Flags Keep Dropping on Super Bowl Stunt (Hollyweirdos bellyache about "censorship")

WASHINGTON POST ^ | By Thursday, February 5, 2004; Page C01 | Lisa de Moraes

[Liz]

Like something in a B-horror flick, Janet Jackson's radioactive right breast has morphed into the monster that's eating Hollywood.

In the past 24 hours:

• Jackson's name was stricken from the official list of presenters for Sunday's Grammy Awards telecast on CBS. That's the same network that beamed us the Super Bowl game during which Jackson's breast made its broadcast TV debut in a stunt that duet partner Justin Timberlake called a "wardrobe malfunction." According to one source close to the production, CBS and the Recording Academy are waiting for her to graciously bow out; if she does not soon, they will uninvite her.

• ABC announced it will initiate a five-second delay on its live telecast of the Academy Awards so it can censor any "wardrobe malfunctions" or Bono-esque "[expletive] brilliant" moments.

• The NFL canceled this weekend's Pro Bowl halftime show starring Timberlake's fellow 'N Sync-er JC Chasez because it was afraid of his choice of songs -- "Blowing Me Up (With Her Love)" -- and the accompanying choreography. Chasez has been replaced with "Hawaiian-themed entertainment."

• NBC cut from tonight's "ER" episode a shot of an exposed breast of an 80-year-old woman receiving emergency care, even though the network says it thinks the shot is appropriate.

Before Jackson's Super Bowl appearance, she had been lined up to introduce a Grammy tribute to Luther Vandross, who is recovering from a stroke and who the Grammy producers hoped would be well enough to attend the ceremony.

Vandross is no longer expected to appear. Jackson isn't either, according to the source close to the production. Her name is missing from a news release issued earlier in the day by Grammy organizers that lists the show's celebrity hosts, presenters and performers.

Though she apologized for her Super Bowl performance via videotape -- aired by various syndicated celebrity-driven TV shows last night -- as of late yesterday she had not withdrawn as a Grammy presenter. CBS declined to comment. A Recording Academy rep also declined to comment.

Timberlake is still on the official Grammy list of hosts, presenters and performers.

Also yesterday, ABC notified the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that it will, for the first time, use a five-second delay on its Oscar broadcast in order to be able to bleep out inappropriate language.

--SNIP--

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14340-2004Feb4.html

[js1138]

LOL. You left out a couple of my favorites.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

I thought I might have missed a couple :)

[battousai]

You know the hollywierd types are like trolls, they both crave attention and if you just ignore them they are lost.

I think we just need to ignore the whole lot of attention seaking freaks, and they will eventually go away.

There is so much more important news in the world than Jackson and Jackson and Kobe and Lacy, et al.

[reagan_fanatic]

"Are you kidding me? It was a breast. 51% of the people on this planet have two; who really cares if someone chose to expose one of theirs in public?"

You are absolutely right. Who cares if one exposes themselves in public. After all, this is America, right?

I'm sure you won't mind if I walk down your street in broad daylight with my penis hanging out.

After all, it's just a penis - every man has one.

[3catsanadog]

Timberlake is still scheduled to present an award? And I bet he gets a standing ovation from the Grammy perverts for his part in the Super Bowl halftime show, "Eff U America."

[imfleck]

Relax, this isn't the end of the world as we know it. It was bad entertainment and nothing more. I don't think there is any profoundness here. The world has not become a worse place to live, even one teensy, tiny bit because she bared herself.

You have given it too much credit for the stupid act it was.

[weegee]

• Jackson's name was stricken from the official list of presenters for Sunday's Grammy Awards telecast on CBS. That's the same network that beamed us the Super Bowl game during which Jackson's breast made its broadcast TV debut in a stunt that duet partner Justin Timberlake called a "wardrobe malfunction." According to one source close to the production, CBS and the Recording Academy are waiting for her to graciously bow out; if she does not soon, they will uninvite her.

Jackie Mason was banned from tv and saw his career tank for decades for a gesture he may or may not have made on television on the Ed Sullivan Show. No nudity. No Super Bowl stunt.

This was how the industry was. You violate the rules (or there is a perception that you do) and you don't work in Hollywood again.

• ABC announced it will initiate a five-second delay on its live telecast of the Academy Awards so it can censor any "wardrobe malfunctions" or Bono-esque "[expletive] brilliant" moments.

Bono is not the first entertainer to use foul language at a big ceremony. Friars roasts used to have list of such words that the early speakers would joke about saying "Let's get this out of the way right now #$@%, @%##&, #*&%^!#....". Those roasts weren't televised. They weren't broadcast on the radio. Some of them were recorded and some of the tapes have since leaked out offering audiences a chance to hear everyone from George Burns, Maurice Chevalier, Johnny Carson, to even Art Linkletter spouting profanity. There's lots of jokes about Milton Berle's male anatomy. All sorts of off color comments. They aren't just dropping F-bombs, however, and they knew that such material was not for general consumption. There were white label party records made but few celebrities actually put their names on them.

• The NFL canceled this weekend's Pro Bowl halftime show starring Timberlake's fellow 'N Sync-er JC Chasez because it was afraid of his choice of songs -- "Blowing Me Up (With Her Love)" -- and the accompanying choreography. Chasez has been replaced with "Hawaiian-themed entertainment."

I read the article on this and I posted the lyrics to the song on a thread. I seriously doubt that he was dropped because he was once in a band with Justin Timberlake. None of us saw the choreography, we can't judge whether this was an overreaction or an appropriate act. Someone in charge thought in the wake of the Super Bowl incident that it would not be good.

• NBC cut from tonight's "ER" episode a shot of an exposed breast of an 80-year-old woman receiving emergency care, even though the network says it thinks the shot is appropriate.

ER is a WORK OF FICTION (what Michael Moore claimed of the US President and what his Oscar winning documentary was). Are they discussing an ingrown hair on her nipple? What makes showing her nipple crucial to the plot? Can't they call her into a office and look at some x-rays and biopsies and discuss her breast cancer?

[angkor]

From what I see on this thread, you are all buying into the media diversion that this is about "the breast".

IT IS NOT ABOUT THE BREAST.

It's about the 24 minutes of soft porn, debauchery, crotch fondling, simulated sex, raunchy lyrics, garter belts, and jockstraps that preceded it, which merely culminated in the public humping and "the breast."

[weegee]

Many hip hop songs are just remixed versions of "oldies" songs (10-20 years old) using the original recording artist's version of the hook rhythym.

Why not just get the original performers for the events?

[weegee]

All she needs to do is "release" a bedroom taped home porn video and she'll be back in the press and "popular" again. She'd be giving up some privacy but then she's already been there and done that.

Hillary has shown how playing the victim will silence your critics.

[martin gibson]

A re-enactment of the indigenous peoples' clubbing of the evil white male Captain Cook.

Har...!

[TexasCajun]

Are you kidding me? It was a breast. 51% of the people on this planet have two; who really cares if someone chose to expose one of theirs in public? The people who are most up-in-arms about this whole incident are the same ones who oppose breast feeding in public.

You're the one that's got to be kidding!!

I take it you wouldn't have any problem with me exposing my penis in public and in front of your 10 yr old daughter. After-all, only a religious zealot would be bothered. 49% of people have one, right?

[eyespysomething]

Its all in the context, but when you are at such a disconnect with the real world, you have no basis for that context.

[JayNorth]

You are correct. The actual "breast" incident doesn't bother me as much as the constant suggestive dancing and innuendo in shows that are supposed to be family entertainment. I don't take my three kids to topless bars or brothels and I certainly don't expect them to be exposed to vulgar behavior in virtually every venue.

The language used in these "family hour" presentations just keeps scraping the bottom of the barrel as well. I used to think that parents that wouldn't let their kids watch television were "wierd". Now I'm leaning their way.

[weegee]

A suspect is in custody and the girl has not been located. There is little I can do outside of prayer. Life must go on.

Every day the local news is flooded with stories of crime, death, and disaster. It can put us in a depressed funk but does little to educate/inform us as to what happened in a day.

Meanwhile we were discussing the after effects of Janet Jackson/MTV-Viacom's salvo in the culture war. Enough of an outcry got some network heads to reconsider other questionable deeds and to take precautions (since they are the ones in charge) against celebrities hijacking a live broadcast for their own publicity stunts.

[weegee]

I agree that Justin Timberlake should also be dropped from the broadcast.

At the very least, he was engaging in a move to rip away a part of Janet Jackson's clothing to leave a barely covered breast. So he was surprised that there was even less down there?

[weegee]

How many people have a deliberately mutilated nipple pierced by a stud attached to a hunk of metal larger than a silver dollar?

This was a sexual kink "shock" used to cap off a performance at a family oriented event.

[biffalobull]

I'm hoping for topless hula girls in grass skirts.

Sam, I was invited once to a church follies show to raise money for the summer camp.

The church bulletin advertised that the follies would be staged by the church ladies society.

It was advertised in the bulletin that the chorus line would perform bottomless and topless

I could not believe what I was reading.

Anxiously I awaited the big night

Sure nuff, the chorus line came on stage with no shoes or hats on.

Sam, this is a true story, I just made it up myself.

Go ahead, I got the asbestos pants on.

[gcruse]

They are haters. They loathe humanity.

And somehow who loathes/hates the sight of a female breast is somehow different?

[thesummerwind]

wrong