Justin Timberlake Apparently Thinks His DUI Arrest Is a Joke

Justin Timberlake was arrested for driving under the influence last month in the Long Island town of Sag Harbor. Locals, for some reason, managed to turn Timberlake’s drunken driving into a story about how the cop who arrested him is an asshole Who would dare give a ticket to wealthy Hampton residents, but it’s still a serious charge. Normal people lose their jobs and even their careers because of drunk driving. Apparently, Timberlake doesn’t see it that way, though, with Billboard reports He joked about it at his recent show in Boston.

According to Billboard, on June 29, while performing at TD Garden (which, unlike the Patriots’ stadium, is actually in Boston), Timberlake greeted the crowd by saying, “So, uh, is anybody here tonight driving? No, I’m just kidding.” The attempted joke drew some laughs and gasps from the crowd. Then he continued on his way, asking who was seeing him for the first time and who had seen him before.

Now, it makes sense that Timberlake would address his DUI arrest in some way. If we were on his PR team, we probably would have issued an apology instead of a flippant joke, but maybe that’s why we’re not in the PR business. Then again, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 13,524 people died as a result of alcohol-impaired driving in 2022. That’s the equivalent of one person dying every 39 minutes. Sounds bad, right? It feels like something Timberlake should take seriously, even if he’s already rich and successful enough that it doesn’t impact his life as much as most of the people on this show.

Yet as wealthy as Timberlake is, there may still be consequences. His next court date is July 26, which happens to be the same day he performs a show in Poland. If he has to appear in person, he may have to cancel or postpone that show. He may even have to spend some of his Trolls He paid a fine and did community service. What happens next will likely depend on how much credibility the judge gives to Timberlake’s statement that he just drank a martini and followed a friend home. The police report refutes this claim, saying:

It was established that the defendant was operating the said vehicle while intoxicated, to the extent that his eyes were bloodshot and glassy, ​​a strong odor of alcoholic beverages emanated from his breath, he was unable to divide his attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady, and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests.

Of course, you can’t always trust the word of the police, so it will be interesting to see if they release body camera footage of the arrest.