Justin Timberlake was arrested for driving under the influence last month in the town of Sag Harbor on Long Island. The locals, for some reason, managed to turn Timberlake’s DUI into a story about how the cop who arrested him is a jerk who would dare ticket wealthy Hamptonites, but it’s still a serious charge. Normal people lose jobs and even careers over a DUI. Apparently, Timberlake doesn’t see it that way, though, with Billboard reporting he made a joke about it at his recent Boston show.
According to Billboard, on June 29, while playing a show at the TD Garden arena (which, unlike the Patriots’ stadium, is actually in Boston), Timberlake greeted the crowd, saying, “So, uh, is there anyone here tonight that is driving? No, I’m just kidding.” The attempt at a joke did draw some laughter but also gasps from concertgoers. And then he moved right along, asking who was seeing him for the first time and who had seen him before.
Now, it makes sense for Timberlake to address his DUI arrest in some manner. Were we part of his PR team, we probably would have gone with an apology instead of a flippant joke, but maybe that’s why we’re not in PR. Then again, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 13,524 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths in 2022. That works out to one person dying every 39 minutes. Seems bad, right? Like something Timberlake should take seriously even though he’s already rich and successful enough that it won’t impact his life nearly as much as it would most of the people at that show.
Still, as rich as Timberlake is, there may still be consequences. His next court date is July 26, which happens to be the same day he has a show in Poland. If he’s required to appear in person, he may have to cancel or postpone that show. He might even have to spend some of his Trolls fortune on a fine and do some community service. Whatever happens next likely depends on how much credence the judge gives Timberlake’s claim that he just had a single martini and followed a friend home. The police report refutes that claim, saying:
It was ascertained that the defendant was operating said vehicle in an intoxicated condition in that his eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot, and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests.
Of course, you can’t always trust the word of the cops, so it will be interesting to see whether they release any bodycam footage of the arrest.
