There’s no doubt that Janet Jackson’who says she’s sorry “if” her behavior at the Super Bowl offended anybody’and Justin Timberlake, her dim-witted partner in crime, are trashy people. But the incident is bigger than these two dopes. Peggy Noonan says that the “piggy paganism” at the Super Bowl was so obnoxious because it says something about the culture in which we live.
“Our culture has been sick for awhile,” Noonan wrote yesterday in Opinion Journal, “highly sexualized, violent, inspirational to the unstable.” Coincidentally, Noonan had an earlier epiphany about our sick society when she attended a Madison Square Garden event aimed at drawing attention away from the first pedophile accusations lodged against Janet’s brother Michael.
Noonan’s description of the earlier Jackson concert is bleakly hilarious. All the aging degenerates were there, including Michael Jackson’s’er’bosom buddy, Elizabeth Taylor. “Liz Taylor came out in a stiff gown,” writes Noonan, “looking like a statue in Madame Tussaud’s that had been designed to retain water.”
Meanwhile, Janet has been booted from the upcoming Grammies, while Timberlake remains on the program. Why only Ms. Jackson?
P.S. For more on Janet and Justin scroll down. The Other Charlotte and I are positively obsessed with this tipping point moment.