Candid Camera
“Meg loves Justin… It was their first time meeting and she was excited,” a source close to the situation tells Rolling Stone
There’s nothing better — or more dangerous — than a backstage camera at an awards show. Offering up the full illusion of behind-the-scenes celebrity voyeurism, these cameras offer a plentiful bounty of meme and .Gif fodder; but without the fine details — such as high-quality audio or properly-framed visuals — these cameras also offer extremely online body language experts the chance to run absolutely wild.
That’s what happened last night at the MTV Video Music Awards with an interaction involving Megan Thee Stallion, Justin Timberlake, and Joey Fatone. What’s clear in the clip is Megan getting her hair done and leaning over to speak to Timberlake. Some words are exchanged, there’s some gesticulating on Meg’s part, and Timberlake and Fatone seem to say a few things as well, though their backs are mostly to the camera, so it’s hard to tell.
In the face of all the known unknowns contained in such an interaction, viral tweets quickly emerged wondering if the pair were arguing or if Timberlake had said something insulting to Meg. Was this the start of a new feud capable of overshadowing the ‘NSync reunion? Was Timberlake’s cultural stock — already wobbling at dangerously cringe levels in recent years — about to take another hit? Was the think piece and hot take economy about to go through the roof? Was the Twitter dunk money printer about to go brrr?
Nope. A few hours later, Meg posted a video of her and Timberlake all smiles. “I just talk with my hands,” she wrote with an extremely appropriate shrug emoji. “@Justintimberlake love ya.”
A source close to the situation even offered further confirmation of the nothing-burger in a statement shared with Rolling Stone: “Meg loves Justin. She was saying ‘No, no, no, we’ve never met before.’ It was their first time meeting and she was excited.”
Oh well. Maybe there’ll be something to get mad about next time.