Idol wish.

• Author: Zielbauer, Paul
• Position: Arts - Brief Article

How easy is it to become a teen idol? Ask William Surette. The 22-year-old from Essex, Conn., with dreamy green eyes is dead serious about being the next Justin Timberlake. "I feel like it's in my nature." Surette says.

He has already come a fair distance from obscurity two years ago, when he was building sets for the National Theater of the Deaf, to his current microcelebrity status as a boy-toy pop singer.

Since September 1999, he has acquired a manager, a voice coach, a clothing company to sponsor him, and, not insignificantly, biceps that could crush walnuts. Last December, Pop Star magazine put him on its Hot Boyz Wall of Fame with a 98-percent "hottie factor."

Surette...