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Boy Band Fat Man On Lam

Posted on April 11, 2007 at 09:08 AM

Pearl

File this under Freakin' Weird - Lou Pearlman, the impressario/manager/guru of pop music mainstays such as N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys, has apparently fled the country in order to avoid what is sure to be massive charges of fraud.

For those of you unfamiliar with Pearlman - that's him above - he's a bit of a self-made business man who built small businesses and continually reinvested the profits into new ventures. He began by turning a New York City area helicopter service into a charter jet venture that shuttled stars such as Madonna and the Rolling Stones from gig to gig. Remembering the profits that 1990 boy band New Kids On The Block generated, Pearlman set about finding groups of handsome, talented young men who could sing and dance. Hello Backstreet Boys, and later, N'Sync.

By the early part of this decade, Pearlman was a multi-millionaire. He created Making The Band and even penned a book, released in 2003, called Bands, Brands, & Billions: My Top 10 Rules for Making Any Business Go Platinum.

The article linked below is fascinating. it's also long, which is why it is only briefly excerpted here. But even this little tidbit makes one feel sorry for Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Brian Littrell and everyone else under Pearlman's yoke. But only a teensy bit sorry.

But when the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and others of his acts established success, they frequently went to court to challenge the control he wielded and cash he took while acting as both their manager and producer.

When his control of the bands ended, so did his winning streak. Making the Band fell off the ABC schedule after one season, although it survived two more years on MTV. Pearlman didn't follow through on a plan with Zelnick in 2002 to create bands that would take on the identities of comic-book characters The Archies and Josie and the Pussycats. At least one was to be prepped for a TV series similar to The Monkees.

That same year, he bought Options Talent, a scandal-plagued firm that offered to help talent agents find modeling and acting clients using the Internet. It filed for bankruptcy protection a year later.

"It doesn't appear that any of these businesses, especially after 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, were profitable," McHale says.

Few could tell, though, until recently.

Tagged as: Music

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User Comments

I cann't stand this man for a long time now. He is a selfish pig.
The BSB need there money he took from them.
He better be in hiding, before the police get the fat man.
Cheryl

Cheryl on April 26, 2007 at 10:32 AM

ehh... funny

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