Janet Jackson's Nipple Ripple


I don't watch the Super Bowl, but I sure do love the hilarious harumphing and repercussions this morning after Janet Jackson's "accidental" breast exposure during yesterday's half-time entertainment. (I finally found a picture and good account of the incident on Matt Drudge's site.) CBS is apologizing all over the place, claiming no knowledge of the stunt, while several days before sister company and show producer MTV was bragging, and I quote from their website (this story is no longer up, by the way, but you can find it cached on Google here):

MTV News
01.28.2004 3:21 PM EST

Janet Jackson's Super Bowl Show Promises 'Shocking Moments'

(blah blah blah) then:

"Me and Janet thought it would be great to change one of our numbers and introduce a drum line into our routine," Jackson's choreographer, Gil Duldulao, said Tuesday. "This is different because I know a lot of band members aren't dancers. So I'm happy to have the time beforehand to teach and sort of lead them in the direction that I feel is perfect for what we're doing onstage."

Janet will be backed by 26 dancers, 360 regular band members and a 60-person drum line. Each school has an equal amount of people playing.

"I don't think the Super Bowl has ever seen a performance like this," Duldulao added. "The dancing is great. She's more stylized, she's more feminine, she's more a woman as she dances this time around. There are some shocking moments in there too. It's a lot of pressure, there's so many creative people and creative artists, you want to make sure everything is different, and I think she's going to do that. She's doing her job well."

Pertinent comments are in bold.


Come on, kids, whatever it was, it was no accident, and though Jackson and Justin Timberlake didn't include the coup-de-grace in their rehearsals (there is evidently still much to be gained by the element of surprise), it's pretty funny watching CBS make shocked noises and feigning horror. A lot is being made of the fact that the breast emerged at the dinner hour on the West Coast, as if the sight of the offending nipple would act as a powerful emetic or perhaps cause immediate blindness, the first ruining viewers game day nachos and stale beer, and the second rendering them unable to watch the rest of the commercials. Undoubtedly.

Is somebody surprised? We're in a TV world today where people eat worms (and worse) for cash; try hard, harder, hardest to worship at Donald Trump's cloven hooves; fight and claw their way to a million bucks using class warfare, body ridicule, and any other ugly reason not to act human. That a major network would throw a little tit into the mix on a show where so many ad dollars are at stake hardly seems out of place.

Grow up. I feel worst for the viewers who actually called CBS to complain. They must really believe that the network cares what they think. I started in this business answering viewing phone calls, and made more than a few before I worked in the biz, and boy, I could count on one hand the number of execs I worked with who even were aware that real people were on the other end of the TV set and might not like what was on it. It's truly every viewer for him or herself now, and if you don't like what CBS is willing to do for ratings, you've got to quit watching them. Don't call -- don't write a letter -- don't email; they don't care. You're just going to have to turn off your CSI, and that, my friend, is where they've got you.

On the other hand, it was only a breast. Get over it.


Read E! Online's story on the incident.