Showbiz411

Exclusive: Justin Timberlake is in the studio making a new album. There’s no title yet, but I’m told Timberlake has been working around the clock with Timbaland and other producers. The album, which could have “many more than a dozen new tracks” would be ready for the first quarter of 2013 for Sony’s RVA label.

The project is considered very “hush-hush” at Sony, and very much low profile as it’s being done quickly.

It’s been six years since Timberlake’s second album, “Future Sex/Love Sounds,” came out in 2006. It yielded several hits like “What Goes Around Comes Around” and “Sexyback” (more a riff than a song, but whatever). But then Timberlake went into movies and made only occasional appearances as a guest star on other people’s records.

The album is being recorded in Los Angeles. A new Timberlake album would be an adrenaline shot in the charts. A gifted singer and dancer, Timberlake should easily have retained his following even after more than half a decade.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.