Joey Fatone is NOT taking offense to the NSYNC dig tucked away in the "Barbie" movie -- in fact, it's quite the opposite ... he says the low blow makes the band all the more relevant.
We got Joey at LAX Thursday and our photog asked about the NSYNC reference in the Greta Gerwig flick.
Thanks to that random person on TikTok who streamed the whole movie we now have the NSYNC Barbie movie reference pic.twitter.com/wxlO4vvUMW
— BoyBand_Nicole (@oOoVettyoOo) July 26, 2023
It seems everyone's seen "Barbie," Joey included, so this shouldn't be a huge SPOILER ALERT ... but midway through the movie, NSYNC gets name-dropped ... and not in a positive way.
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Michael Cera's character, the Allan doll, jokes ... "Not one person would care if Allan was in the real world, in fact, it's happened before. All of NSYNC -- Allan. Yes, even him."
Joey's rolling with the punches here ... he's the first to admit everyone in the band, including Justin Timberlake, have all had their Allan moments ... and he's all about self-deprecation, so he can laugh it off no problem.
What's more, Joey tells us the reference means NSYNC is still relevant in 2023 ... so he's taking it as a huge compliment.
Props to Joey for tipping his cap to "Barbie" ... he's clearly got a good sense of humor.