11/19
AP Photo/David Phillip, file
Before the term "wardrobe malfunction" was synonymous with nip-slip and we all agreed to start tacking "gate" onto anything remotely scurrilous, there was Nipplegate.
Looking back, the five-time Grammy winner's decorated right nipple was exposed for precisely 9/16 of a second when 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show duet partner Justin Timberlake accidentally ripped off more bodice material than originally intended. (In contrast, 15 years later, headliner Adam Levine spent entire songs flashing his plentiful chest tattoos.)
But the fallout was massive: CBS was fined $550,000 by the FCC (a decision ultimately overturned) and, in a head-scratching display of double standards, an apologetic Timberlake was still able to attend CBS' Grammys presentation days later, but Jackson's invite was promptly rescinded. The network's parent company Viacom, meanwhile, had her music scrubbed from MTV, VH1 and their radio stations. As Jackson would tell Oprah Winfrey in 2006, "I think they did put all the emphasis on me, as opposed to us."