The sheen has worn off America’s onetime golden boy.
The latest kick to Justin Timberlake’s ego? When, as Page Six reported, the young cop who arrested him for DWI in Sag Harbor early Tuesday didn’t recognize his face or name.
“Justin said under his breath, ‘This is going to ruin the tour,’” a source told Page Six. “The cop replied, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour.’”
Indeed, the 43-year-old singer is due to perform in Chicago on Friday and will be at Madison Square Garden next week, sources confirmed. But he may not have his old swagger — especially after his latest album, “Everything I Thought It Was,” dropped off the Billboard 200 after just four weeks.
Sources told The Post that the singer and actor’s career is not where he thought it would be at this point.
“The album didn’t do too well, and I don’t see Justin getting big acting roles right now,” said a well-placed Hollywood insider. “I just think Justin has a bad reputation in Hollywood as a bit of a jerk and a pain in the ass.”
“He’s got a bit of an ego,” said an industry insider.
The past few days, complete with Timberlake’s glass-eyed mug shot, are a clear indication that the former *NSYNC heartthrob has some very real mid-life crisis issues.
Not least of them is the fact that his wife, actress Jessica Biel is said to be “extremely upset” with her husband’s antics, according to US Weekly.
While Timberlake has traded on his dimpled good looks and sunny charm for decades, he’s not been having a great year.
“Everything I Thought It Was” became his first solo release to miss the No. 1 spot since “Justified” in 2002. The record was met with criticism and weaker than usual sales upon its release in March.
Ticket sales for “The Forget Tomorrow World Tour” have been similarly lackluster.
“His golden boy image is definitely depleted,” the Hollywood source said.
“Reptile,” last year’s Netflix thriller, saw Timberlake deemed by critics as making “his best impression of Ben Affleck in “Gone Girl.”
His biggest success in recent years has come from voicing a character in the the “Trolls” movies. The latest, “Band Together,” saw him reunited with *NYSNC and releasing “Better Place,” the boy band’s first single in more than 20 years.
It’s surely not the career he imagined when, as The Post reported in 2010, he had his eyes on an Oscar nomination for his role in “The Social Network.”
Back then, we reported that he was “doing things his own way, including attending Academy screenings on his own and privately reaching out to award winners and Academy darlings Tom Hanks and Kevin Spacey for campaigning advice.”
In the end, only co-star Jesse Eisenberg received nod, although Timberlake did get to open the Oscars in 2017 with a rambunctious performance of his nominated, self-penned song, “Can’t Stop The Feeling.” (From, yes, a “Trolls” movie.”)
It was seen as a feat when Timberlake managed to leapfrog from boy-band success to solo fame with edgy, grown-up songs like “Senorita” and “SexyBack.”
One of his biggest hits, “Cry Me a River,” is widely believed to be about cheating by his ex-girlfriend and former “Mickey Mouse Club” co-star, Britney Spears.
Timberlake was seen as having come out of 2004’s Super Bowl “Nipplegate” — when he exposed Janet Jackson’s breast in a wardrobe malfunction during the half-time show — largely unscathed. But defenders of Jackson and Spears took to social media this week to claim karma has finally caught up with Timberlake, posting memes of the female singers laughing and casting side-eye, and of Timberlake singing his 2006 hit “What Goes Around … Comes Around.”
Last year, Spears revealed in her memoir, “The Woman in Me,” that she had an abortion at age 19 after becoming pregnant with Timberlake’s baby.
“Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” she wrote. “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.
“To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
Sources at the time told us that Timberlake was extremely hurt by Spears words, saying they were just teens.
During a concert in February, Timberlake told the crowd, “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolutely f–king nobody.”
On the same day as Timberlake’s arrest, Spears, who is currently on vacation in Las Vegas, posted a snapshot of what appears to be a cocktail. She also included an image of her legs floating in a pool and simply captioned her post, “It’s the little things you know!!!”
Spears’ camp had no comment.
Another industry insider said, “There have been rumors around Justin’s behavior for a long time. Maybe the bubble was about to burst and this was the pin that pricked the bubble.”
Timberlake had previously apologized to his wife for a “strong lapse in judgment” in 2019, when he was photographed holding hands with actress Alisha Wainwright while off-duty from filming the drama film “Palmer” in New Orleans. Timberlake blamed being drunk in his public apology for his behavior.
“… Nothing happened between me and my co-star. I drank way too much that night, and I regret my behavior. I should have known better,” Timberlake wrote in an open letter at the time.
Said the industry insider” “He’s got a few blemishes, for sure.”
The 10-time Grammy winner was released without bond Tuesday after being arraigned in Sag Harbor. He was charged with a driving-while-intoxicated misdemeanor, and his next court date was scheduled for July 26, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office said.
Timberlake said he only had one martini, while onlookers reported him drinking from another guest’s glass.
Page Six is told he and Biel have rented a house in Sag Harbor for the summer, as they did last year.
“In today’s world you have to be really dumb to drink and drive,” the industry insider said. “Justin is showing off a side that I don’t think a lot of people knew about.”
