At the risk of jeopardizing my queer card or incurring the wrath of teenyboppers, I just do not get the appeal of Justin Timberlake. Sure, at times he demonstrates an interesting almost-fey quality to his movement and manner and, as Jeff noted in March, he has developed a relatively nicely gym-toned body. But I find his face--and I'm trying to be kind here--plain and uninspiring, at best (though I must admit that Herb Ritts did a great job of maximizing its strong points and minimizing its weaknesses in the Rolling Stone cover), and the current scruffy look, which I normally find attractive, on him really is quite unappealing.
Oddly, I was in the midst of posting this because Justin had come to mind both from my quick fast-forward through the TiVo recording of the MTV 2003 Movie Awards, and from Terry's numerous mentions of him. But when googling for a picture for him, the second headline of the three that Google returned as news was an article today from icWales, showing that results from a recent VH1 poll in the UK put Justin as the 14th sexiest person, one spot behind Elvis and just one spot ahead of Duran Duran.
I feel vindicated already.
Fame has lots to do with perceived sexiness. In his earlier version he seemed an attractive enough twink but not specially so. Now he looks much like the kids who by comics and CDs in my bookshop.
The poll would be a much bigger surprise in the US. Over in the UK it isn't uncommon for a song from anywhere among the last forty years to suddenly jump to the top of the pop charts (even without a remix). Brits sense of musical pop culture doesn't seem to be as relentlessly rooted in the "now" as over here.
Justin's faux Michael Jackson thing is horrible and icky. He just tries too hard, thinks he's too cool, and that's just a huge turn off. But I'm way above his demographic at 31! *grin*