The stars remember flunking tests and having no underwear on the latest episode. By Mawuse Ziegbe Joey Lawrence on “When I Was 17” Photo: MTV “When I was 17 years old, I went to go [take] my driver’s license test,” Big Boi remembered on the latest episode of “When I Was 17” . Although the young MC was already showing tons of promise and was well on his way to hip-hop stardom with fellow ATLien and Outkast spitter Andre 3000, there was one task that eluded the budding star. “I was so worried about trying to parallel park. I was always trying to slide this way, slide that way. I’m so nervous about that, I get in the car, I’m driving and the man’s like, ‘Well, you did great and everything, you can parallel park, but you didn’t put on your seatbelt, so you failed.’ I was like, ‘Damn.’ ” Like Big Boi, “Blossom” hunk Joey Russo was a talented teen dealing with fame. Unlike the young MC, Russo had to handle a unique professional experience that only comes with the ability to spark teen girl hysteria with a flip of your pretty, pretty hair: having your own doll. “Of course I have a Joey Russo doll … or 30,” Lawrence’s mother Donna quipped. Although the plastic Joey doppelganger was mom-approved, the TV teen idol didn’t think the plastic likeness truly captured his image. “Doesn’t it look a cross between something from “Grease”?” Lawrence said, examining the figure decked out in mid-’90s finery like ripped jeans and a leather jacket. “It’s like Danny Zuko meets me, sort of.” Lawrence did concede that making the Russo doll was a cool process “because you’d go and they had the molds of your head and you had to sign off and say ‘Mmm that nose is nice.’ ” The doll-makers got the noses fine, but they needed some motherly advice when it came to plastic Russo’s too-hot-for-TV-parts. Mama Lawrence insisted the doll be outfitted with some underwear. “I didn’t want there to be any attention on areas that shouldn’t be discussed,” Lawrence’s mom explained. Whoa. “True Blood” starlet Rutina Wesley was still flirting with the idea of fame when she was 17 and of course, what better way to live out starry-eyed dreams than to appear in a production of the musical “Fame.” “What I love about ‘Fame’ is it’s sort of like I was living ‘Fame.’ I was going to a performing-arts high school, [and] I knew the hard work it took to be there. The auditions were brutal for that show, I remember I had to dance, sing and act, and it was really tough,” Wesley recalled. As die-hard fans of “True Blood” know, the actress found her true home was in the spotlight. “The theater at my school was awesome,” she laughed. “It was a 1,400-seat auditorium, so, being in that auditorium at 17, and having, like 1,400 people cheer for you was, like, one of the most amazing feelings that I’ve ever felt, energy-wise. It just felt right.” “When I Was 17” airs Saturdays at 11 a.m. on MTV. Related Videos When I Was 17 | Ep. 19 | Joey Lawrence, Big Boi, Rutina Wesley Related Photos When I Was 17 | Rutina Wesley When I Was 17 | Big Boi When I Was 17 | Joey Lawrence When I Was 17 | Ep.19 | Celebrity Photo Flashback
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Big Boi, Rutina Wesley, Joey Lawrence Reminisce On ‘When I Was 17’
