*Years ago the late great Notorious B.I.G. asked ‘What’s Beef?” While that question may be loaded with multiple ways to look at it before answering, former CBS CEO Les Moonves took his grievance against Janet Jackson to new levels years after the “Nipplegate” scandal involving her and Justin Timberlake.
ILoveOldSchoolMusic cites journalist, Yashar Ali, who stumbled upon the beef upon researching Moonves’ sexual assault case that led to his firing in 2018. The exec, who ran CBS from the 1990’s until his termination decades later, was allegedly forced to resign after sexual assault accusations surfaced from six women within the entertainment industry. In the end, Moonves had his contract with the network bought out for reportedly more than $100 million.
During his time at CBS, Moonves was the man in charge at CBS when Jackson and Timberlake took the stage during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, which aired on the Eye Network. Despite the pair repeatedly saying that Timberlake accidentally exposing Jackson’s right breast after performing his hit “Rock Your Body” was a mistake, CBS literally paid a heavy price for the incident with a $550,000.00 fine for FCC violations.
From there, it was on. Moonves was not having it and made sure Jackson and Timberlake caught his wrath in full. In his eyes their mistake was nothing more than an attempt to “stir up controversy.”
Ali (who spoke directly with those working underneath Moonves), mentioned that even though the “Rhythm Nation” singer apologized to Moonves, her way of doing it hit a sour note, with her not having a “sufficiently repentant” apology.
Jackson may not have bowed down to Moonves, but Timberlake did. With tears. According to HuffPost, tearfully laid out his regrets to the network big wig in a private meeting that resulted in him accepting and the former ‘N Sync member’s career being spared.
On the flip side, there are no tears from Jackson. Just dignity on display with professionalism and pride. A severe no-no for Moonves, as he reportedly vowed to destroy Miss Jackson with moves to dead her career in a permanent way.
“Moonves banned Jackson and Timberlake from the 2004 Grammys broadcast airing on CBS the week after the Super Bowl. But Timberlake was allowed to perform after he tearfully apologized for the incident, according to conversations Moonves had with my sources,” Ali reported via HuffPost. “The CBS chief executive, according to sources who spoke to me, was furious that Jackson didn’t make a similarly contrite apology to him. The fallout from the incident inflicted significant damage on Jackson’s career ― which until that point had produced 10 No. 1 hits ― and still reverberates to this day.
“Moonves ordered Viacom properties VH1 and MTV, and all Viacom-owned radio stations, to stop playing Jackson’s songs and music videos,” he continued. “The move had a huge impact on sales of her album “Damita Jo,” which was released in March 2004, just a month after the Super Bowl.”
Seven years later, the beef carried on. After he found out Jackson signed a book deal with CBS Corporation-owned Simon & Schuster for her book “True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself,” he responded accordingly to what went down.
“How the f**k did she slip through?” Moonves asked while recounting the story to a source who spoke to me. He told another source that heads were going to roll as a result of the deal,” Ali stated in his report.
ILoveOldSchoolMusic noted that Jackson wasn’t the only person who got on Moonves’ bad side.
Actresses Cybil Shepherd, one of his six sexual assault accusers, and Bobbie Phillips were in his crosshairs after rejecting him. For Shepherd, it was the cancellation of her sitcom, “Cybil,” a move she claimed Moonves intentionally did to damage her career. With Phillips, she caught heat after going public in 2018 with him trying to bury allegations he sexually assaulted her in the mid-’90s.
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