The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story

About

The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story is a documentary produced by former *NSync member Lance Bass and directed by Aaron Kunkel which details the early days of *NSync and Backstreet Boys and the groups' manager, Lou Pearlman. The documentary alleges that Pearlman had taken advantage of both bands, signing them to contracts which gave him a majority of the groups' profits and engaging in sexual misconduct with the groups and other pop groups he had signed.

History

On March 13th, 2019, YouTube posted the trailer for the film (shown below), and the film premiered that day at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.^[1]

The film includes allegations that Pearlman had signed both Backstreet Boys and *Nsync to "ludicrous" contracts which took extreme financial advantage of the acts. This included writing himself in as the sixth member of both acts so that he could make just as much as they did, charging the groups for unnecessary luxuries, and screwing them out of album sales.^[2] The documentary also goes into sexual misconduct allegations against Pearlman. Member of LFO Rich Cronin tells a story about how Pearlman told him to touch his penis to prepare him for record executives in Europe. Members of Innosense told stories about how they would be secretly filmed undressing and Pearlman would show boy groups he signed the footage. The film released April 3rd on YouTube Premium.

Reception

The film was well-reviewed by critics upon its release. The film scored positive reviews from The Daily Dot^[1] and Los Angeles Times,^[3] both of whom praised how the film's thoughtful and captivating presentation of Pearlman as a three-dimensional character rather than solely a predatory figure. They also noted the way the subjects of the documentary felt a strange empathy for the man.

Search Interest

External References