(The next day)
(New York City, MTV Studios)
The shrill
screams of over 10,000 fans packed onto Broadway failed to pierce the thick
soundproofed glass walls of the MTV Studios. The set of Total Request Live was a
hive of activity. In less than five minutes, the hottest act on the planet was
going to be taking over the MTV airwaves.
"OK, so you guys will come on
after the number five video, chat with Carson, yada yada yada. Once again, our
fine friends at the New York City Police Department have politely asked us to
help them control the crowd, which means that you guys can not go over to the
window and that at some point they will probably make us close the shutters.
Joey, please don't be shaking your ass at them like you did last time. Some girl
ran out into the street and almost got hit by a car. Are there any subjects that
you don't want Carson to ask about?" The producer looked directly at Justin as
he asked this last question.
"Nope." Justin flashed him the smile that
made all the girls scream.
A guy in a green vest handed each guy a
microphone. "Let's just do a check real quick."
The guys immediately
launched into South Park imitations, causing the people in the control room to
crack up with laughter.
"All right, guys, you're up after the next
commercial."
The guys all lined up in a hallway just out of sight of the
primarily female audience. The turnout was amazing, considering that Carson had
announced that Monday that *NSYNC would be on the show. Three days later, it was
like New Year's Eve in the middle of June. But the partygoers were all young
girls and instead of the huge lighted ball, these girls were looking for stars
of a different kind.
Carson saw the cue and smiled into the camera.
"Welcome back to TRL, bringing you the top ten videos of the day, the top four
are on the way. Now, we have some very special guests with us today. These guys
are very near and dear to my heart and obviously to yours, too, because you all
have made them the best-selling artist of just about forever. Their latest CD
and tour have broken all kinds of records and-what the hell am I talking about,
you all know this already. *NSYNC is in da house!"
The lucky girls (and
the few guys) who had been selected to be that day's studio audience erupted in
shrill screams, smiles and more than a few tears as the five men ran through the
crowd. The pandemonium spread to the crowd waiting outside when the fans caught
their first glimpse of the guys, first through the floor-to-ceiling windows in
the studio, and then on the Mega-Tron, the huge television screen that was used
to broadcast certain high-profile events.
Once the guys were settled
down and into their seats, Carson turned to them with a wry smile on his face.
"It's always a wild time when you guys come to visit."
"Yeah, baby,
yeah!" Chris said in his best Austin Powers imitation.
"So, how's the
tour going?"
"The tour is great, the fans have been great." JC turned to
the camera and flashed a grin that made all the girls watching at home sigh.
"We're tired, though."
"Yeah, I bet. I haven't seen the show yet but I
heard it's amazing. Got a lot of new stuff."
"Yeah, we definitely have a
lot of new tricks, a lot of new stuff you've never seen before. A lot of the
effects we're using are being used for the first time on this tour, so it's
definitely stuff you haven't seen before," Lance said with his ever-present
smile.
"Cool, cool, but what I wanna know is what's up with this movie?"
Simultaneously, the five guys of *NSYNC burst into laughter. "Um, well,
to tell you the truth, we don't even really know ourselves," Chris admitted.
"Last time I checked, it was gonna be this 'Bodyguard' type thing but we kept
arguing over who would get to be Whitney Houston so I don't know if that's gonna
work."
"You all wanna be Whitney, huh?"
"We all wanna be
Whitney," Chris confirmed.
"Well, I can't do anything about that, not
sure I want to, but how about a little Britney?"
"Britney? Eh, she's
OK," Justin said with a shit-eating grin.
"Well, here she is, at number
four with 'Oops' on TRL. More with JC, Joey, Lance, Justin and Chris in a
minute."
The video appeared on the screen and the guys just sat there
talking to each other. One of the girls in the audience got bold, stood up and
yelled, "I love you, Chris!"
He turned to see who it was, smiled at the
young blonde and yelled back, "I love you, too!"
This brought on a
flurry of affirmations of love, lust and eternal devotion. The producers had a
very hard time bringing the girls back to order and they were still screaming
when the video ended.
"Uh, that was Britney Spears at number four and
the audience is going absolutely nuts for the five gentlemen you see to my left.
JC, Lance, Joey, Chris and Justin of *NSYNC. Now Justin-" Carson had to pause as
the screams grew even louder, almost drowning him out.
Justin looked out
to the crowd, smiled and brought his index finger to his lips. Almost
immediately, the decibel level fell.
Carson stood there nonplussed. He
looked to the camera. "Now that's crowd control for ya!" He turned to the
audience. "How come y'all never do that for me? Anyways, we're here with *NSYNC.
Are you guys just amazed at the amount of success this album has had? I mean, it
dropped in March and, here it is, three months later and it's already eight
times platinum. How does that make you feel?"
"Sitting on top of the
world," Justin sang.
Simultaneously, all of the guys said, "It's like
WHOA!"
"No seriously," Joey said after he'd recovered from laughing,
"it's actually very flattering and it kinda doesn't seem real until someone
reminds us about it."
"Yeah, we try not to concentrate on the numbers,
we're all about the music and keeping the fans happy," JC had to pause as the
audience cheered at this, "and I guess the numbers show that we're doing a
pretty good job."
"Ya think?" Carson joked. "We gotta get to the number
three video. It's by the Backstreet Boys, 'The One'." Carson walked over and put
his arm around Justin's shoulder. "Stick around cause I think me and this guy
right here are gonna have a conversation about a certain singer who was here
yesterday."
"Aw man," Justin said into his mic. "Should I be scared?" He
looked up at Carson.
"Maybe. Maybe. Your number three video, 'The One'."
During the video, the guys all got up and walked over to the audience
for autographs and pictures. As usual, the bodyguards were there, lurking in the
background. It seemed almost ridiculous that these hulking men were protecting
five fully capable men from a bunch of adolescent girls but the guys of *NSYNC
had learned early in on their career just how bad scratches and pulled hair can
hurt. The producer came over and prodded them back into their seats. There was a
bit of shuffling because the guys hadn't gone back to their original seats and
the producer thought that would be chaotic for the people watching (as if they
wouldn't know who was who anyway) and had them all switch back. Justin, Lance
and JC were sitting in stools and Joey and Chris stood behind them. The tech in
the green vest cued them.
"Hi! We're in *NSYNC and this is TRL!"
"Welcome back, everyone," Carson said loudly into his mic, trying to be
heard over the screams. "Do you guys ever get used to this, all the screaming
and hysteria?"
"Actually, we do. In the beginning, you think that this
is something that you'd never be able to get used to but then slowly you do
until you don't even really notice it that much anymore," Justin said. "But then
one day, you'll look up and it's like you're seeing it for the first time and it
just takes your breath away."
"I love you, Justin!" someone shouted from
the back of the room.
He smiled and made a face at her, then turned back
to Carson.
"OK, so speaking of taking your breath away, here we have a
picture of you, do we have that picture, can we get it up on the monitor?"
"Of who?" Justin asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.
"Of you. This-ah, here we go."
The audience 'awwed' at the
picture that appeared on the screen. It was the one from Entertainment Tonight
and it was of Justin and Maddie sitting at the bar, talking.
"OK, so
correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that you looking like you just got bit by the
love bug?" Carson teased.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I may have a tiny crush on
her."
"Tiny?" Chris scoffed loudly. "Tiny? OK, let me tell ya-"
"Chris," JC turned and placed a hand on the other man's arm. "No, man,
don't embarrass the guy on TV."
"Thank you!" Justin sighed.
"I'll do it! Carson, let me tell you-"
His words were muffled
when Justin reached over and put his hand over his mouth. "What JC is trying to
say is that I think Madison is a beautiful girl and that she has mad talent.
Right, JC?" Justin looked at his friend.
Eyes twinkling, JC nodded.
Chris raised his hand. "OK, can I just say one thing, how we knew Justin
had a crush? He loves hip-hop, right, that's all he ever plays. UNTIL Maddie's
CD came out. He puts it on repeat and just listens to it over and over until
we're about ready to kill him."
The audience awwed again and Justin put
his face in his hands.
"There are, like, a million girls in America
right now who are probably extremely pissed at Madison Morse right now."
Justin looked up, red still coloring his cheeks. "She don't even like
me, man."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know. She just doesn't like me,"
Justin frowned at the camera, downplaying his pain by overdoing it for the
crowd.
"Imagine that, there's a female in this world who doesn't like
Justin Timberlake."
"That's what we said!" Chris threw his arm out to
emphasize his point and accidentally smacked Justin in the head.
"See? I
get no love, man, no love. Even my friends be beating on me."
Through
his laughter, Carson said, "We're running outta time, here's the number two
video, Eminem with 'The Real Slim Shady'."
The familiar beat began and
all the guys of *NSYNC started bobbing their head to the music. JC leaned over
to Justin. "Daniel is gonna kick your ass for that, you know?"
Justin
grinned at him. "I'd like to see him try."
Carson ambled over to the
guys. "I think I just fucked myself royally there."
"What?" Joey asked.
"Do you know how much mail we're gonna get about this now?"