Throwback Thursday: December 2002

Check out what we were up to in December of ’02. Don’t worry, we’ll leave out our middle school class picture.

Every week, we send someone stumbling into the dark Maxim archives to see what we were up to way back when. This week we’re going back to December of 2002, when Christina Applegate was heading up The Pussycat Dolls cabaret show in Vegas, Justin Timberlake was a newly solo artist, and we were into some bizarre Amish-inspired fashions, because, naturally.

Cover Girl: Christina Applegate

Where You’ve Seen Her: Christina Applegate may have gotten her start as our fantasy girl Kelly Bundy from Married With Children, but when we met up with her in 2002 she took a break from acting to join the incredibly sexy Pussycat Dolls cabaret show. Accompanied by the likes of Christina Aguilera, Carmen Electra, Charlize Theron, and Gwen Stefani, Christina was the perfect addition to the hottest show in Vegas, joining the dancers as a conservatively clothed MC. We knew this was too good to be true.  

Where She Is Now: With more than 20 years of acting cred under her belt, including recent hits like Hall Pass, The Rocker, and her hilarious (albeit recently canceled) TV show Up All Night, it’s safe to say the gorgeous actress isn’t going anywhere. But the best Christina Applegate news we’ve heard all year? She’ll be returning to the big-screen as the hottest newscaster since Amy Robach: Veronica Corningstone, in the sequel to Anchorman.

Featuring:

Top Spin


With the release of his latest album The 20/20 Experience, his ridiculously good-looking wife Jessica Biel, a promising movie career, and a sold-out tour with Jay-Z, it’s hard to remember JT before he was a bona fide superstar. But in 2002 he was just fresh out of NSYNC, trying to make it as a solo artist with his debut album Justified. While the world was listening to to Justin’s lovesick post-Britney Spears lyrics, we tried really fucking hard to drown them out with some quality Pearl Jam, and apparently, Missy Elliot. 

Southern Comfort


When we opened up this issue and found this fashion spread, it was a happy reminder of the best thing the Amish community has offered to us more recently: Kate Stoltzfus. These days, we buy our butter pre-packaged in a grocery store and blast our air conditioners 24/7, but apparently the post-Y2K era brought a slew of new trends that we coined “Southern style,” but let’s be honest: these people look more like they’re from an Amish community in Lancaster, PA, than the backwoods of Alabama. Either way, we are eternally confused. And kind of sad. 

Check out more of Maxim’s Throwback Thursdays:

Throwback Thursday: November 2001

Throwback Thursday: July/August 1999