Watching Justin Timberlake on The Tonight Show last Friday I was yet again lost in admiration as to the man’s complete professionalism. He is excellent at everything he does, he always does the right thing, no scandal ever touches hi, he is in astounding control of his career, the guy exemplifies professionalism and just plain smarts. He exudes good guyiness while maintaining a distance from us.
He is Derek Jeter.
They both entered the public conscious around the same time and both have distinct personalities while remaining essentially unknown qualities. You never get to the bottom of these guys, all the charm is a layer of finesse to help maintain complete privacy, every action a modulated concern of career and counter career, every event a non event, every story a scolded subtraction.
The most difficult thing for a superstar to do, and the most prescient action they can make, is to discover how to be forthcoming and yet remain completely abstract. For all his smiles and marriage and friendship with Jimmy Fallon, and movie roles, for all his celebritiness, Justin is unknown.
And Jeter?
Jeter is incredible. Nailing supermodels two at a time for decades, he is hidden within a wall of secrecy and privacy. I met him once in 1999 and he was a complete dick, very rude to the PR people and to me, and sure, that might be the exception that proves the rule, but even so, Jeter has a testiness and Timberlake has a niceness and both seem to have something that they aren’t showing.
It is like a secret society of fakeness, of not being everything you might think you are seeing, like they are two stars who shine so bright because you can’t see them, they blind you and what you are left with is all dazzle and achievement.
Far from having a kick against, I am a huge fan of both of them but I don’t like being kidded and my impression is there is something else here, something closer to Lennon’s old you have to be the biggest bastard to make it to the top: when you parse the achievements and analyze the achievements, you get no closer to the reality behind the achievements: a sort of Protestant work ethic of due diligence and overachievement. What they personify is how hard work and talent perseverance leads to glory.
A lie, of course, but a truth for them and still other aspects of this level of success and public persona suggests that there is a truth behind the truth for the mirror image public images: that what you see is so finally crafted it is ethereal; it won’t withstand the touch of a hand.
What enormous level of professionalism is this?
