When *NSYNC were just entering the spotlight the Dawson's Creek star tried to help them out by sneaking them into a club.
Van Der Beek told the story in an interview on Wednesday with HuffPost Live. The boy band, who at the time were in the shadows of groups like the Backstreet Boys, asked to meet him during a New Year's celebration in Las Vegas. He agreed and was impressed by their youthful innocence, saying "they were such cool kids and I immediately liked them." Later that night Van Der Beek went into a club then passed his I.D. back to Justin Timberlake, who paid it forward to bandmate Lance Bass, but at that point the bouncer caught on.
Now Timberlake is touring in support of his critically and commercially successful album The 20/20 Experience and its sequel and Van Der Beek is working on a new CBS show, Friends With Better Lives, premiering on Monday. He recently told Entertainment Weekly about working in front of a live audience on the sitcom. He said "It’s new territory for me. I felt new at it. You get nervous, because I’m not old hat at this, which is exciting.”