Janet Fallout: Grammys Take Pause
Just like a radio or television talk show, what you see on the Grammys telecast Sunday will be live-but-not-quite-live.
Following Janet Jackson's surprise breast-baring on the Super Bowl halftime show, CBS said Tuesday it would institute a video delay system to avoid any recurrence at the Grammy Awards.
CBS technicians were scrambling to invent the software — something more than the five-second audio delay the network has used to bleep out swear words, like when Eminem performed on the Grammys two years ago.
Jackson issued another apology for the fiasco in a videotape that was released to media late Tuesday.
"I am really sorry if I offended anyone. That was truly not my intention," she said. "MTV, CBS, the NFL had no knowledge of this whatsoever, and unfortunately, the whole thing went wrong in the end."
The pop star had previously apologized Monday night in a written statement.
Film director Spike Lee criticized the surprise breast-baring as a "new low" of attention-getting antics by entertainers.
There has been a decline in artistry, Lee said while speaking at Kent State University's regional campus in Stark County, Ohio, on Tuesday night.
Lee said it's not enough to be a good singer, and that entertainers "have to do something extra" — such as the openmouthed kiss Madonna gave Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera during the MTV Video Music Awards in August.
"What's gonna be next? It's getting crazy, and it's all down to money. Money and fame," said Lee, the director of "Malcolm X" and "Do the Right Thing." "Somehow the whole value system has been upended."
"We attended all rehearsals of the show and there was no indication at any time that such an inappropriate display was contemplated," CBS President Leslie Moonves told employees in e-mail. "We are angry and embarrassed that this happened."
Meanwhile, it was reported that CBS may ask that Jackson and Justin Timberlake be banned from the Grammys if the network concludes the musicians fully intended to give Jackson the extra exposure on Sunday.
"If we took everyone who is controversial off the show, no one would perform," the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which awards the Grammys, told E!.
Variously referred to as "Nipplegate" and the "bra-ha-ha," the one-second Super Bowl flashing continued to cause reverberations Tuesday.
MTV boss Tom Freston, whose network produced the halftime show, bitterly complained about being "punk'd" by Janet Jackson, and Federal Communications Commission chief Michael Powell said the entire show angered him.
At the end of their duet Sunday, Timberlake snatched off part of Jackson's bustier on stage, revealing a breast clad only in a sun-shaped "nipple shield" to some 89 million viewers.
Timberlake, who is nominated for five Grammy Awards, is scheduled to perform on Sunday's telecast. Jackson is supposed to present an award.
Whether they appear or not, CBS censors will have their fingers on a new delay system.
"Unfortunately, we cannot count on those who appear on our air to live up to our standards," said Martin Franks, CBS executive vice president.
Technicians were trying to come up with something more viewer-friendly than just fading to a blank screen if they want something off the air, he said.
Even with Christina Aguilera — who kissed Madonna onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards last summer — also scheduled to perform, Grammy producers haven't changed any plans because of the Super flashing, said Ron Roecker, spokesman for the Recording Academy.
"They're musicians," he said. "They're passionate about what they're doing and we can't be 100 percent in control of the action. We don't anticipate there being issues."
Even though Jackson says CBS and MTV were in the dark, CBS and its stations could be hit with nearly $6 million in fines for indecency, depending on the FCC's findings reports CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen.
Powell said he wasn't happy with the halftime show in general, which featured performances by Nelly and Kid Rock before the bump-and-grind duet with Jackson and Timberlake. Nelly gestured toward his crotch, while Kid Rock draped himself in an American flag-designed poncho.