Lance Bass to speak at HESTEC
(9/9/04) Brittney Booth The Monitor

EDINBURG — He grew up wanting to be an astronaut, but for former ’NSync member Lance Bass, the pop-star thing just happened first.

"All my life I’ve been interested in math and science," Bass told The Monitor on Wednesday. "I was always a space enthusiast. I just veered in to music."

Now Bass is encouraging other kids to pursue his favorite subjects — math and science — during Hispanic Engineering, Science & Technology Week, from Sunday, Sept. 26 to Saturday, Oct. 2, at the University of Texas-Pan American.

The third annual HESTEC features workshops, speakers and demonstrations aiming to increase Rio Grande Valley student’s high school graduation and college enrollment rates and gear them toward science, engineering and technology fields.

Bass is the event’s keynote speaker and said he’s eager to answer questions about his astronaut training.

"I love doing speaking engagements and trying to encourage kids about science and math," he said. "It’s going to be a good time."

Even during his time with ’NSync, Bass said he kept up with the space program, watching shuttle launches.

"Fans knew I was big into space. I got really cool patches and I got to meet a few astronaunts," he said.

In 2002, he trained at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Russia’s Star City where he received certification to board a Soyuz capsule to the International Space Station.

Though he cancelled the 2002 space trip, Bass said he’s still interested in going to space. Meanwhile, he is staying busy writing music and producing a movie with his production company, Bacon and Eggs Production.

Bass also serves as the Youth Spokesperson for World Space Week. In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly declared Oct. 4-10 "World Space Week" to commemorate the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1 and the 1967 signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.

World Space Week hosts an international competition entitled "Lance’s lab" where students of all ages compete to create a space module and the winner will met Bass in at a ceremony in spring 2005.

Bass will have several opportunities to speak to students while in the Valley.

A Rio Grande Valley high school student will win the chance to meet Bass during HESTEC. To enter, complete the entry form and mail it to The University of Texas Pan-American ITT Building Lance Bass Contest, 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78541 or fax it to (956) 381-2322. Entries must be postmarked by Friday, Sept. 17. HESTEC organizers will select the winner in a drawing on campus on Sept. 22 and notify the winner by phone.

The event will draw almost 50,000 public school students from Brownsville to Laredo. HESTEC events target specific audiences, such as teachers and administrators, middle school students, high school girls and college students.

Other celebrity speakers include actress and musician Maria Conchita Alonso and actor Mario Lopez. Other speakers include executives from Texas Instruments, Ford Motor Company Fund, Eastman Chemical Company, The Boeing Company and Dell. Business sponsors from the Valley and elsewhere cover the events’ expenses.

 

Timberlake to take on Tiger
(9/9/04) ContactMusic

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE is to take on TIGER WOODS in a new video golf game.

The pop superstar will be featured in TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 2005, after begging producers to let him take part.

Executive producer STEVE ARNOLD says, "Justin came to us and suggested he should be featured in the next edition of the game.

He uses it a lot when he is travelling."

 

Timberlake eyed for new role
(9/9/04) Irish Examiner

Pop hunk Justin Timberlake has landed himself another movie role - and this time he'll reportedly play a marijuana-grower.

The Rock Your Body singer, 23, recently impressed his co-stars LL Cool J, Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman when he worked on his debut movie Edison, which has yet to hit screens.

And now he'll be expected to wow again in the movie Alpha Dog, written and directed by Nick Cassavetes.

The film is based on the story of Jesse James Hollywood, a drug dealer suspected of kidnapping and killing a 15-year-old boy in 2000.

According to US Weekly, Timberlake is expected to play Hollywood's cohort, foul-mouthed pot-grower Jesse Rugge.

 

Paris Hilton Latest: 'Gatsby' Remake
(9/9/04) FOXNews

Maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald is rolling in his grave. Then again, maybe not.

All I know is, entrepreneurial 'N Sync singer Lance Bass is getting ready to produce a big-screen take on "The Great Gatsby" with Paris Hilton as an updated Daisy Buchanan.

Maybe someone will ask Paris tonight at her, uh, book party if she's even read "The Great Gatsby." Perhaps Merle Ginsberg, the ghostwriter of "Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose," will read it to her tonight at Lot 61.

Anyway, if Bass and his partners get their way, the Jay Gatsby character will be played by Chris Carmack, the third lead young man on Fox's TV series "The O.C."

Jamie-Lynn DiScala, of "The Sopranos," will play Tom Buchanan's love interest — made famous in the 1974 film version by Karen Black and in 1949 by Shelley Winters.

So to review: That's Paris doing Mia Farrow, who in turn did Betty Field, and a guy from "The O.C." as Robert Redford, previously incarnated by Alan Ladd.

No word on who will play the story's conscience, Nick Carraway, who was brought to the screen in 1974 by Sam Waterston. I'm thinking Freddie Prinze, Jr., but no one asked me.

All kidding aside, Lance continues to be a tireless presence who will not rest on the 'N Sync laurels. He's just produced another film, "Lovewrecked," directed by Randal Kleiser and also starring Jamie-Lynn and Carmack alongside Amanda Bynes.

Tonight he'll attend bandmate Joey Fatone's wedding somewhere in New York along with Justin, Nick, J.C. and the other one. But don't look for any new music for a long time.

"It all depends on whether Justin wants to do it, and he doesn't," Lance told me recently about Timberlake. "He doesn't even want to make his own new solo album. He just wants to make movies."

By the way, here's a title for the Gatsby update: "Jay G." I'm not kidding.