Exposure just tip of ‘crass’ bowl, FCC to probe

When the official Super Bowl halftime show outdid ‘‘The Lingerie Bowl’’ in a shocking move, leaving Janet Jackson’s...

When the official Super Bowl halftime show outdid ‘‘The Lingerie Bowl’’ in a shocking move, leaving Janet Jackson’s breast exposed and an audience of 90 million agape, it was only the logical extension of a trend that had been brewing for years.

Even if that weird sun-shaped piercing counts as a pasty, the flash — described by its perpetrator, Justin Timberlake, as a ‘‘wardrobe malfunction’’ — was doubtless the most prominent breast exposure in American network TV history. An angry CBS said it would ban MTV from producing future halftime shows. Both performers apologised. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it would probe this ‘‘classless, crass and deplorable stunt.’’

The closest antecedent to the embarrassing moment may have been when rapper Lil’ Kim attended another MTV-produced event, its 1999 Video Music Awards, with her left breast bare except for a pasty. On stage, singer Diana Ross admonished Lil’ Kim by shaking the exposed breast.

Breasts were so much the focus of gowns worn to Hollywood’s most recent event, it’s no wonder it was called the Golden Globes. Only double-sided tape has kept scores of starlets from Janet’s fate. Timberlake, heretofore a harmless boy-band star turned solo top-seller, undercut his own apology by singing, in Rock Your Body, before he ripped off the covering of Jackson’s bustier: I’m going to have you naked by the end of this song.

The vaunted top-dollar commercials during the Super Bowl didn’t have a much higher standard. Nipples popped out in an ad featuring women in bikinis playing volleyball in the snow… Pills battling erectile dysfunction were the point of two different campaigns. A comedian receiving a bikini wax was the point of another ad.

A Chevrolet ad showed the effect of kids cussing when they saw its new product. An elderly couple fought tooth and claw for a bag of chips. Because they were clueless, or trying to forget the incident, Super Bowl announcers never mentioned the halftime incident.

And throughout the broadcast, they kept promoting the Grammys telecast on Sunday, using a clip from Britney Spears’ new video in which she wears a flesh-coloured bodysuit and appears to be naked. When FCC Chairman Michael Powell labels the incident as ‘‘classless, crass and deplorable,’’ it seems he could have widened his focus with no problem whatsoever. Powell further promised a ‘‘thorough and swift’’ investigation of the stunt aired during one of the most popular American television broadcasts. The game garnered the best ratings in six years and the incident provoked wall-to-wall coverage on cable news networks. — (LAT-WP)

Peekaboo
sets off firestorm