Ryan Gosling Was Reportedly Almost a Backstreet Boy
Ryan Gosling might have dodged a bullet. Back in the day, he almost became a member of the Backstreet Boys.
Former (and I guess also current…) Backstreet Boy AJ McLean gave an interview to TMZ in an airport about Ryan’s singing and dancing talent — he actually says Ryan’s better than former ‘NSync lead Justin Timberlake.
After the Backstreet Boys lost an original member, AJ says, Ryan Gosling was maybe going to audition. Ryan and AJ lived in the same apartment complex in Florida, the state where all late 90s boy bands were born, and “there were talks of him wanting to audition.”
It didn’t end up happening, but AJ points out that in videos of Ryan singing on the “Mickey Mouse Club,” “he’s kind of singing better than JT.”
Burn, AJ. But Ryan Gosling is a big movie star now and it’s pretty safe to say that wouldn’t have happened if he had been known as a washed up boy bander rather than a cutesy former “Mickey Mouse Club” member.
Another weird anecdote AJ felt the need to share with TMZ’s cameras: AJ says he and the rest of the Backstreet Boys once watched porn together at manager Lou Pearlman’s house. And it was porn on LaserDisc, an ancient ancestor of the DVD.
“We were hanging out shooting pool drinking Coca-Cola,” AJ, who was 17 at the time, recalled. “One of the guys was like, ‘Hey, let’s watch this,’ and we all watched it. It was Howie’s first time seeing girl on girl.”
This would be only a slightly creepy tale of teen boys discovering porn, but it becomes uber-creepy when you consider that Lou Pearlman’s been accused of groping some of his boy banders. Lance Bass even called him a pedophile.
Anyway, here’s a video of Ryan Gosling singing his little heart out (he starts at 1:30) along with Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez. It will make you equal parts nostalgic for the 90s and determined never to sell your future child’s soul to the Disney machine.