Justin Timberlake Supports Lance Bass

Justin Timberlake doesn't care who Lance Bass is in love with. After yesterday's announcement that Lance Bass, former singer in the boy band 'N Sync, had come out of the closet and confirmed his homosexuality and relationship with The Amazing Race's Reichen Lehmkuhl to People magazine, Justin Timberlake released a statement today through his publicist, Ken Sunshine, to comment on the situation. About Lance Bass' sexuality, Timberlake said in the statement, as reported by Monsters and Critics, "Lance is one of my great friends. I support him and wish him all the happiness in the world."

Justin Timberlake isn't the only former 'N Syncer supporting Lance Bass, with Joey Fatone telling People, as reported in the same story as Lance Bass' coming out of the closet, "He took years to really think about how he was going to tell everyone. I back him up 100 percent." Joey Fatone and Lance Bass are in plans to shoot a pilot that would be like an update of The Odd Couple, in which Lance Bass would play an openly gay character.

It's interesting to hear the former 'N Sync member like Justin Timberlake and Joey Fatone come to Lance Bass' defense, considering that Lance Bass told People that is was his boy band status that kept him in the closet, telling the magazine "I knew that I was in this popular band, and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said (that I was gay), it would overpower everything."

The Lance Bass story broke with a People magazine cover with a smiling picture of Lance Bass behind the headline "I'm Gay." In the issue, which will hit stands later this week, Lance Bass tells People, "I'm not ashamed. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been in my whole life."

The homosexuality rumors really started to swirl around Lance Bass this month when The New York Post reported that Lance Bass was spotted with Reichen Lehmkuhl at Atlantic House, a gay bar in Provincetown, MA. Lance Bass hasn't commented on if The New York Post was responsible for his coming out of the closet and ABC News tried to track him down for a comment but was told by Cindy Owen, Lance Bass' spokeswoman, that Lance Bass would not comment on the interview or The New York Post's involvement in the story and did not return calls to ABC News.

The Washington Blade. a gay and lesbian newspaper, is quoted by ABC News as reporting that Lance Bass had been living a barely concealed double life for a long time with the Blade's managing editor Kevin Naff, taking Lance Bass to task on the newspaper's web site earlier this month, claiming that Lance Bass with "openly closeted". Kevin Naff reported on Lance Bass making the gay club rounds over the Fourth of July weekend, saying that the music star had "tried lamely to disguise himself with a hat" but that "unfortunately for Bass, it wasn't big enough to fool the New York Post."

[Additional Sources: People, Monsters and Critics, The Washington Blade, The New York Post]