You can blame Lena Horne’s change of heart on Janet’s “nipplegate” scandal. Remember that whole Superbowl scandal in 2004? Well after Janet had what was at first dubbed by she and Justin Timberlake as a “wardrobe malfunction,” where Justin tapped Janet’s right breast and made her breast pop our of her top on national TV during a live taping of the Superbowl, Lena was furious and no longer wanted any parts of the Janet Jackson business.
So Lena and her daughter, Gail, got the wheels churning to get Janet outta there. Technically, Lena didn’t have 100% control over who gets fired from the film and who doesn’t because ABC had to be willing to agree to it as well. So Lena and Gail went to ABC to demand that they let Janet go, but ABC was allegedly like ‘no way!’…especially with the amount of publicity Janet had
just stirred up with her Superbowl stunt.
That’s when Lena and Gail did the next best thing- took their concerns straight to Janet. They had a talk and explained to Janet that Lena didn’t approve of Janet’s raunchy stunt. Lena then simply requested for Janet to pull out of the film and Janet complied and contacted ABC. So although there have been two separate rumors about this- that Lena fired her and that Janet quit, in essence it was more like Lena said ‘Janet I don’t want you to step foot on the set of my biopic’ and Janet was like ‘Well fine, I’m leaving.’
And that’s how the Lena Horne biopic situation all went down ILOSM family.
Janet had a few other projects that came to a screeching halt after that Nipplegate scandal: Janet was supposed to present an award at the Grammy’s that same year and CBS told her no (they allowed Justin Timberlake to still appear though, go figure); Disney World’s theme park even yanked Janet Jackson’s infamous “Rhythm Nation” jacket off a Mickey Mouse statue they had that paid tribute to Janet’s legacy.
It’s been 11 years since Janet’s stunt and Timberlake is determined to stick to his story- that it was a “wardrobe malfunction,” while according to an MTV exec,’ Janet, Justin, and MTV all knew about the planned breast slip prior to the show. Here’s what they reported at the time (in 2004):
'"Janet Jackson engineered it," MTV Chief Executive Tom Freston told Reuters in an interview. Freston, whose company produced the halftime show for CBS, said Timberlake was informed of the stunt just moments before he took the stage with Jackson. The stunt, which Timberlake said was due to a "wardrobe malfunction," sparked widespread viewer complaints. "There's now going to be an FCC investigation into the nipple," Freston told reporters at a news conference. Jackson took the blame: "The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my half-time show performance was made after final rehearsals. MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did."' -via Daily Mail
At least Janet has moved on from her Superbowl scandal and I’m glad she did because her new album, “Unbreakable,” is bangin.’ The industry needs music like hers right about now. So thank you Janet, we all live and we learn…and besides, her new Islamic billionaire husband, Wissam Al Mana, wouldn’t dare approve of her doing a “nipplegate” scandal these days.
