Ryan Gosling Was Almost A Backstreet Boy? He Doesn't Actually Say That

Ryan Gosling hasn't saved any lives on the streets of New York lately, or gotten the bottom of the whole Area 51 aliens debate that we know he'll solve one day. So, in the mean time, let's take a look at these Wait! What? Internet reports that he almost became a member of the Backstreet Boys. 

Gosling was a member of the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club in the mid-1990s — along with Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake — and he did inspire a coloring book last year, so it's not much of a leap to imagine him wearing lightning-bolt sideburns and an all-white ensemble and using his hands demonstratively as he sings. The thing is, if you look at the Celebuzz video clip that started the blogosphere a-humming, at no point does Gosling say that he wanted to be part of the boy band.

Ryan Gosling Talks Backstreet Boys
Based on my minimal experience interviewing Gosling, the actor is adept at using his well-developed sense of humor to disarm and even befuddle reporters and junketeers who get him in the hot seat.  The only thing Gosling really says in the clip below is that, during his Mickey Mouse Club days, he lived in the same apartment complex as Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean, who was talking about starting the band. The rest of Gosling's spiel seems to be a self-deprecating riff on how wrong he was that the Backstreet Boys wouldn't make it.  And then there's the telling last line of his interview:  "I don't know what they're doing. I try not to think about it,"  Gosling says.

Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean Talks Ryan Gosling
Those comments are now being interpreted as an indication that Gosling almost joined the band, thanks, in part, to the artful comments of McLean, who added some fuel to the fire in this interview with TMZ, and revealed that he and Gosling work out at the same gym. (They must use different trainers.)  To that I can only say, if you were a nostalgia act at 35, you'd want a little bit of Gosling's heat to rub off on you, too.

Ryan Gosling's Interview Skills Surpass Backstreet Boys' Dance Moves
As further proof that Gosling is really talented at using humor to manipulate an interview, I submit this video of the actor charmingly dominating MSN TV's James Rocchi. His moves are way more advanced than anything the Backstreet Boys ever busted onstage.

[Celebuzz, TMZ, MSN]

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