Justin Timberlake was caught on camera getting cozy with co-star Alisha Wainwright during a night out of drinking in New Orleans, leading to rumors that the actor and singer might be having some trouble in his famous marriage.
The Sun published photos this week showing Timberlake in a very intimate conversation with the 30-year-old actress at a bar on Bourbon Street, where she was seen touching his knee and later taking hold of his hand. As the report noted, onlookers were shocked to see Timberlake appearing to get close to another woman despite what is considered his rock-solid marriage with Jessica Biel .
The report noted that the two were together on the balcony of a bar for close to 40 minutes, and onlookers said that Justin appeared to be drinking heavily and later had a difficult time walking. Witnesses said that the two were getting quite intimate during their time together.
“At one stage he grabbed her hand and rested it on his knee. She then gently started stroking his leg,” an unnamed source told the media outlet. “Then he clutched her hand with both of his and was playing with her hands.”
It was not clear what happened next, though the report cited witnesses who said the two left out a rear exit at close to 12:30 a.m. The report added that Justin’s wedding ring was nowhere in sight, even though he was seen wearing it earlier in the week.
Alisha and Justin are working together on the movie Palmer and were part of a small group that went to The Absinthe House for a night out during a break in filming.
While it’s not clear if anything actually happened between Timberlake and Wainwright, the singer has actually been the target of some false cheating rumors in the past. Back in 2013, Timberlake set the rumor mill into overdrive when he was spotted with an unknown blonde who was dubbed a “mystery woman” in celebrity news circles. As Grantland noted, Justin was was spotted leaving a party at Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios with the unknown woman trailing close behind him.
The woman’s identity soon came out, however. Justin’s date for the evening was Caitlynn Timberlake, his cousin. She took to Twitter to speak out against the gossip about his love life, which she said was hurtful to Justin and Jessica because “the truth is they’re very much in love and are talking about starting a family next year.”
