Janet breast row overblown
2004-02-10 15:41
California - Outspoken Hollywood star Tim Robbins weighed in on Monday on Janet Jackson's televised breast-baring, suggesting the national uproar over the flash was exaggerated.
The actor spoke out about America's most talked about scandal of the moment at a lunch for this year's Oscar nominees in Beverly Hills, saying they had not been offended by the eyeful and that America ought not to be either.
"I think we are a pretty tough society and I think we can deal with 'inappropriateness' sexually or socially," Robbins said of the exposure of Jackson's mammary at the end of her act with Justin Timberlake during last week's football Super Bowl.
"We have tough skins. The kids are not going to be scarred by seeing Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl.
"If anything, they are just going to be curious if that's what all nipples look like," he said of the singer's breast which was adorned with a sun-shaped nipple-cap.
The incident, in which Timberlake, 23, ripped off 37-year-old Jackson's leather bustier and exposed more than he apparently bargained for, has been the talk of the country for more than a week.
The so-called "nipplegate" scandal resulted in Michael Jackson's little sister being blackballed from attending Sunday's Grammy Awards where Timberlake made the latest in a string of grovelling apologies.
Jackson and the CBS broadcasting network, which inadvertently televised the flash, have also issued apologies and a shaken CBS slapped an extraordinary five-minute transmission delay on the Grammys to avoid any repeat antics.
And the ABC network, that will broadcast the Oscars ceremony live on February 29, immediately announced that it was slapping an unprecedented five-second delay on the Academy Awards' US telecast.
Robbins, who himself has drawn criticism in the past for some of his comments against the war in Iraq, said he opposed delaying transmissions of major events like the Oscars for fear that someone might act up.
"What are they afraid of?" asked the actor nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for the film Mystic River.
"Spontaneity is great. Who's going to make the judgment of whether something is appropriate or not?".
Fellow best supporting Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin, recognised for his role in The Cooler, appeared to agree with Robbins, saying the only reason the notorious Super Bowl incident should have been censored was because the act was dull.
"What happened at the Super Bowl, I thought, should have been censored because it wasn't very interesting," said the actor who has in the past also drawn fire for his political views.
"Janet Jackson's performance at the Super Bowl was dull and hackneyed. We'd seen that before."
Jackson's flash sparked a indecency investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, the country's main media watchdog, which said it had received a flood of complaints from around 200 000 offended viewers in the 100-million-strong audience.