Justin And Britney At War, Magazine Cover Story Declares
In just eight months' time, Justin Timberlake's feelings toward former love
Britney Spears have gone from hurt to hate. At least that's what Us
Weekly alleges in its current cover story, "Britney Vs. Justin: The War
Is On."
The article, which surfaced on New York newsstands Wednesday and will be
available nationwide Friday, suggests that pop music's hottest couple are
feuding like the Hatfields and the McCoys, singling out Timberlake's video
for "Cry Me a River" as the latest, and loudest, bomb dropped ([article id="1459121"]click for the entire Us
Weekly cover[/article]).
The video, which premiered November 25, features 18-year-old model/actress
Lauren Hastings playing what could only be construed as a Britney look-alike
in a newsboy cap and tinted pink sunglasses, accessories Britney has been
known to wear. Timberlake is seen spying on his supposed ex getting into a
car with another man, and subsequently plots his revenge. He breaks into her
sprawling house and leaves a tape of himself half-heartedly making out with
another woman running on her TV.
Although Timberlake has professed that nearly every career choice is his own, he told a "TRL" audience on the day the video premiered that the idea for the "Cry Me a River" clip came from director Francis Lawrence. And while the clip's sentiment that Britney cheated on Justin (with choreographer Wade Robson, Us says, but Robson denies it) might be unmistakable to some fans, the 'NSYNC singer skirted around what everyone wanted to hear by saying, "The video is not about her. The video is about me."
Spears, meanwhile, won't fess up to the connection either. Calling in to
"TRL" on Friday, she denied there was even a resemblance between herself and
her supposed doppelganger. "The last time I looked in the mirror, I didn't
think I really looked like her." When asked what she thought of the clip,
Spears would only say, "Boys will be boys."
Despite this, the article quotes a friend of Spears as saying Timberlake
employed the tabloid tactic purely for publicity because his album,
Justified, wasn't selling as well as expected. (His solo debut has
sold more than 1 million copies after five weeks). Another family source
said that Britney and her mom, Lynne, are having a good chuckle over the
whole thing.
While the Us Weekly article chiefly focuses on the "Cry Me a River"
video to support its cover claim, other munitions incidents are cited. In
October, Britney was seen in London wearing a T-shirt that read, "Dump Him,"
which provoked some to insist it was a message to Timberlake's alleged
current girlfriend, actress Alyssa Milano, though the popular sloganeering
top is readily available at many retail shops. And she was also spotted
hanging around Timberlake's supposed rival, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter.
While promoting Justified, Timberlike slyly revealed intimate details
concerning the couple's sex life he had to know would get her attention,
since she publicly proclaimed her chastity years ago. During a New York
radio interview, he admitted to having oral sex with Spears, and during his
20/20 tell-all, he blatantly hinted that the two have had
intercourse. In a Details magazine December cover story, Timberlake
took shots at Spears' career choices, saying "If she had a clue, she
wouldn't have made ['Crossroads']."
Us steals some of its own thunder, however, by including instances
that suggest their parting was amicable. The piece notes that Timberlake
said he "would never ever do anything to disrespect [Britney] or degrade
her," in an interview with Rosie O'Donnell in April, after citing a quote
from Spears saying that the pair "still talk all the time," though they
consciously avoided each other at the Teen Choice Awards in August. A source
from the Timberlake camp told the magazine that Spears invited Justin to her
birthday party on December 2 in her childhood home in Kentwood, Louisiana.
Neither Spears nor Timberlake's spokespeople would comment on the article.
"We're just going to continue to take the high road," a Spears rep told
Us, and neither camp returned MTV News' calls by press time.
In the two and a half years since Us magazine increased its frequency
to become Us Weekly, the publication has garnered a reputation for
running fantastic headlines without any confirmation from the parties
involved. Recent cover stories claimed that Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe
were an item, and that Eminem and Kim Mathers were back together. The
magazine's source in the Kidman-Crowe piece later admitted he lied about
seeing the two involved at a Mexican resort because he was drunk and simply
told Us' writer what the reporter wanted to hear. And Eminem's people
wouldn't comment on whether the volatile couple have resurrected their
romance.