The New York Observer » Justin Timberlake http://www.observer.com Just another WordPress site Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:18:53 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en How Jay-Z Met H.P.: Blame Hip Hop Branding Wizard Steve Stoute Over the summer, Steve Stoute, the CEO of the brand-marketing firm Translation, went to Wimbledon with his friend and business partner, the rapper Jay-Z, to cheer on Rafael Nadal during the Spaniard’s fourth-round battle with Juan Martín Del Potro. With the match tied in the third set, BBC cameras spotted them. “The man is still here,” said BBC tennis analyst Boris Becker in his heavy German accent. “The Jigga Man, that’s what they call him—Shawn Carter.”

Where most viewers saw a star-sighting. Mr. Stoute saw a “tanning moment.”

Mr. Stoute, in his recent book The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy (2011, Gotham Books), defined “tanning” as “the catalytic force majeure that went beyond musical boundaries and into the psyche of young America.” That’s a pretty thick slice of marketing-speak, but the gist of it is simple: hip-hop has radically changed culture and corporate America.

And Mr. Stoute has had a central role in the transformation.

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]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/11/how-jay-z-hip-hop-branding-steve-stoute-11212001/ Prediction Update: Justin Timberlake Seems, Indeed, a Movie Star In October 2010, The Observer's Irina Aleksander made a bold prediction: that Justin Timberlake would someday quite soon be a movie star. It was right there in the headline: "Justin Timberlake, Movie Star." It remained to be seen quite how well his performance in The Social Network might fare with audiences, critics, and Oscar Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/07/prediction-update-justin-timberlake-seems-indeed-a-movie-star/ It Couple Watch! Terry Richardson and Audrey Gelman, Scott Stringer’s Press Secretary Terry Richardson may have shot Mila Kunis for this month’s GQ, but the Transom saw him walking the red carpet for the actress’s casual-sex rom-com Friends With Benefits with a beautiful brunette of the totally opposite vocation. The mystery Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/07/it-couple-watch-terry-richardson-and-audrey-gelman-scott-stringers-press-secretary/ Ingmar Bergman-Related Porn Star Now Nailing Real Estate to the Stars What is Frederik Eklund's secret to landing all the bold-face clients, the Justin Timberlakes, Daniel Craigs and Jessica Albas?

The Times says it's personality and skill:

Perhaps because of his upbringing in Sweden's ruling class, he moves easily among other public figures. He runs with a glamorous set of Swedes, like Princess Madeleine, who moved to Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/ingmar-bergman-related-porn-star-now-nailing-real-estate-stars The Best and Worst Musician-to-Actor Transitions [Pics] It may seem like world-famous musicians intent on making it in Hollywood have a leg up on everyone else, but in many cases it's the opposite. A preconceived notion about a certain rock or hip-hop star can spell doom for their chances on the big screen, simply because audiences will refuse to believe in their Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/scoring-musician-actor-transitions-pics “The Facebook Movie in One Minute”

"The Facebook Movie in One Minute" gives us a condensed, hyper-sexualized version of The Social Network: After creating Facebook, a pint-sized Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin take the next logical step, which in this case turns out to be wild sex in graffiti-covered bathrooms. The NMA subtitles describe this as "allowing Mark and Eduardo to Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/facebook-movie-one-minute Revenge of the Nerd: David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin Make ‘The Social Network’ a Thrill As trends go, movies now translate to the Internet, and vice versa. The Social Network is the story of how Mark Zuckerberg, a nerdy, 19-year-old Harvard doofus with his face glued to a computer screen and all the personality and charm of road kill, invented a Web site one drunken night in 2003 that evolved Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/revenge-nerd-david-fincher-and-aaron-sorkin-make-social-network-thrill Aaron Sorkin: Social Network is True. Also False. It’s Complicated. The irony of MySpace hosting a screening and Q&A for the upcoming Facebook film, The Social Network, was not lost on the teenage audience in Union Square last night.

"This must be really weird for them, cause MySpace is like a social network too" said Amy, a 14 year old from the Upper East Side. "But Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/aaron-sorkin-says-social-network-is-true-and-false Justin Timberlake Was Tardy to Shopping Night at Saks Fashion’s Night Out drew a big crowd at Saks Fifth Avenue. People scurried about on the first floor: getting their make-up done, being sprayed with perfume and hand lotion, and, presumably, buying things.

On the second floor, designer Chris Benz stood awkwardly in front of a television with a sign next to it that read “Play Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2009/daily-transom/justin-timberlake-was-tardy-shopping-night-saks Justin Timberlake Out With a Book Proposal on Golf Justin Timberlake wants to write a book about golf! Sources say lit agent David Vigliano—who has recently repped books by celebrities like Shannon Doherty and Clay Aiken—sent editors a short proposal by the singer last month. Mr. Timberlake has been a golf fanatic for years, getting his first taste of the game as a Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2009/media/justin-timberlake-out-book-proposal-golf MTV Movie Awards: Andy Samberg Shines, Robert Pattinson Bores and Sasha Baron Cohen Teabags… Eminem? Because we have an aversion to all things LC, we haven’t turned to MTV in quite a while. However, with the MTV Movie Awards airing last night, what better time to make an exception? And folks, what an eye-opener! At first we thought commercials for shows like 16 and Pregnant, Paris Hilton’s My BFF and Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2009/movies/mtv-movie-awards-andy-samberg-shines-robert-pattinson-bores-and-sasha-baron-cohen-teabag Models Mob the Met! The theme of this year’s Met Costume Institute Gala—i.e., the Oscars of the East—was “the Model as Muse,” and the weedlike mannequins floating up the red carpet in weapons-grade shoes and teensy get-ups appeared only moderately more human than the “superheroes” that inspired last year’s ball.

Molly Sims called her elaborate gold Dolce & Gabbana Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2009/fashion/2009-costume-institute-ball Week in DVR: Our Favorite Show, Kidman Kids, Duff Grows Up Monday: Chuck We’re not exactly sure when it happened, but sometime during the last four months, Chuck became our favorite show on television. Maybe it’s because of the brilliant cast, which seems to have chemistry on top of their chemistry; or perhaps it’s the fact that we find it impossible to watch Chuck without feeling Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2009/movies/week-dvr-our-favorite-show-kidman-kids-duff-grows Dear Lorne Michaels: Hire JT! Given that Saturday Night Live will celebrate its 35th anniversary later this year, we doubt Lorne Michaels needs any advice from us about how to run a successful show. However, after watching this weekend's mostly harmless episode hosted by the charming Dwayne Johnson—note to studios: put him in a musical comedy co-starring Anne Hathaway Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2009/movies/dear-lorne-michaels-hire-jt Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Debut Shows Promise We’ve never quite understood the vitriol that comes with the name Jimmy Fallon. Maybe the problem stems from the fact that he’s really a tweener; like a lyric from a lost Britney Spears song, he’s not an actor, not yet a comedian. In fact, if he’s guilty of one thing, it’s that he just Read More

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