(CelebrityAccess) — Pop singer Justin Timberlake is reportedly in the final stages of negotiations to return as the featured entertainment during halftime at Super Bowl LII when it takes place in February next year in Minneapolis.
A purported insider who spoke to Us Weekly said that the Pepsi-sponsored musical interlude will feature "just Justin" with no "surprise performers." Jay Z's name had been bandied about as a performer for the half time gig as well, but a recent story by hip hop magazine The Source put the kibosh on that, stating that the rapper had turned the offer down.
The NFL is still mum on Timberlake's role in football's big game. “No decisions have been made on the performer(s) and we are not going to speculate on particular artists,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Washington Post in an email. “Along with Pepsi, we know that we will put on a spectacular show. When it is time to announce her name we will do it. Or his name. Or their names.”
If the rumors are true, this will be Timberlake's second go-around as entertainment during halftime. However, his last visit in 2004 didn't go so well, after he notoriously pulled away a bit of co-performer Janet Jackson's costume, exposing her breast (gasp) on live television to a national audience. Jackson's publicist stated that Timberlake had only intended to pull away her outer clothing, revealing a red bra underneath, but said that the lace undergarment inadvertently came away with the outer later, and vaulting the phrase 'wardrobe malfunction' into common parlance.
The incident, which became known, inevitably, as 'Nipplegate' drew criticism from viewers and scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission, which slapped broadcaster CBS with a fine of $550,000, which was later overturned by an appeals court when sanity finally prevailed.
