We're all set up and ready to photograph *NSYNC in their hometown of Orlando, FL. The lights, backdrops, clothes are all in place. Only one thing is not in place. The band. They are nowhere in sight. Turns out it's harder for them to roll out of their own comfy beds than it was for them to jump out of the back-breaking ones they'd been using on the road. Their publicist and manager have it covered, though—they're speed-dialing each of them to make sure they're on their way.
Lance, a businessman through and through, is the first to arrive. "Time is money, and I hate wasting either," he says.
JC is next with his new "just rolled out of bed" hairstyle, though we later learn it takes about half an hour to achieve that messy look.
Soon after, Chris blows through like a bat out of hell—literally. He's wearing strange bat wings and flapping into walls and people as he makes his way into hair and makeup. Seconds later he's pretending to be Bruce Lee and busting kung fu moves on everybody in sight. All this and he hasn't even had his first Mountain Dew of the day.
Joey, with his new cheetah-print hair, walks past everyone in a hurry to get to the rest room. His new 'do is for the movie, 'On the L,' which he's making with Lance (look out for it this fall). He plays a drummer in a grunge band. Even though Joey has spent some time behind the skins, it's kind of a stretch, since he's more Boyz II Men than Nirvana.
Justin's the last to arrive, in his new Cadillac Escalade. As he rounds the corner to the studio, we actually think the booming bass from his jacked-up sound system is a thunderstorm rolling in—even though there isn't a cloud in the sky. He should pass out earplugs to anyone who rides with him.
Lights, camera, action!
Now that they're all here, we can finally start the shoot. First up: the Beatles-esque black turtleneck shots—the boys love how clean these pics look. Next come the custom-made graffiti outfits—JC jokes that he feels a little weird having *NSYNC on his ass. (Each of the guys' suits is spray-painted with their names and the name of the group.) Everyone has a blast in the limo shots. Joey gets so silly he even moons us! Then the guys put on the fluorescent outfits—but they let us know they aren't really feeling the look. Once they see the Polaroids, though, they quickly change their minds, because the colors look so cool on film.
Gross-out guys
After a whole day of acting like total pros—we're starting to believe we're seeing a new, more mature *NSYNC—Joey lets out a monstrous burp and everyone laughs. Then Chris makes fake farting noises and Justin starts an R-rated sing-a-long (sorry, the lyrics are too rude to print). In unison, the rest of the guys join in. "When we get really silly, you know two things," says Chris. "We're done with the shoot, and my Mountain Dew has kicked in."
