Jackson May Back Out of Grammy Awards
LOS ANGELES – As three major TV networks shifted broadcast plans in reaction to the racy Super Bowl halftime show, Janet Jackson’s publicist said she may back out of Sunday’s Grammy Awards and Justin Timberlake admitted his own family was offended by the pop stars’ stunt.
Timberlake on Wednesday insisted he thought only Jackson’s bustier would be revealed, not her breast, when he yanked at her costume. He said he understood “how unfortunate this is.”
“I do understand that there were a lot of people that were completely offended by what happened, including my own family. And I think that’s probably the part that’s frustrating the most for me, and it’s completely, completely, completely, regrettable,” he told KCBS-TV outside the Staples Center, where he was rehearsing for the Grammys.
Jackson, meanwhile, is thinking twice about appearing for the Grammys telecast, her publicist, Steven Huvane, told CNN. “We don’t think she’s going to go,” he said.
The one-second flashing revealed Jackson’s right breast clad only in a sun-shaped nipple covering to some 89 million viewers.
The singer has issued videotaped and written apologies and denied that the NFL, CBS or MTV, which produced the halftime show for CBS, knew of her plans. Jackson’s spokeswoman said a red lace garment was supposed to remain.
Timberlake said he received a call before the show from Jackson and her choreographer saying they wanted to do a “costume reveal.”
“Now I was under the impression that what was going to be revealed in the costume reveal was a red brassiere, bustier,” he said.
Timberlake said he didn’t have time to rehearse it before taking the stage and was stunned by the outcome.
“I mean I was completely shocked and appalled, and all I could say was ‘Oh my God, Oh my God,'” he said.
The NFL and three TV networks made shifts this week as fallout from the performance continued.
The NFL responded to outrage over the Super Bowl show by replacing one of Timberlake’s ‘N Sync bandmates, JC Chasez, in the Pro Bowl halftime show Sunday in Honolulu.
The new halftime plan is for a Hawaiian extravaganza featuring hula dancers, drummers, conch shell blowers and local singers.
CBS promised to institute a video delay system to avoid any similar incidents at the Grammy awards. The fiasco has prompted the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the network to determine whether the Super Bowl show violated decency laws. Penalties could reach into the millions of dollars if each CBS station is fined.
ABC said it will also implement an audio and video delay of undetermined length for its domestic broadcast of the Academy Awards on Feb. 29. The network had been considering such a move for some time and employs similar delays for other live prime-time broadcasts, including the American Music Awards.
The fiasco also affected NBC, which decided to remove a glimpse of an elderly patient’s breast in Thursday’s episode of “ER.”
The network said Wednesday it had “unfortunately concluded that the atmosphere created by this week’s events has made it too difficult for many of our affiliates to air this shot.” †
MTV also suffered fallout. The school board in Laguna Beach, Calif., voted unanimously Wednesday to forbid the network to build a reality show around the lives of its high school students.
Board members had tentatively approved the deal last week. It would have given the district as much as $40,000 plus royalties for college scholarships.
The deal was nixed after the board faced opposition from angry parents. “The tenor of the landscape has changed in light of the events during the Super Bowl,” said school board member Bob Whalen.
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