On September 22 nd the seventh season of the hit reality competition show “Dancing with the Stars” will make its debut with 13 brand new Fred Astaire wannabe celebrities. One of these celebrities is former ‘N Sync member Lance Bass, who will be paired up with fellow series first timer Lacey Schwimmer, the 2007 World Swing Dance Champ.
Lance has spent a lot of time in the headlines since “N Sync took what’s looking like a permanent hiatus from recording back in 2002. That same year, Bass moved to Star City, Russia and began cosmonaut training. Initially slotted to be a host of a game show in which the winner would be awarded a seat on a Russian Soyuz space capsule, plans later changed to using Bass as the central character in a documentary about a celebrity going into space.
Before being allowed to train for a spot on the capsule, Lance had to agree to have corrective surgery for his cardiac arrhythmia, an ailment that revealed itself when Bass collapsed following a concert performance. The boy band cosmonaut to be trained for months and was pencilled in to have a spot on the Soyuz TMA-1 mission scheduled for October 30, 2002. The mission would have taken Bass to the International Space station before touching back down in Kazakhstan.
It was a few months before the flight when the documentary deal fell through, as did a number of sponsors, citing insurance and marketing concerns revolving around the possibility of Lance dying during the course of the mission. So, Lance lost his seat and chance at adding the term “Basstronaut” into the English language.
In 2006 Lance announced he was homosexual in a “People” cover story and later released the cleverly titled autobiography, “Out of Sync.”
Whether you love him or hate him, how could you resist tuning in to see a homosexual former ‘N Sync cosmonaut dancing on national television? |
