: The Backstreet Boys are shown on 6/14/2005 at a signing session for their “Never Gone” CD. Guns N Roses are shown performing on 6/4/2006 at the Rock in Rio Lisboa Music Festival. It seems neither of these bands really went away. Thanks to PRPhotos for these images.