The 55th annual Grammy Awards are set to take place Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Website Global Post writes today that Frank Ocean and FUN. are the best bets as big winners going into this weekend’s star-studded event. Meanwhile a memo leaked from CBS with a warning suggests the Tiffany Network is nervous about too much exposed skin during the live Grammy broadcast. This comes on the heals of Joe Flacco’s live Super Bowl F-bomb drop this past weekend. CBS has had its share of problems in the past, most notably the infamous nipple fiasco by performer Janet Jackson in 2004.
After last year's Grammy Awards ceremony was dominated by British songstress Adele and her top-selling album “21”, this year's show is set to be all about the men.
R&B artist Frank Ocean and indie-pop group FUN. stand out as the front-runners for the music industry’s top honors, in a year that has heaped most of the attention on male artists and new talent.
Meanwhile, the N.Y. Daily News published a CBS memo that read in part, “Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered”, and which was distributed to awards show attendees and their reps.
“Thong type costumes are problematic”, the memo went on to say, first published on Deadline.com. “Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack.
“Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic. Please avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast nipples. Please be sure the genital region is adequately covered so that there is no visible `puffy' bare skin exposure”, continued the memo.
A source told the Daily News the memo was distributed by a low-level staffer in the CBS network's standards and practices department, charged with keeping the airwaves free of obscenities and nudity.
Its content was the product of a conference call among CBS execs earlier this week. “It was never intended to be written down or emailed anywhere”, the source explained.
Conference calls concerning keeping a live telecast “clean” are commonplace at broadcast networks. But perhaps CBS is a tad more sensitive given the trouble they suffered after Janet Jackson’s nip slip at the Super Bowl in 2004.
Officially labeled a “wardrobe malfunction” during her halt-time performance, Justin Timberlake infamously ripped off part of her costume, exposing her breast. Citing indecency rules, the FCC fined the network $550,000, but that was later overturned in court.
“Right, they're telling rock stars how to dress?”, a music industry executive jeered in learning of the this latest memo. “Good luck with that”.
The 2013 Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday, Feb. 10 hosted by LL Cool J., and will be broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. EST.
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