Justin Timberlake Undergoes Throat Surgery

By Marisa Laudadio and Stephen M. Silverman

05/12/2005 at 02:35 PM EDT

Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz – the subject of wedding rumors that proved to be false (or, possibly, simply premature) last week – have managed to surface in the news again.

Timberlake, 24, had surgery last Thursday, May 5, in a Los Angeles hospital, reportedly to remove throat nodules, benign growths on the vocal cords, PEOPLE reveals in its May 23 issue.

The question is, will this affect the timbre of Timberlake's voice? His rep refused to discuss the operation, but some stars, including Rod Stewart, have resumed their careers after a similar procedure, while others, like Julie Andrews, have had problems.

According to a source, Timberlake, who isn't currently working on an album, will rest his voice for three months. He does have a speaking role coming up, however: Timberlake has signed on to voice the role of Artie, a teenage King Arthur, in Shrek 3, due out in 2007, and starring Diaz.

As for the actress, photos have been circulating on the Web and in a supermarket tabloid purportedly showing Diaz and the producer of her MTV show Trippin, Shane Nickerson, making out – though shrubbery obscures all of the woman’s face in the shot and a good deal of his.

In his own blog, Nickerson has a good time with the picture and the "ludicrous story," as he calls it, attached to the shot.

"In fact," Nickerson writes, "I told my wife, 'One of the reasons this is so stupid is because you know that if I was hooking up with CD you’d have been the first one I high-fived.'" Nickerson adds that the Mrs. "laughed because she knows me."

Just so there's no room for doubt, Diaz's rep Brad Cafarelli tells PEOPLE: "Shane Nickerson is a friend and associate of Cameron's, who works with her on her MTV show, Trippin. They do not have any sort of romantic relationship whatsoever."