Justin Timberlake Under Fire After Old Video Resurfaces

People online are criticizing Justin Timberlake after an old clip resurfaced of him accepting an award at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards.

Video footage from the award ceremony shows Timberlake and his longtime producer, Timbaland, walking onto the stage to accept the VMA award for Male Artist of the Year, which was being presented by The Hills stars Lauren Conrad, Audrina Patridge and Whitney Port.

In the clip, Timbaland presented the "Cry Me A River" singer with the trophy, as he was keeping his distance from the three women. With Conrad, Patridge and Port standing to the side, Timberlake said when accepting the award: "MTV, and like I said, play more damn [music] videos. We don't want to see The Simpsons or reality television. Play more videos."

Now people on X, formerly Twitter, are calling the singer "rude" and a "misogynist" for not engaging with the reality stars.

Newsweek contacted representatives for Timberlake, Conrad, Patridge and Port for comment via email on Wednesday.

X user @lootmtaylor posted the video with the caption: "Misogynist Justin Timberlake embarrasses three young women at the 2007 VMAs. He completely ignores them & refuses to accept his award from their hands. Justin then goes on to diss reality tv while the starlets of the reality tv show 'The Hills' watch on from the side mortified." At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 572,000 times.

They added: "Later that year Lauren Conrad went on record to say that Justin was a disappointment and that he purposely made them feel stupid. Audrina Patridge stated in her memoir that they felt humiliated and devastated over his unwarranted attack."

People took to the replies to share their disappointment with the singer.

"Justin has always been insufferable lol. His music used to be good but his character has always been bad. This isn't new lol," one person commented.

"I truly loath this man and want I want his downfall to be slow and painful," said another.

"What a nasty, rude, lout. His childish attitude is really annoying," said a third.

A fourth person added: "His new single has tanked and is not even in the top 20. Nature is self correcting."

While people were quick to slam Timberlake, others provided further context that might explain his behavior.

"This is misconstrued. He's protesting MTV's content shift, and wouldn't have accepted even from Pauly D. MTV used to be a major, ACCESSIBLE platform to both promote and inspire musicians, and now it hangs on a two property thread: Jersey Shore & RPDR (not music)—he was right," one X user posted.

"Asking MTV to play more music videos was literally a movement in the late 2000s (and looking at the complete demise of MTV and music oriented programming in general, we can see why). Now it's 'misogyny'? Lmaooooo," said another.

"Nothing wrong with that I agree! We want music videos not reality tv! Music is what made mtv big," a third person wrote.

However, others pointed out that Timberlake did something similar when he accepted an award from David Spade and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in 2003. The trio was presenting him with the award of Best Pop Video for his song "Cry Me a River" at the MTV Video Music Awards.

In a clip posted online, Timberlake doesn't acknowledge Spade or the Olsens when accepting the award. Near the end of the video, you can briefly see Spade mimicking shaking Timberlake's hand after he walked right past them with zero acknowledgment.

"Justin Timberlake treated Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen the exact same way when he won his first VMA. I liked his solo music, but I admit it was impossible to stan for him when you paid attention to his disdain towards women. He's for sure a misogynist," one person said.

"It was even worse when the Olsen twins presented him an award in 2003. He was an arrogant prick all night which is funny considering the night started with him near tears when Britney and Madonna made out," said another.

"He always did this! Try to find the clip of him winning his first solo VMA. He acted the same way towards the Olsen Twins. He grabbed the Moon Man and completely ignored them. I remember Ashley looked at MK like '...ok' I think they presented with David Spade that time," a third person commented.

In 2007, Conrad told Us Weekly that meeting Timberlake at the 2007 VMAs was "the biggest letdown."

"I have always loved him, and he was a disappointment at the VMAs. Whitney and I presented him with an award. We were so excited, and he wouldn't even take the award from us. Then he went up to the microphone and insulted reality television on MTV. We were standing up there smiling, and I felt so stupid," she said.

In her 2022 debut novel Choices: To the Hills and Back Again, reality star Patridge wrote of her experience at the award show. She said Timbaland came onstage, took the award, and presented it to Timberlake while the group "backed off to the side."

"Lauren and Whitney were beyond excited when Justin Timberlake won, because they were superfans. His wasn't my kind of music, so I couldn't have cared less, but I was excited for them," she wrote.

"And then Justin wouldn't even come up to us and accept the award in front of a packed house!"

Patridge said the moment "devastated" Conrad and Port.