LOU PEARLMAN’S MEMENTOS
Detailed notes on every audition he held, including a 10-point rating system on what makes a good boy-band member. The categories they are graded on: Appearance, dancing skills, rapping skills, ability to hit high-pitch notes and, least important, actual talent.
The boy-band phenomenon of the ’90s may be dead, but the relics live on.
Boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman’s things were set to be put on the auction block Tuesday as his creditors looked to liquidate his assets. Pearlman, you remember, garnered multiplatinum success by putting together boy bands such as teen heartthrobs the Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync and O-Town. He claimed at one time to have made nearly $2 billion in retail music sales, The Associated Press reports.
Pearlman’s belongings were to be sold Tuesday to compensate the banks he allegedly owes more than $30 million, and about 1,000 investors he allegedly defrauded of $317 million. And what of the man that practically invented the boy-band genre? Authorities say he’s missing, but there have been reports that he’s been seen in Europe.
Among the many items that were to be offered are framed posters of the Backstreet Boys, an LFO signed poster, gold and platinum records and a key to the city of Orlando.
As for fake items? Since we couldn’t high-tail it down to Florida on Tuesday and we don’t know of any upcoming boy-band memorabilia auctions, here are some items from our favorite bands we would like to bid on, if given the chance:
BACKSTREET BOYS MEMENTOS
* Nick Carter’s fan letters — including pink sparkly scratch-‘n’sniff stickers — he received from a young Paris Hilton
* Lightly soiled all-white suits the group wore when appearing on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” to sing “I Want It That Way”
* A handwritten mission statement, signed by all group members; it ends with the sentence: “Always remember, we are better than ‘N Sync!”
‘N SYNC MEMENTOS
* Justin Timberlake’s and J.C. Chasez’s Mickey Mouse ears from their formative years performing on the kids show “The Mickey Mouse Club”
* Joey Fatone’s grease-stained Weight Watchers point book
* Lance Bass’ lost diary with ruminations on the difficulty of having so many female fans
BOYZ II MEN MEMENTOS
* The clippers used to give the impeccably groomed members their fades
* A secret tape recording of the group’s thoughts that their latest CD could very well be the “End of the Road”
98 DEGREES MEMENTOS
* Nick Lachey’s baseball cap with one of Jessica Simpson’s long blond hair extensions stuck in it
* A year’s supply of sleeveless muscle tees. (To show off our barbed-wire tattoos, of course!)
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK MEMENTOS
* Frontman Jordan Knight’s stone-washed overalls with one suspender suspiciously cut off
* Donnie Wahlberg’s notebook, filled with his career hopes for his good-for-nothing brother, Mark(y)
