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- Taking a break from Britney
and his band, the 'N Sync
star talks for the first time about being single,
solo
and 21.
With her neatly curled coif and honey-dipped
southern
drawl, retired real estate agent Sadie Bomar
hardly
seems like a power player in the game of love.
But the
69-year-old grandmother of pop star Justin
Timberlake
just may hold the secret to her grandson's heart.
"He
always calls me when he's coming home and says,
'Granny, please don't forget my peach cobbler!'
" says
Bomar, who lives next door to Timberlake's mom
and
stepdad in Millington, Tenn. After delivering a
batch
to him in '00, "he hid it on his tour
bus," she
recalls. Bomar's only request? That he return her
favorite casserole dish. "He brought it back
to me a
month later," she says. "He's a very
thoughtful boy."
Thoughtful?
Absolutely. But a boy? Think again, Granny. At
21, the
heartthrob is finally stepping out on his own,
with a
new album -- his first-ever solo effort -- and a
newfound freedom: bachelorhood. After seven years
as
the hottest 'N Syncer and three as Britney
Spears's
boyfriend, Timberlake is now, well, Just Justin.
Which
suits him just fine. "Right now I want to
enjoy life,"
he declares. Holed up in a studio in Virginia
Beach,
Va., where he is recording the new album,
Timberlake
says he wrote the songs to reflect his growing
independence. "I'm throwing it out there,
seeing what
happens," he says. "I'm testing the
water, man."
When it comes to diving back into the dating
pool,
though, Timberlake is still getting his size-11
feet
wet. Less than six months after his split from
Spears,
20, Timberlake still can't bring himself to utter
the
words "break up." "It hurts too
bad to say it," he
says. Actually doing it has been even worse:
"You get
to a point where you're crying yourself to sleep
at
night." Given the scrutiny surrounding their
relationship, "I feel like I'm in the middle
of a soap
opera. I honestly know what it's like to have a
broken
heart now."
And don't listen to the reconciliation rumors.
For the
time being, at least, the 6'1" Timberlake
says he is
definitively unattached. Even so, he says,
"I love
Britney, and I'll always love her."
So what went wrong? Blame the usual suspects:
youth,
distance and competing careers. "You can't
have a real
relationship when you see each other only two
days a
month," says Timberlake's mother, Lynn
Harless, 41.
Timberlake, who calls the breakup
"mutual," agrees,
noting that his priorities are shifting. "I
just want
to focus on my career," he says. "I
want to enjoy the
simple things. I want to take three days off when
I
want to, not when it's on my calendar. I want to
go
run in the park with my sweats on because I can.
That's where I'm at right now."
Although still nursing his wounds, he has not
allowed
a broken heart to get in the way of a good time.
Since
splitting from Spears, Timberlake has hit the
dance
floor on both coasts -- sparking romance rumors
in
April after a particularly close encounter with
'N
Sync dancer Jenna Dewan, 21. (For the record:
"I
haven't been with anyone,"he says. "Not
a date, not a
kiss.") And during the group's recent tour,
Timberlake
partied almost nightly with his bandmates and
visited
the strip-club circuit. A little post-Britney
debauchery? You bet. After the strain of
maintaining a
long-distance relationship, "that's when
it's time to
take a break and sow your oats," he says.
"It's part
of being 21."
Those close to him, however, say that beneath the
single-guy bravura, Timberlake is still a
one-woman
man. "Ever since I've known him, he's always
had
somebody," notes fellow 'N Syncer Lance
Bass, 23, who
first met a 14-year-old Timberlake in 1995.
"That says
he doesn't enjoy the chase that much."
Timberlake himself confirms that sentiment.
"I never
liked dating in the first place," he says.
"I believe
it's about four to six weeks of somebody acting
like
somebody they're really not. And you start to see
the
real them and you're like, 'Whoa! Where did you
come
from?' " Still, he does have his
preferences. "He
always said he was a butt man," says his mom
with a
laugh. Of course, "a good vibe and a big
heart" also
help, says Timberlake. Adds Bass: "He's a
great flirt.
He knows how to make girls laugh."
And how to make them swoon. A self-described
"hopeless
romantic" who lights candles in his hotel
rooms
wherever he goes and revels in the old-fashioned
bathtub he had installed in his Orlando home,
Timberlake has displayed a flair for the grand
gesture
since before he was old enough to drive. His mom
recalls an adolescent Justin wooing a girlfriend
with
a carefully planned picnic. "He bought a
bottle of
sparkling grape juice, Alfredo pasta and fixed up
a
basket," says Harless. "He's thoughtful
about trying
to surprise people."
She should know. "When he was little, I used
to say,
'Justin, someday when you get rich and famous,
will
you buy me a Harley?' " recalls his mom.
(She and
Justin's father, Randall Timberlake, 42, divorced
when
Justin was 3.) "It was just a joke between
us."
Gotcha, Mom: Several Christmases ago, when
Timberlake
cashed his first big 'N Sync paycheck, he
surprised
his mother with a jewelry box. Inside? The keys
to her
very own hog.
Of course, Timberlake reserved his most romantic
surprises for Spears. "My head spun,"
he says of their
first meeting as costars on The Mickey Mouse Club
in
'93. They reunited in '98 when Spears appeared as
an
opening act for 'N Sync. By the time their
relationship was in full swing, Timberlake had
traded
grape juice for more elaborate overtures. On
Valentine's Day, 2000, "we were rehearsing,
and one
dude comes in and reads a really nice note to
Britney
from Justin," recalls choreographer and
producer Wade
Robson, 19, a friend of both stars. "We
thought it was
going to end there, when all of a sudden a
five-piece
band comes in and plays Michael Jackson's 'The
Lady in
My Life.' That's typical Justin."
Growing up in Millington, Timberlake honed his
yes-ma'am manners early on. "I've never seen
Justin
sit down and eat -- even a sandwich -- without
saying
grace first," says his grandmother. Five
years old
when his mother got remarried, to banker Paul
Harless,
44, Timberlake and his stepfather forged a tight
bond.
His dad eventually remarried and had two more
children
-- Jonathan, 8, and Stephen, 3 -- and both
families
now live within five miles of each other.
"He's talked
to me about how he really hopes his daddy is
there for
his brothers," says his mother. "He's
thought about
what kind of father he wants to be."
But fatherhood can wait. For now, Timberlake --
who
began taking voice lessons at age 8 and has been
working steadily since his Mouseketeer days -- is
having too much fun indulging his childhood
fantasies.
"Y'know what? You'd think we're 13 when
we're together
with all our toys," says R&B singer
Brian McKnight,
33, a pal since the mid-'90s. "The thing is,
we've got
grown-up toys now." No kidding. Timberlake's
car
collection includes three Mercedes, two Cadillac
Escalades, an Audi TT, a Dodge Viper, a BMW and a
Porsche, plus five motorcycles and three
Sea-Doos.
Did we mention the toy room? An avid basketball
and
video-game player, Timberlake's three-bedroom
Orlando
pad features a fun zone complete with pinball
machine,
Xbox and PlayStation. He also invites friends for
weekly matches of Cranium and charades. "You
want him
to be on your team," says pal Robson.
"He's quick."
Claiming not to have inherited his granny's
kitchen
skills -- "I can cook a mean Pop-Tart,"
he says with a
laugh -- Timberlake instead spends time on the
putting
green he recently had installed in his backyard.
"I
took up golf last year and I love it," he
says. Not
that he'll be trading his hip-hop look for
PGA-approved duds anytime soon. With five tattoos
and
counting, "he comes home and says, 'Look
what I did!'
" says his mom. His approach to grooming is
far less
spontaneous. "He'll take an hour to get
ready," says
Bass. "Everything has to be perfect,
especially his
hair."
Ah, The Hair. Since achieving stardom,
Timberlake's
blond curls -- now shorn -- have been more
closely
scrutinized than his ex-girlfriend's navel.
"When he
had curly hair, we'd joke around with him, like,
'Uh-oh! Curl No. 66 is out of place!' " says
Bass. "He
wants to make sure he looks good." That
perfectionist
streak can sometimes lead to a temper, says his
mom,
who acknowledges, "he can be moody, mostly
when it
comes to his work. "Nonetheless, "he's
not a grudge
holder," says Robson.
Clearly that seems to be the case with his famous
ex.
"I still talk to her on the phone,"
says Timberlake.
"I hold her in the highest light."
Despite the split,
"he's like a member of our family,"
says Spears's
father, Jamie, 49, who lives in Kentwood, La.
"He's a
good kid."
Make that a man -- and one who is unlikely to be
single for long. "I think he'll be a very
loving
husband, and when he makes the commitment, that
will
be it," says his grandmother. "For that
reason, I'd
like him to take his time and be sure of
everything."
credit people magazine
- And a big thnaks to 5feet
for posting this in the
Nsync UK Club
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