How Jenna Dewan-Tatum Connects To Britney Spears

As a not-so-secret Britney Spears obsessee, I was pretty much stoked to hear of plans for a Britney Spears-centered biopic. Of course, I was a little bit less stoked when I learned that Spears wants nothing to do with the Lifetime movie, but, nevertheless: the pop star's rise to fame is one that I followed closely in real time, so seeing it play out on the small screen would be like revisiting a little bit of pop music history that I thought I knew everything about. Turns out, though, this biopic is not only going to revisit Brit's past, but it's also going to reveal some bits we all may not have known about. For instance: One person that I don't remember hearing about during Spears' early days? Step Up actor Jenna Dewan-Tatum. As reported by Buzzfeed, Channing Tatum's wife Dewan-Tatum will be a character in Spears' Lifetime biopic, titled Britney. Which... what?

Well, it all has to do with Justin Timberlake. According to Buzzfeed, actor Tamara Thorsen has earned the honor of playing Dewan-Tatum on the small screen. But, why is there even there in the first place? Though we all may not associate Dewan-Tatum will Spears now, their lives were somewhat intertwined back in the day. That's because Dewan-Tatum — back when she was known simply as Jenna Dewan — was a backup dancer for Spears' once-boyfriend Justin Timberlake's boyband *NSYNC. Rumor has it, shortly after Spears and Timberlake's split in 2002, Timberlake allegedly began romancing Dewan-Tatum — much to Spears' consternation.

According to report from PopDirt in 2002, the pop star allegedly ran into her ex, Timberlake, at a club while he was dancing with Dewan-Tatum, leading to a reported confrontation between the one-time lovebirds. Could the Lifetime movie use this unconfirmed bit of celebrity gossip to pen a scene featuring a would-be star? It's definitely possible, considering this is pretty much the only "information" we have about any possible relationship between Dewan-Tatum and Timberlake. If the movie is going to pull from tabloid fodder, this is the thing that it would likely hone in on in relation to Dewan-Tatum. And, to be honest, that feels a little bit unfair to Dewan-Tatum.

Timberlake and Spears were the pop star couple of the early '00s, and news of their split was a big bummer for many people. At the time, there were a ton of rumors flying around about the reason behind the breakup — tabloids alleged that Spears had cheated on Timberlake with dance choreographer Wade Robinson, a sentiment that some people saw as confirmed when Timberlake released his "Cry Me A River" music video that featured a Spears lookalike. (Timberlake told TRL at the time that "the video is not about [Spears], the video is about me.") Since Lifetime's Britney will be told from Spears' perspective as it goes through the trials and tribulations of her life, the movie will likely want us to sympathize with Spears during the end of her relationship — which could mean incorporating Dewan-Tatum to act as Spears' rival for Timberlake's heart.

It's not clear yet what Dewan-Tatum's role will be in the new movie — for all we know, she could just appear as a dancer at an *NSYNC concert — but I have a feeling that it's her alleged romantic history with Timberlake that will be the subject here. Hopefully though, if Dewan-Tatum is slated in the role of Timberlake's post Spears girlfriend (something that neither Timberlake or Dewan-Tatum have confirmed was ever the case in real life), the biopic treats the Step Up actor as a person, and not an obstacle that got in the way of Spears' love story.