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'Nipple-gate' worries Grammys
05/02/2004 13:07 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Shockwaves from Justin Timberlake's baring of Janet Jackson's breast on prime-time TV shook the Grammy music awards when special new steps were unveiled on Tuesday to prevent a repeat performance.
Organisers of music's top honours, which will be broadcast live from Los Angeles on Sunday, said both singers would be allowed to appear on the show despite Jackson's televised flash during Sunday's Super Bowl football game.
But the CBS television network, which also broadcast the Super Bowl and the now infamous "nipple-gate" incident, said it was slapping an extra time-delay on its Grammys telecast to "delete both inappropriate audio and video footage from the broadcast."
"The new procedure, which is being co-ordinated with the Recording Academy, is being put in place to safeguard against any unexpected and inappropriate content being broadcast during the awards ceremony," CBS said in a statement.
The Academy's Ron Roecker said that Jackson would present a Grammy statuette to a winner as scheduled and that pop heart-throb Timberlake would perform on stage as planned.
But he stressed that the 46th annual Grammys would be run as a much tighter ship than the Super Bowl's half time performance in which the singers' antics triggered outrage and shock across conservative America.
"We do want to ensure we are being respectful to our audience, but we've been doing this live event for a long time and have the means in place to anticipate these things, although in live television everything we do is somewhat unpredictable," Roecker said.
- AFP
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South Africa
