from justin bieber to lance bass. >>> good evening. this is "piers morgan live." got a lot to get to tonight, including north korea's ongoing nuclear threat. the white house says it would not be surprised to see pyongyang conduct a new missile test. i will ask the former senator george mitchell what it would take to calm things down. >>> we begin with the white house in hot water for of all things, a compliment. the president called california's attorney general last night to apologize for the uproar after he called her quote, by far the best-looking attorney general in the country. i should point out mr. obama also called kamala harris brilliant, dedicated and tough. but the good-looking comment is the one getting all the attention. so joining me now, jodi kantor, washington correspondent with the "new york times" and woman who literally wrote the book on the first couple. also jonathan chait, a writer for "new york" magazine. jodi, are you as offended as everybody else seems to be the president called an attorney general the best-looking in the country? >> you k

joining me, someone who knows all about life as a teen idol, lance bass.me to you. >> how you doing, piers. >> when you see justin bieber going through these tumultous times, fighting with the paparazzi, what do you put it down to? the stress of being an idol? you were in a band, obviously. >> it was different, i had four of my best friends with me to keep me down to earth but when you're a solo artist, no one's there telling you no. i think that's the big problem, especially with teen idols. you immediately go from, you know, learning about puberty to having, you know, hundreds of employees and not really knowing how to deal with that. and with fame comes entitlement. you have tons of people around you saying yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir, so it's hard to keep that ego in check. >> he's got 37 million twitter followers. quite extraordinary. it shows you the sort of scale of his global appeal, i guess. there must be a point, you're 19, you just want to get away from it all. i'm not sure that he can, really. can he? >> not at all. he's sought after all over

chasez, and, joey fatone and lance bass called themselves 'n sync. >> my mother came up with the nameding ding ding. >> justin and his mom moved into a house in orlando. they recorded their music in a secret hideaway nearby. it's almost like we're in the fun house. >> right? that's kind of what it was. it's got like every luxury you could imagine. >> life for justin in the house. >> we had already done "the mickey mouse club." the difference was during the daytime if we didn't have anything to do, justin would have to be in the dining room with his tutor, you know, taking classes, doing school. >> six hours a day? >> yeah. he would outwork anybody. >> driven, driven, driven, but he's the hardest-working person i know. >> the hard work would eventually pay off. after two years of relentless touring overseas, justin and 'n sync hit it big in the u.s. with a disney concert special, filling in as a last-minute replacement for the backstreet boys. ♪ how can it be >> it just so happened the guys were in orlando and ready. when that call was made to disney to say, hey, we can fill that spot,

. >> over here is a lance bass. [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: oh, yeah. [ laughter ] that looks likefor years. [ laughter ] [ applause ] finally decided to take it out. >> jimmy: very nice. >> justin: it's true. >> jimmy: i'm not sure it's my style. do you think maybe a custom-made suit is the way to go? >> that is definitely the way to go. >> jimmy: this custom-made suit is the way to go. >> mm-hmm. >> jimmy: what do you suggest? >> justin: well, we have just the fabric. >> oh, yes. this is the finest canadian goat's wool that money can buy. feel that. >> jimmy: wow, i am feeling it. >> feel how supple it is. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: i'm feeling it. >> justin: it's almost soft enough to eat. you can eat it, it's so soft. >> it is soft enough to eat. [ laughter ] this fabric is so soft, if you eat it, you could actually digest it. >> jimmy: yeah. [ laughter ] thank you. >> this will break down inside -- >> justin: it's like a probiotic. >> that's exactly right. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: well, it's amazing. it's almost like an actual goat caressing my face and trying to enter my mouth. [ l

we have advice for the teen idol from someone who has been through it before, lance bass. >>> good evening. this is "piers morgan live." a lot to get through tonight. we will start of course with the rising tensions in north korea. the eyes of the world are on that region tonight, looking at the demilitarized zone, no man's land between north and south korea. we learned today that the north may be planning to launch a mobile ballistic missile, possibly in a matter of days. that's according to a u.s. official who told cnn communications intercepts the plans. u.s. officials have seen movement in missile components over the last few days on north korea's east coast. those missiles could have a range of 2500 miles, enough to threaten south korea, japan and southeast asia. just how serious is the threat? joining me now is a man with strong feelings on all this, newt gingrich, the former presidential candidate, also robin wright of the u.s. institute of peace and former diplomatic correspondent. welcome to you both. robin, let me start with you. the question keeps being asked how serious is this