Justin Timberlake interview: ‘I can count my friends on one hand’

Raised in small-town Tennessee, Justin Timberlake is the perfect Southern gentleman. So how does he square being a multiple Grammy-winning singer and an increasingly respected actor with his old-school values? Rachel Cooke digs deep Most writers, myself included, tend to dislike doing big- star-in-a-ritzy-hotel type interviews. But in the case of Justin Timberlake, the situation brings with it, I must admit, certain advantages. For one thing, the Dorchester has baked special biscuits in the shape of the letters “F”, “W” and “B” – to stand for Friends With Benefits , Timberlake’s new romcom. OK, so the icing is a bright swimming-pool blue, which is a little off-putting (later, as I am leaving, Justin himself will pick up a wobbly “W” and, in a slightly incredulous voice, ask: “Is this actually edible?”) But, still: free biscuits. For another, it is only fair I admit that the Dorchester’s luxuriant pale carpets and mushroom-cloud plumped cushions are, in this instance, a great leveller. They make him seem less young, and me less uncool. It would, of course, be exceedingly thrilling, not to mention mightily amusing, if he were to start singing “Rock Your Body” in his excellent falsetto, while leap-frogging the sofa. But on a balance of probabilities, this is unlikely to happen here, among all the swags and nests of tables. Something about the place seems to act as a kind of tranquilliser. His assistant brings him down from a suite upstairs. He is, at least to begin with, plainly guarded, and his face is as grey and as pale as old grouting (this is the final leg of a Europe-wide publicity tour for Friends With Benefits ), but he is also polite to a fault, his old-fashioned Southern manners apparently having remained intact in the face of both his multi-million pound fortune and his immense fame (a few girls are patiently standing outside the hotel even as we speak). Later on, when I

Posted by on September 3, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.