Clueless’ Elisa Donovan Recalls Secretly Dating Joey Fatone After Making Fun of ‘NSync

Clueless star Elisa Donovan thought she’d be saying “bye, bye, bye” after working with ‘NSync — but began secretly dating one of the boyband members instead.

“They did an episode of Clueless,” Donovan, 54, recalled during the Monday, August 11, episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast, referring to the Clueless TV series that ran from 1996 to 1999. “The studio said, ‘This is a really big deal. These guys are coming out.’ And I was just like, ‘Right. Are you kidding me? These little boys? This, like, boy band?’ I was literally making fun of them before they got to set.”

Despite her initial hesitancy, Donovan’s perception of the group — which consists of Joey Fatone, Justin Timberlake, J.C. Chasez, Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick — quickly shifted when the fivesome arrived on set.

“They’re super professional. They’re really kind. Incredibly talented,” she remembered thinking. “And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m the jerk.’”

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After their time working together, Donovan claimed that she started “hanging out” with the band and eventually, she and Fatone, 48, “started dating.” (Donovan starred as Amber in 1995’s Clueless before reprising the role on the ABC/UPN sitcom.)

“That was under the radar,” she added.

Donovan and Fatone’s romance led to her spending time at concerts backstage with the band, where the actress recalled running into Boy Meets World star and “Pod Meets World” cohost Danielle Fishel, who was dating Bass, 46, at the time.

“I remember going to the show at the Staples Center or something in L.A., like, one of the big venues,” Donovan said during Monday’s episode. “I get out of the car, and I am swarmed as if I am one of the Beatles, you know? And they were just like, ‘She’s going in to see them!’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God … this is insane.’”

Elisa Donovan ergus Greer / TV Guide /© ABC / Courtesy Everett Collection

Donovan called the ‘NSync pandemonium “wild” to experience, sharing that they would look to hang out at places the guys wouldn’t get mobbed.

Eventually, Donovan was cast in ’NSync’s video for their hit 1999 single “Thinking of You (I Drive Myself Crazy),” in which Donovan plays Fatone’s love interest who slaps him after he kisses another girl in front of her. Fishel, for her part, said she wasn’t featured in the video because “Lance had just broken up with me,” but she was on set for filming.

Everett Collection

“I thought you weren’t in it because you didn’t want to be. I thought it was too on the nose because then people would know you guys were dating,” Donovan said, to which Fishel replied, “At this point he had already told people on Jay Leno we were dating, so I was, like, the first girlfriend to be allowed to be talked about.’”

Fishel noted that the “Drive Myself Crazy” video was right after her prom, where the pair had called it quits, but Bass still “invited me to the shoot, which was really painful.”

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“I was so sad,” she confessed. “I think I even brought our prom pictures to that shoot. Like, ‘Here’s our prom pictures, are you sure you want to do this?’”

Bass came out as gay in 2006, seven years after his breakup from Fishel. Donovan, for her part, recalled questioning Bass’ sexuality back in the day, asking Fishel if the rest of ‘NSync knew about Lance’s sexuality and kept it a secret. Fishel claimed that while “Chris did say things regularly” behind the scenes, Lance was “very much of the belief that he could ‘shake the gay away’ if he could just meet the right girl.”

“We loved each other, it was just platonic,” Fishel explained. “And we still care about each other.”