Intro for March 23, 2026
– 2 min read
Dear Gossips,
Justin Timberlake’s lawyer tried to block the release of his 2024 DWI arrest video a couple of weeks ago. Obviously those attempts didn’t work because the video found its way online this weekend.
If you recall, when the news first broke that summer, it was reported that the arresting officer had no idea who Justin was at the time – and the video confirms that that’s true. The cop asks Justin if he’s in town on a visit, and he immediately goes to, “Yeah, I’m on tour”. Which completely confuses the officer.
That’s an abbreviated version of the arrest video, you can watch a longer version here and there are a few worthwhile celebrity takeaways. First of all, Justin does seem disoriented, certainly not all that alert, and to me it sounds like he’s slurring his words. There’s really no doubt here, in my mind, that he was drunk.
But then a friend shows up, a woman, who is utterly flabbergasted that the police would actually arrest Justin Timberlake, like it’s unfathomable that they would do this to someone who is as famous as he is. She starts pleading with the cops to just forget this happened, at one point, out of sheer desperation, she screech-moans, “Please help me!” And then follows up with, “Can you guys please just do me a favour, ‘cause you loved ‘Bye Bye Bye’ or, like, ‘SexyBack’?” It’s insight into how the people around him, in his life, might treat him – that his celebrity privilege is something performed on his behalf.
Later, when Justin is shown at the police station, seemingly waiting while the officers complete the paperwork, and he’s handcuffed while seated at the intake booth, he questions whether or not this is standard operating procedure, if what he’s experiencing is what anyone who’s been pulled over and then arrested for suspicion of DWI might experience. And he seems doubtful, he’s asking because, presumably, he thinks that he’s being treated worse than a regular degular, because he’s famous… even though we’d already established that, initially, the arresting officer had no idea who he was.
But it’s not like the officers are disrespectful or abusive or anywhere approaching offside. If anything, from the perspective of a civilian, they’re being exceedingly polite which… of course… is not often how we see them behaving when the suspect is a person of colour. Still, anything short of luxury for someone like Justin must feel like torture. It’s a reminder of what’s “normal” for those who exist in the world believing they are “special”.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
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