Janet Jackson Doesn’t Want Anything To Do With The New York Times Documentary About Her Super Bowl Halftime Show

November 26, 2021 / Posted by:

Back in March, The New York Times, in association with Hulu and FX, dropped Framing Britney Spears, a documentary that looked to effectively re-write the narrative surrounding Britney Spears’ 13-year-long conservatorship. And yeah, mission accomplished. The next person The New York Times was hoping to reputationally rehab with a documentary is Janet Jackson, whose career seemingly took a sudden nosedive after her 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, in which one of her titties was exposed after Justin Timberlake yanked at her costume. Last week, The New York Times finally dropped Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson. I’m sure it’s not too much of a stretch to assume that Justin Timberlake wants nothing to do with Malfunction. But according to Miss Jackson’s former stylist, Janet doesn’t want to be involved with Malfunction either.

Page Six spoke to Wayne Scot Lukas, former one-season What Not To Wear host and Janet’s former stylist, who apparently is acting as Janet’s volunteer publicist now. Wayne has appeared in this space before – he’s kind of turning into the official unauthorized biographer for that Super Bowl Halftime Show at this point. Wayne has claimed that Justin Timberlake was the one who pushed hard for a “wardrobe malfunction” because he was jealous with ramen-haired rage over all the attention his ex Britney Spears got at the 2003 MTV VMAs when she mouth-kissed Madonna during the opening of the show. Now Wayne is claiming that Janet absolutely doesn’t sanction The New York Times’ documentary about her Super Bowl appearance. It sounds like Janet would rather answer honestly when Jermaine Jackson asks, “How’s my hair?“, than watch a single second of Malfunction.

“She wants that documentary to go away. She didn’t ask for a ‘Free Janet’ documentary. She’s not interested,” Lukas said.

Jackson declined to participate in the New York Times/FX project and urged Lukas and others to also not take part in it.

“She asked us not to do it. She wants to tell her own story,” he said.

The documentary explored how Janet was blacklisted from certain events by Les Moonves, then the head of CBS, while Justin Timberlake’s career took off after he offered up a public apology that allegedly satisfied Les Moonves. Generally, the socially-accepted consensus here is that Janet was done extremely dirty in the wake of that Halftime Show performance, but apparently Janet doesn’t need high-budget documentary confirmation of as much. And, according to another source, she definitely doesn’t feel like her career hit the back of the trash can lid, post-Super Bowl XXXVIII. via Page Six:

But other sources told Page Six Jackson is “over” the narrative that the Super Bowl somehow ended her career. “It didn’t end her career. She still broke records with albums, and she was just inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” one source said.

That is true, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. And clearly, she’ll get her say when she releases her own documentary, which Wayne claims is coming in January. He says he was interviewed for her future doc but was allegedly asked not to say a single word about that Halftime Show. According to Wayne, only Janet will address that situation. Even if she avoids placing blame, it will still be enjoyable to hear her do it in that whispery ASMR voice of hers.

But while Janet might be plugging her ears and saying, “Nanana I can’t hear you” any time someone brings up Malfunction, Wayne can’t say the same. He claims he’s gotten death threats since Hulu and FX aired the documentary last week. At the very least I hope Janet addresses that in her documentary. Poor Wayne, it’s not like he sabotaged Janet by putting her in a spring-loaded bra that would unleash her tits the moment she busted out some of her signature neck choreography. If there’s any Super Bowl-based wardrobe shaming that should be going on, it’s whoever put Justin Timberlake in those ugly XXL khakis he was wearing on stage.

Pic: Wenn.com

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