Stylist Wayne Scot Lukas, who set up Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl look in 2004, is claiming that Justin Timberlake intentionally staged Janet’s “wardrobe malfunction” in an effort to out-do an iconic VMA performance from Britney Spears, Madonna and Christina Aguilera the year before.
Scot Lukas opened up to Page Six Sunday, saying that Timberlake saw the trio’s performance— and their now-iconic kiss— and “insisted on doing something bigger than their performance. He wanted a reveal.”
Initially, the Super Bowl halftime performance was set to have JT step on the back of Janet’s dress to expose a “Sex and the City” inspired G-string, according to the stylist.
“Janet was going to be in a Rocha dress, and [Justin] was going to step on the back of her dress to reveal her butt in this pearl G-string,” Scot Lukas said. But “the outfit changed a couple of days before, and you saw the magic.”
Scot Lukas added that while Timberlake called the reveal of Janet’s breast a “wardrobe malfunction,” he doesn’t believe that’s the proper term for what happened.
“I wouldn’t call it a wardrobe ‘malfunction’ in a million years,” he said. “It was the most functioning wardrobe in history. As a stylist, it did what it was intended to do.”
The stylist says he’s currently working on a book that’s set to include more details about the Super Bowl incident, among his other run-ins, tentatively titled “Wardrobe Malfunctions: Receipts from the Front Lines and the Front Row.”
A source told Complex what was said is “absolutely not true.”
Of course, this all comes after JT apologized 17 years later to both Janet and Britney Spears after the release of the New York Times and FX’s Framing Britney Spears. The doc points to Timberlake’s actions following his relationship with Britney as contributing to her widespread villianization at the time.
“I specifically want to apologize to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson both individually, because I care for and respect these women and I know I failed,” Timberlake wrote in Feburary. “I also feel compelled to respond, in part, because everyone involved deserves better and most importantly, because this is a larger conversation that I wholeheartedly want to be a part of and grow from.”
