Posted on 02/04/2004 1:24:15 AM PST by kattracks
Now even Justin is mad at Janet.Justin Timberlake is telling friends Janet Jackson blindsided him with the last-second, breast-baring addition to their Super Bowl act, sources said yesterday.
The pop stars' tiff over Sunday's bosom bombshell came as the head of MTV, which produced the halftime show for CBS, blamed Jackson for the peep show seen by an audience of 89 million.
"Janet Jackson engineered it," MTV Chief Executive Tom Freston said. "We were Punk'd by Janet Jackson."
As fallout over the flop-out grew yesterday, Timberlake was claiming to pals he was bamboozled by Jackson.
"She lied to him," a Timberlake pal told the Daily News. "Justin had no prior knowledge of the shenanigans. He thought there was going to be a red bodice when he ripped off her top and, lo and behold, there was a nipple."
Another friend of Timberlake said Jackson begged him for days to team with her for the Super Bowl, in which they performed his song "Rock Your Body."
"She took advantage of him," the friend said. "She's a 37-year-old singer who's using a hot young star to keep her career alive."
Jackson apologized Monday and admitted she gave the show's producers no warning that she was planning any bodice bust-out. "It was not my intention for it to go as far as it did," she said.
Meanwhile, don't expect a replay of the dirty dancing act at Sunday's Grammys. CBS, which is also televising the awards show, said it will use a videotape delay during the broadcast.
Jackson was still scheduled to be a presenter and Timberlake was slated to perform, Grammy officials said last night.
But CBS officials were privately discussing the possibility of knocking them off the bill, sources said.
Furious CBS officials are sweating over the investigation launched by the Federal Communications Commission over the Super Bowl fiasco. The network and its affiliates could face millions of dollars in fines.
FCC Chief Michael Powell said the probe is not just focused on Jackson's antics.
The halftime show organized by MTV also included crotch grabbing and sexually suggestive lyrics from rapper Nelly, and Kid Rock wore a poncho made from a desecrated American flag.
"Personally, I was offended by the entire production," Powell said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
With Richard Huff and Stephen Battaglio
A likely story.
That about says it all.
New Rule -- if you bare a breast on national television, you are declaring to the world you're washed up and reaching.
Get ready for the Nude Grammy Awards, Sunday night on CBS.
And he acted soooo shocked and appalled, didn't he? That's why he held onto the cup and kept on lip-synching instead of trying to cover her up!
That has *not* happened (yet).
I wonder if he'll cry again like he did on the Punk'd show (I didn't see the show, but apparently, they had somebody pretend to be the IRS, and threaten to take his home or something like that, and he cried like a baby!)
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