Founder of Janet Love. Have met and interviewed Janet several times. Fan since 1998.
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Janet attended the Maxim NBA party at the PaPaz Nightclub with her boyfriend Jermaine Dupri to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The outing, in Hollywood, California, was only her second public appearance since the Super Bowl at the beginning of the month.
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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.
British photographer Andrew MacPherson took the artwork photos for Janet’s upcoming CD. Dressed in low-slung jeans and nothing else, Janet poses topless on the front of her new CD with just her hands across her breasts. The photoshoot cost a total of £150,000 (about $200,000). “She wanted a simple, youthful picture that she felt people would like,” said Janet’s spokesperson. The photo can be viewed in Janet Love’s gallery.
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From NY Daily News: Janet Jackson is flashing some more flesh. Ignoring the uproar about her Super Bowl spectacle, the singer is pushing ahead with a topless photo on her new CD.
The shot shows Jackson wearing only low-rise jeans, with her arms wrapped around her shadow-bathed breasts.
At first, one of her spokespeople denied the photo was for her CD, “Damita Jo” (that’s her middle name). The rep said the Web-blanketing image was fabricated by “someone on the Internet.”
But, eventually, her label confirmed it was real. A spokesman at Virgin, her ironically named label, told us: “She just wanted a simple and youthful picture that she felt people would like. It’s beautiful, soft. So far, fans love it. The Web sites have been going crazy.”
Certainly, the photo, by Andrew McPherson, is more tasteful than her halftime show.
We’ll have to wait to find out what Jackson has planned for other photos in the album spread. “They’re still working on the package, but they wanted to approve the cover first,” said the rep.
The album hits stores on March 30.
It started as a controversy over exposed skin. Now the focus is on skin color.
When Justin Timberlake ripped away Janet Jackson’s bra cup to reveal her right breast during CBS’ broadcast of last week’s Super Bowl halftime show, they sparked a public- relations disaster that drew the ire of CBS, the NFL and even the FCC. In the days following, both singers issued public apologies – but with very different results.
While Jackson shouldered most of the responsibility for the incident, Timberlake distanced himself from it, painting himself as a victim. Now Timberlake is under fire from urban radio stations that feel he betrayed not only Jackson but, in a sense, the entire urban-music community he’s worked so hard to emulate.
“It doesn’t take a genius to notice that he pays homage to a lot of African-American singing greats,” says Miss Info, a morning-show host on the hip-hop station “Hot 97” (WQHT/97.1 FM). Many callers “feel like he’s been accepted by a multicultural audience, and they want him to stand by his multicultural musical coworkers.”
Initially, Jackson and Timberlake benefited from the Super Bowl stunt, which became a popular topic in newscasts, late- night monologues and watercooler conversation. Jackson’s new single “Just a Little While” was released to radio stations the day after the Super Bowl and became a hotly requested song. “That was fun,” Timberlake said in a television interview immediately after the performance. “We love giving you something to talk about.”
But as criticism grew and the FCC announced it would launch an investigation, Timberlake changed his tune, blaming the incident on a “wardrobe malfunction” and apologizing for any offense. Jackson went even further, claiming responsibility for the maneuver.
What has angered many black music fans is that Timberlake then seemed to turn his back on Jackson. In an interview with a CBS television station in Los Angeles, Timberlake claimed he was “completely shocked and appalled” by her partial nudity. He also described himself as a successful artist who’s above such stunts. “I’ve had a good year,” he said. “I don’t feel I need publicity like this.”
Those statements raised issues of Timberlake’s loyalty to Jackson and to black music as a whole. A former crooner in a boy band, Timberlake has essentially used R&B music to gain credibility as a solo artist, says Erik Parker, music editor at the urban-music magazine Vibe. From his Michael Jackson-esque vocals to the records he’s made with musicians such as Nelly, Brian McKnight and the Neptunes, Timberlake has ingratiated himself with an audience that often regards blue-eyed soul with suspicion.
“When that audience feels betrayed or exploited, there’s going to be some type of repercussions,” Parker says. Consciously or not, Timberlake is “abusing his white privilege.”
At urban radio stations, callers have been irate. “They’re mad at Justin,” says Wendy Williams, a nationally syndicated radio host based in New York, whose show airs on WBLS/107.5 FM. “They’ll support Janet, but they’ll look at Justin and say, ‘Your ghetto pass has been revoked. You’re no longer an honorary brother.'”
It didn’t help that Jackson’s planned performance on CBS’ Grammy awards broadcast Sunday night was canceled, while Timberlake’s went forward. (He also collected two Grammys.) In fact, CBS asked both artists to apologize at the ceremony before they would be allowed to perform, and Timberlake did so. Jackson declined to attend. Still, the perception has been one of unequal treatment.
“I did a poll about whether if Janet was to be barred, should Justin be barred also, and the resounding answer was yes,” says Ed Lover, a morning show host on “Power 105” (WWPR/105.1 FM). “My audience thinks there’s some racism involved there.”
Timberlake triumphed at the Grammy ceremony during his duet with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, pushing aside the controversy and forging ahead with his song “Señorita.” The number proved that he was adept at not only R&B but Latin-inflected jazz.
“Our audiences are very savvy and critical, but they’re also forgiving,” Miss Info says. “If he can stand the heat, he’ll be able to come back into the kitchen.”
Producer Jimmy Jam tells Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Sun there’s a good chance the fury over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl breast flash will make its way into a song on her new album, ‘Damita Jo’, due in American stores on March 30th. “I don’t know whether it will or not,” Jam said over Grammy weekend. “But I have a feeling it probably will, because kind of whatever’s happening in her life tends to be what she writes about. As we’re finishing up these last four or five songs, you never know — something may slip in there. It’d be kind of interesting to see what her feeling is about it.” Read more.
Sorry about being down for the last few days but as you may know, we had to find a new host. We’re back now and aim to bring you all the latest Janet news as it happens!
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Statement by NFL Executive Vice President Joe Browne regarding the Super Bowl halftime show: “We were extremely disappointed by elements of the MTV-produced Halftime show. They were totally inconsistent with assurances our office was given about the show. It’s unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime.”