Justin Timberlake’s Marine date: ‘There was never a dull moment!’
November 16th, 2011 | Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Cpl. Kelsey De Santis poses with Justin Timberlake at her unit's Marine Corps Birthday Ball on Saturday night.
Justin Timberlake’s thoughtful reflection on attending the Marine Corps Birthday Ball in Richmond, Va., on Saturday night blew up the blogosphere.
Cpl. Kelsey De Santis is taking the opportunity to weigh in, too, however — and it sounds like she had a great time.
In a new blog post on her website, De Santis said she had the chance to visit with Timberlake before the event, and was impressed with his willingness to mix it up with everyone else at the ball.
From the entry:
As the official ceremonies ended, Table 10 got the party started, shared some jokes, gathered for a group dance floor session, and enjoyed the night to the fullest. There was never a dull moment! And I have to say Justin fit right in.
As the night came to a close, we all walked out with Justin and said our goodbyes… but he didn’t get to leave the Ball without first receiving a bayonet engraved with ‘Justin “come tussle” Timberlake’.
For the record, I think the critics should note that De Santis’ ribbon rack looks straight in this new photograph. Here’s another of Timberlake at the ball with some of her friends:
Justin Timberlake on the Marine Corps ball: ‘I will never forget it’
November 14th, 2011 | History and heritage Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Cpl. Kelsey De Santis and her date Justin Timberlake applaud retired Sgt. Maj. Ralph Larsen at the Instructor Battalion Marine Corps Birthday Ball on Nov. 12 in Richmond, Va. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Emmanuel Ramos)
By now, you’ve probably heard that Justin Timberlake did indeed attend a Marine Corps birthday ball last night in Richmond, Va., with Cpl. Kelsey De Santis. The Corps has released the photograph above, and there are others floating around online.
Timberlake just weighed in on the experience on his website. To say he appreciated the evening would appear to be an understatement. A passage from his note:
To all of you that serve every day for us… Ensuring our freedom, I say: My deepest gratitude to you. I’ve met so many of my heroes… From Michael Jordan to Michael Jackson. And, nothing makes me feel more honor and pride than when I get to meet one of you. Last night changed my life and I will never forget it.
It’s well worth reading the entire message.
UPDATE: 9:50 a.m., Nov. 14: De Santis posted a single message on Twitter about the experience here:
The ball was epic! Had a wonderful time.
Video: Justin Timberlake’s Marine date dominates MMA match
October 24th, 2011 | Mixed marital arts Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Marine Cpl. Kelsey De Santis smiles after winning her MMA fight Saturday night. (Photo by James J. Lee/Staff)
In the blink of an eye, it was over. Justin Timberlake may want to take notice.
Cpl. Kelsey De Santis, the Marine who famously invited the singer and actor to attend the Marine Corps birthday ball with her, competed Saturday night in Operation Octagon XVI, a mixed martial arts event in Sterling, Va.
To say it was a one-sided fight would be an understatement.
De Santis, fighting in the 145-pound featherweight title fight, pummeled her opponent, Stacy Sneeringer. With a flurry of energy, De Santis took Sneeringer to the mat early, and finished her off 2:51 into the fight with a series of punches and elbows to the face. The match never made it to Round 2.
Staff photographer James J. Lee and I attended the event, held at the Dulles Sportsplex. Check out his video here:
As you can see, the 5-foot-9 De Santis had a large following in the crowd of about 300 people. She took the the microphone in the ring afterward and thanked a variety of people, including her coaches and fellow Marines at the Martial Arts Center for Excellence in Quantico, Va. She also acknowledged all the hoopla surrounding the sensation her YouTube invitation created.
“I’m looking forward,” she said, “to going to the Marine Corps birthday ball with Justin Timberlake.”
On came one of his signature songs, “SexyBack,” and the crowd cheered.
Marine ball invitations for celebrities: The good, bad and ugly
July 19th, 2011 | Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Last week, it became entirely predictable that scores of Marines would take to the Internet this year to ask their favorite celebrity the Marine Corps Birthday Ball.
After all, it famously worked for Sgt. Scott Moore, who will be taking one Mila Kunis to the ball for 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. It later worked for Cpl. Kelsey De Santis, who leveraged Kunis’ invitation to convince her “Friend with Benefits” co-star, Justin Timberlake, to attend her ball this fall in Washington, D.C.
The successful invites first gave rise to Sgt. Ray Lewis — perhaps jokingly — inviting former Golden Girl Betty White. As you might expect, however, there is now a growing list of other celebrities who have received YouTube invites from Marines, with varying degrees of class, originality and humor.
What follows is the good, the bad and the ugly for Marine Corps ball invitations, with thanks to the Twitter account of Mike Dowling, a Marine veteran.
First, Cpl. Michael Sullivan decided to ask Emma Stone, who appeared in “Superbad,” “Zombieland” and other movies:
Cpl. Brenton Gunning went with Hayden Panettierre of “Heroes” fame for his invitation:
This Marine decided to invite Lindsay Lohan… although he may have confused her with Miley Cyrus:
And these Marine chefs decided to invite Nicky Minaj. No word on whether they’ll cook for her.
This female Marine asked rapper Drake to go with her. Her husband must be thrilled.
Another female Marine, another invitation for Drake:
Cpl. Bates asks Hugh Hefner to get him a ball date with all of his Playboy Bunnies. Shockingly, his jaw appears to be wired shut due to some unfortunate party accident:
Finally, this Marine takes a minute of his “not very busy day” to ask Scarlett Johansson.
Several other Marines had invitations posted, but their videos were subsequently removed. I assume a gunnery sergeant somewhere may be involved.
Surely, we’ve exhausted all possibility of originality with this phenomenon… right?
Betty White, 89, gets her own Marine Corps ball invite
July 18th, 2011 | Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
In the never-ending saga of Marines inviting celebrities to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball, a new one has emerged: Sgt. Ray Lewis has asked former Golden Girl Betty White, 89, to attend with him.
At least I think he’s serious. It’s hard to tell in this two-minute video:
In other news, not only has Justin Timberlake accepted Cpl. Kelsey De Santis’ invitation to another ball, he quipped this morning on the “Today Show” that he and “Friends with Benefits” co-star Mila Kunis “want to pay honor to our country and embrace their balls.”
While it lasts, here’s a clip of their interview on “Today” this morning:
Mila Kunis might not be going to the Marine Corps ball, after all
July 14th, 2011 | Afghanistan Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
My head is beginning to hurt.
Multiple reports now suggest that Mila Kunis, star of “Black Swan” and other films, may not be going to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball with deployed Sgt. Scott Moore, after all.
As I assume even the Taliban knows at this point, he asked her to the Nov. 18 ball for 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, in a YouTube video made in Afghanistan. It went nuclear Friday, and Kunis, 27, accepted after being put on the spot in an interview over the weekend, melting hearts everywhere.
E! Entertainment suggests the reports of her backing out aren’t necessarily true. She is busy, E! says, but her representatives are working to rearrange the production schedule. Barring that, she may meet with him privately. I assume he’ll want to know about the finer points of “That 70′s Show.”
On behalf of Marine Corps Times, I am now backing away from this story slowly, at least for now. We can play the will-she-or-won’t-she game from now until November, and I’m sure many people will.
We may have posted Moore’s video on Battle Rattle before it went viral, but things officially started getting weird for me when I realized I was competing with Access Hollywood on this story. It’s all going to be a waiting game for a long while.
Cpl. Kelsey De Santis, meanwhile, continues to make the rounds on CNN and other national news outlets after posting her own video asking Justin Timberlake, Kunis’ star in the new movie, “Friends with Benefits,” to her unit’s Nov. 12 birthday ball in Washington, D.C. Her promotional Facebook page has swelled to nearly 2,000 fans.
And so it begins: A female Marine asks Justin Timberlake to her Marine Corps ball
July 13th, 2011 | Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Cpl. Kelsey De Santis, as seen on her Facebook promotional page asking Justin Timberlake for a date.
Some things are abundantly predictable. One of them is that when somebody goes out on a limb and finds success, others will surely duplicate the effort.
So it is for Sgt. Scott Moore, the Marine who has become famous for successfully inviting actress Mila Kunis to his Marine Corps Birthday Ball with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, through a YouTube video that went viral. Marines have joked all week about trying something similar with stars ranging from Taylor Swift to Scarlett Johansson, but one of them would appear to have a leg up: She invited Justin Timberlake, who urged Kunis to accept Moore’s invitation in the first place.
In a new video, Cpl. Kelsey De Santis, of the Marine Corps Martial Arts Center for Excellence at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., calls out Timberlake, asking him to attend her unit’s Marine Corps Birthday Ball on Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C. She and her friends would appear to be marketing it hard, too, with a new Facebook page backing the effort already up.
“So, Justin: You want to call out my girl, Mila?” De Santis says. “Well, I’m going to call you out and ask you to come to the Marine Corps ball with me on Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C. And if you can’t go, all I have to say is, ‘cry me a river.’”
The video is up here:
Other male Marines asking female movie stars to the ball would look like a direct copycat. De Santis sidesteps that smartly, particularly because Timberlake played an instrumental role in convincing Kunis to attend in the first place.
“You have to do it for your country!” he told Kunis Saturday when she was approached about the idea by a reporter.
Er…. Your move, JT.
‘I’ll do it’ — Flattered Mila Kunis responds to Marine Corps ball invitation
July 11th, 2011 | Afghanistan Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
God bless the Internet.
As you may recall, last week Battle Rattle featured a video in which Sgt. Scott Moore asked actress Mila Kunis to his unit’s Marine Corps ball. Deployed to Musa Qala, Afghanistan, with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, he’d set up a page on YouTube a few weeks before, but it hadn’t blown up online the way he probably was hoping.
The blog entry was an immediate hit, and the video exploded online afterward. It had just 1,000 views when I posted it here Thursday night, but as I write this, it now has more than 188,000. Moreover, the video was posted repeatedly to other sites Friday, including Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks and Tosh.O’s blog on Comedy Central’s website.
It gets better. As Fox News reports this morning, Kunis said during an interview this weekend that’d she’d do it. Justin Timberlake, her co-star on the forthcoming movie “Friends with Benefits,” urged her on the spot to do it, and she agreed.
“Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? You need to do it for your country,” Timberlake asked Kunis excitedly, before sending out a direct message to Moore. “I’m going to work on this, man. This needs to go down.”
After questioning her publicist if she knew about the invitation, the clearly flattered 27-year-old actress agreed.
“I’ll go, I’ll do it for you,” she said, turning to Timberlake. “Are you going to come?”
“They don’t want me! They want you,” Timberlake responded. “You need to do it for your country.”
Kunis nodded.
“I’ll do it,” she confirmed.
Good for you, Sgt. Moore. Enjoy the ball.
