I’m sure the Germans or the Japanese have a word for it, but we need an English word for “enjoyment derived from watching an unpleasant person squirm.” Like “schadenfreude” is specifically about enjoying someone’s misery. I want a word for laughing as I watch a villain twist in the wind. It’s schadenfreude-adjacent. So it is with Justin Timberlake, who spent decades as a teflon white man in the entertainment industry, cheating on every girlfriend, avoiding accountability, blaming the nearest woman for his misfortunes.
In recent years, there’s been backlash to Timberlake’s years of douchebaggery, and in 2021, he even made a half-assed apology to Janet Jackson and Britney Spears. Now, with Britney’s memoir getting excerpted all over the place, chickens are coming home to roost. Right now, Justin is just trying to stop the PR bleed, but he doesn’t know how. His old method – be a white guy and blame everyone else – isn’t working. So he’s just pretending everything is fine and he’s not even paying attention to Britney’s memoir.
Justin Timberlake is taking the current news cycle in stride. As Britney Spears reveals in her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me that she became pregnant with Timberlake’s baby during their relationship but had an abortion, a source tells PEOPLE the musician, 42, is focused his family with wife Jessica Biel and work, including the *NSYNC reunion and his upcoming Trolls movie.
“He’s happy at home with Jess and their kids and he’s focusing on new music. He’s in such a great place,” says the insider.
Earlier this week, PEOPLE confirmed the revelation in Spears’ book. She writes that the pregnancy “was a surprise” but not “a tragedy,” as she was in love with Timberlake and hoped to eventually have children with him.
“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy,” writes the “Toxic” singer, now 41, in the book. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”
“He’s happy at home with Jess and their kids and he’s focusing on new music. He’s in such a great place.” IS HE? I doubt it. To be fair, Jessica seems to spend most of her time outside of Hollywood, raising their sons in Montana, all while Justin is… somewhere. Doing something else. Anyway, Justin has been previewing his panic about Britney’s memoir for months, and it feels like we’re only a third of the way through Justin’s damage control around Britney’s truth-telling. I can’t wait to see what the next People exclusive will be.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instar.
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- -Los Angeles, CA – 20220509 – Los Angeles Premiere For Hulu’s`Candy` TV Show At El Capitan Theatre -PICTURED: Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake -PHOTO by: BauerGriffin/INSTARimages.com This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing.
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- Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake at KENZO SS23 runway during Paris Fashion Week Menswear on June 2022 – Paris, France. 26/06/2022 Where: Paris, Frankreich When: 26 Jun 2022 Credit: Ik Aldama/DPA/Cover Images **ONLY AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE UK AND USA**
Dude- read the room. Nobody cares about you. Stop trying to insert yourself into Britney’s life.
I don’t think he has the ability to see outside of himself. That takes self awareness, a skill he’s never seemed to train.
Absolutely right.
This is his way of bragging about how great his life is. A reminder that he is living so well while Brit’s life is in ruins. He is so nasty.
This guy has Lucy Letby disease. He looks like a nice boy on the outside but on the inside—he’s not a serial killer nurse, but he is an utterly self-involved black hole of narcissistic navel gazing. A user of other people who takes no responsibility for his own behavior.
…what’s funny, though, is that I personally think he looks SO smug. His smugness and arrogance is palpable for me! No nice boy assumption here, hahaha.
Promoting his projects off the back of Britney’s book rather than apologize is so ick.
Justin doesnt have anymore douche life lines left,and he finally knows it. If this book had been released 10 or even 5 years ago i shudder to think what his reaction would be like. He is even trying to play nice with Nsync after practically throwing a fit when fans pleaded they be included in his VMA vanguard. With his recent douche bros Ashton and that nasty rapist getting their comeuppance he BETTER lay low.
“He is even trying to play nice with Nsync after practically throwing a fit when fans pleaded they be included in his VMA vanguard.”
Nubia, The N Sync-Justin Timberlake reunion was announced a couple of months ago. I’m seriously curious as to when JT found out about Britney’s memoir, and if JT was potentially more amenable to working with his old band once he knew his past would be in print.
I think we found out the memoir’s release date this summer so I think and I think I remember that there was an article about Britney being just about finished with the memoir this spring so it was way before the Nsync reunion announcement.
Idk what it’s called, but I’m loving every minute of it. Let him finally feel a fraction of the heat Britney, Janet, and all of those other women felt as he stepped on their heads to get closer to the sun.
He’s in a great place…he’s happily shacked up with his own ego. Wanker.
Is it just general FAFOitude? But dayum if that headline didn’t make me laugh.
Ooohh — I like FAFOtitude!
Even his damage control is douchy. His response to Britney’s pain is to say “Well, I’m in a great place and super happy.”
Seriously. Everyone is heartbroken for what Britney has gone through and he can’t muster an iota of sympathy or support, much less any type of apology, no, he just continues to be his own cheerleader.
That about sums it up.
Yeah, whoever is running his comms team needs to reset cuz this is not it. He’s like “Everyone, GREAT NEWS – I’m in a great place with MY family, now let me tell you all about my upcoming projects…”
Adding that “schadenfreude” can also be about justice. Joy that someone got their comeuppance.
+1. Well said.
I predict pictures of him inebriated hand holding or more with someone who’s not his wife outside of a bar to distract from Britney’s memoir so he can do the classic white guy “I was so stressed/oppressed stint in rehab and issue a non apology to his wife and make it all about himself and somehow posture that attention into remaining relevant”.
That’s such an asshole statement 🤦🏻♀️ way to make it about you ..
I am old and I still remember the interview where they were pressing to know if he had sex with Britney and he giggled and said, “Smell my finger.” Most disgusting thing to say. I hope he feels *uncomfortable* because people are calling him out for his ugly behavior. And *NYSNC – don’t be “with Justin Timberlake”. He deserves zero prominence. Feature the other four men and leave him in the cold. There is nothing he can do, no PR move, that can save him from the scorn rightfully heaped upon his head. I hope he feels ALL of it.
…he giggled and said, “Smell my finger.”
He should be smacked. What a POS.
He deserves all the scorn but so do his team, her team and all of the “journalists” who constantly asked questions about who was having sex with whom. It’s all so vile, and they were so young. So very many people at blame here.
Agreed.
Eww.
Yes he is in such a good place he has to tell everyone. Doubt highly he is in a good place.
So this is what his crack team PR came up with huh? Okay.
Yes Justin is happy at home with his kids and wife who he keeps cheating on.
Of course you’re doing well Justin. You’re rich off of the back of Britney you tool.
Great synopsis, Kaiser! My fave line “ His old method – be a white guy and blame everyone else – isn’t working“ lmao 😂
Hasn’t that always been his playbook. Not changing anytime soon.
I want a word for laughing as I watch a villain twist in the wind. It’s schadenfreude-adjacent. So it is with Justin Timberlake, who spent decades as a teflon white man in the entertainment industry, cheating on every girlfriend, avoiding accountability, blaming the nearest woman for his misfortunes.
–I have nothing to add other than diabolical laughter. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!
The way I laughed. He deserves every bit of this. I’m sure it was a difficult choice for them at the time, they were so young. But the way he treated her after their breakup was VILE.
I always think of this tweet thread that went viral years ago where a woman tweeted that she saw another woman in her car in a parking lot at 8am, angrily crying and screaming to “You Ought to Know.” She ended the thread with, “Queen, I hope he gets what’s coming to him.”
Perfectly captures how I feel about JT.
I watched for the first time in years Justin’s video for ‘what goes around, comes around’. In it he’s dating Scarlett Johansson and she cheats on him. He then chases her in a car and she crashes and dies whilst he’s singing ‘what goes around comes back around’. This was worse than cry me a river, JT was literally putting out violent fantasies about women. This was also around the time britneys breakdown was starting in 2006. He’s literally the worst.
Did you hear the newest details about the abortion? She said Justin made her swear to secrecy. Not even family knew. She had the abortion at home. She said the pills put her in so much pain for HOURS. All the while that motherf*cker was strumming his guitar and probably smiling.
He’s aging like bananas mixed in milk. That is ALL I have to say
I love this for him. His statement is absolutely gross.
How about Timbered. You got timbered. It officially means wooded – having numerous trees. But in my urban dictionary, it means a douche canoe finally got his comeuppance.)
Well, he did have that ridiculous “Man of the Woods” album, so Timbered would work very well.
Thank you for this info Grandma Susan! Ha ha! Omg I did not know this cause I don’t listen to his music.
My theory is that the only reason he did done the recent nsync reunion videos (and rumored tour that is tbd) is because he knew the book was coming out soon and this stuff would be dug up. Trying to butter us up before it does. If he cared about nsync he would have featured his old bandmates to do at least one song when he did that awful Super Bowl performance a few years ago.
Most mind blowing thing here is that there is going to be another Trolls movie. Why?
Either all male celebrity’s PR loathes their clients OR the celebrities are overriding their PR and i’m inclined to believe its the latter. Joe Jonas fumbled so hard that no matter what comes out now he will forever be tarnished as the man who slandered his ex wife.
JT’s publicists could’ve acknowledged that he was only 19 and his pre-frontal lobe hadn’t fully developed but looking back he regrets how much he hurt Britney and wishes her well. LIke its not that hard but one thing that leaked was Chapelle had a 50th birthday party and the rumor is JT performed and he said, “I know i’m not supposed to perform [cry me a river] but fuck it!” and now this response made me realize he really hasn’t grown. Many adults never fully grow and he is definitely one of them.
Agreed.