Was Janet Jackson's Nipplegate a deliberate stunt or Wardrobe malfunction?!

You are possibly the only person on the planet who cares about Janet Jackson.

How could I have known that my comfy casual sunburst nipple ring would be accidentally revealed to the world?

LOL @R3!!!!

Of course it was on purpose. I think if she would have admitted it and apologized, she might have salvaged her career. Of course, she is none too bright.

R5 She didn't want to hand over millions of dollars that CBS was asking for, so therefore she shut her mouth.

Why did she cover her breast immediately if she wanted to expose it deliberately??

Of course it was a publicity stunt! She had that pierced nipple erect and ready for exposure.

R7, she didn't.

Of course it was a stunt. Janet was trying to play the Madonna game by pushing the controversies. She was always doing those sexy songs on her albums with those cheesy interludes where she would whispercoo about her pussy or some nonsense. She would bring up a random guy on stage at her concerts and sing (lip-sync) some sexy song to him.

By the time the Super Bowl came she was approaching 40 and needed to make a splash for her new album. She chose the absolute worst place to show her nipple. If this was the MTV Music Awards maybe the response wouldn't have been so vicious but she underestimated the reaction.

Revisionist history will paint Jackson as a victim and that Timbersnake left her to the wolves. But it was her headlining performance. She chose to do it and had to face the consequences.

Right after the "have you nekkid by the end of this song" line? Only Jabba believes it was an accident.

Now I agree, JT was in on it too and his career should have been destroyed as well. But he went on to superstardom.

I always assumed it was planned by both JJ and JT. Janet Jackson & Justin Timberlake did not get the public reaction they wanted, then had to make up a story. That nipple ring looked heavy. No way somebody wants to wear that under a costume, dancing, just for the hell of it. The plan was that the nipple ring would be displayed.

Pre-show, Janet's choreographer promised MTV something "shocking" would happen.

Janet performs while inexplicably wearing a giant metal nipple shield under a rubber costume with only a flimsy bit of lace between. This despite the claim that the plan was to rip the separated rubber breastplate off to reveal the flimsy lace bra, which already risked exposing at least the outline of the nipple shield. The cups are the bra are also separated, making the "accidental" tear-away of one cup possible.

Immediately after, Timberlake tells the press they wanted to give everyone something to talk about.

Post-show, Janet took off and didn't respond to any frantic calls from MTV: After the show, MTV producer Alex Coletti tried to find Jackson. "I tried to get in touch to make sure she was okay," he says. "Her entire camp stopped answering the phones. I finally got to her tour manager, and they were already at the airport." At first, Coletti assumed the singer was so mortified that she fled immediately. Then a new thought dawned on him. "No, she set us up and she's out of here," he says. "That was the last time I've seen or heard from Janet Jackson."

Why did her camp not tell the producers immediately if it was an accident?

An MTV exec later tells the press Janet engineered the stunt. MTV is pissed because this was their first Superbowl halftime show, and they get banned by the NFL as a result for a stunt they had no knowledge was coming.

The reaction at every level from everyone was ridiculous, Puritanical, media/feds desperate to divert from a failing war bullshit, but there was good reason to suspect the stunt was planned.

Janet and Justin were both in it and both lied their asses off!

This planned stunt could've gone horribly south. JT could've snagged the piercing and ripped it out leaving a bloody mess.

It's ridiculous they tried to pretend it was an accident. He purposefully rips off a panel of her clothes.

There's no other explanation for any of it. It's not like her tit fell out with a gust of wind.

R15 I didn't even think of that 😧