Day: 14 February 2004

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From Associated Press: In her first public appearance since her breast was exposed during the Super Bowl halftime show, Janet has received an award for her humanitarian and charitable contributions.

Behind the Bench, an association of wives of NBA players, honored Jackson at their annual fund-raiser Friday at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

“She has done a wonderful job giving back to communities across America. That fact has not changed,” Behind the Bench spokesman Vince McCaskill said. “She was on board with this seven months ago. We never even considered her not being here.”

Janet had not appeared in public since singer Justin Timberlake tore off part of her costume, exposing her breast, during a performance in front of some 90 million television viewers. The stunt prompted a Federal Communications Commission investigation, and Jackson released a videotaped apology. Timberlake also apologized.

Behind the Bench, formed in 1995, has raised nearly $1 million for charities in Los Angeles, the host city of this year’s NBA All-Star game.

Previous award recipients include Hank Aaron, Muhammad Ali, Dorothy Height, Alonzo Mourning and David Robinson.

Janet and brother Michael Jackson will attend the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network’s (HSAN) Los Angeles Hip-Hop Summit.

The summit, which is free to anyone that registers to vote, takes place during All-Star weekend on Saturday the 14th from 11am-2pm.

“The Los Angeles Hip-Hop Summit will further stimulate youth voter registration toward our goal of registering and encouraging millions of youth to vote,” HSAN’s CEO Dr. Benjamin Chavis said.

The Los Angeles Summit is sponsored by The Black Student Assembly of USC, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the American Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the African American Voter REP Project and Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas.

The corporate sponsor of Summit is Radio One’s KKBT-FM 100.3 and Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

Dame Dash, Kanye West, the Diplomats, Fabolous, Tweet, Tamia, Michael Concepcion and a host of NBA, NFL and WWE athletes will attend.