It’s been a while since we’ve had to deal with Superbowl halftime show controversy. After the Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake wardrobe malfunction in 2004, the committee has since been reluctant to put younger stars in the slate.
This year Madonna was the headliner, singing a medley of her older and newer hits. Cee Lo Green, Nicki Minaj, LMFAO and British singer M.I.A. all joined her. During Madonna’s new song “Give Me All Your Luvin'” is when M.I.A. flipped the bird to the camera and NBC claimed it was 2/3 of a second late delaying the explicit gesture.
Madonna herself, along with Cee Lo, claimed they had no reason to believe she would make the gesture during the actual performance because it didn’t happen in rehearsals and wasn’t planned.
NBC might not be so happy that they hosted the Superbowl this year. They now know what it’s like to get flack from the Federal Communications Commission and the NFL.
NBC tried to play the blame game but there really isn’t any need for it. It wasn’t pretty but it was the same way as Janet’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’; it was so quick I didn’t even notice it during the show. If the NFL and NBC hadn’t brought this up I wouldn’t have even known it happened! I’m sure I’m not the only one, either.
It’s good of NBC to apologize, but they should know they’ve more than likely brought more attention to it. Pretending like it didn’t happen may have actually been a better route. I haven’t heard about M.I.A. apologizing herself; she probably doesn’t feel like she has to. Though why she did it when she didn’t rehearse that way is questionable.
This, obviously, isn’t the first Superbowl halftime show controversy we’ve dealt with and it won’t be the last. I just hope they don’t make the halftime shows boring again; there should be some sort of middle ground like before the Janet and JT incident. We’ll see what next year has to offer; at least Kelly Clarkson hit a home run with the National Anthem.
Meanwhile, Tom Brady and the Patriots are wishing the halftime show went on through the rest of the game.
The LG Blog 