Thursday, March 8, 2007

I had met him before in Los Angeles, so I knew Donnie Wahlberg was a sardonic, laid back dude with a tinge of realist's cynicism about show business.

What I didn't know, was that the best way to pierce that facade and get to some real emotion was to bring up an unlikely subject: is old band, '80s teen popsters New Kids on the Block.

While interviewing Donnie for my Floridian piece today on cool actors who deserve a hit TV show now, we got to talking about the group that made the Right Stuff a household phrase way back when, along with the personal meltdown of a certain former teen pop queen. And it turns out, he's still got a few chips on his shoulders from back then.

ME: Do you think you had it a bit easier when New Kids were big, because there wasn't as much scrutiny of young celebrities then?

Donnie: Did we have it easier? When we were famous, MTV wouldn’t play teenagers. Then MTV started total Request Live it became a part of their business plan and they woke up. When we came out, thy didn’t care. They hated us. They had this show with the top 10 most requestsed videos, they didn’t want us on there. I remember the host, that Adam Curry guy, used to roll his eyes whenever we came out. When backstreet and the others came on, it was clear that would sell and their priorities changed. We never were invited to the MTV Video Music Award. We were never a part of that. When the Backstreet Boys, were big they asked us to reunited. I said screw that -- you didn't need us then, we don't need you now."

Are you surprised by the careers -- and the tribulations -- that Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera seem to be having now?

"I thought I would take years for a group like Backstreet or 'NSync to be successful. I give their manager a lot of credit becaue he spent a lot of money to make it happen. I give them credit for being able to escape the stigma that was attached to us. We had no love back then. We were the enemies of everything that’s okay now. At the same time...when you step out of a car with your stuff hanging out while you're hanging with Paris Hilton, what do you think is going to happen? I don’t know what Britney's deal is. She knows the cameras are outside of he place and she’s cutting her hair. I don't know. I did stuff when I was younger to get attention...I just did shit. Maybe that's what she's doing now.”

Originally appeared at: Tampa Bay