Kanyi Okeke
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A memo has leaked in which CBS brass urge music industry luminaries to keep Sunday’s Grammy telecast squeaky clean.
“Please be sure that búttocks and female bréasts are adequately covered,” reads the memo, distributed to awards show attendees and their representatives.
“Thong type costumes are problematic,” Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the búttocks and búttock crack. Bare sides or under curvature of the bréasts is also problematic. Please avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female bréast nipplés. Please be sure the génital region is adequately covered so that there is no visible `puffy’ baré skin ésxposure.”
The memo was distributed by a low-level staffer in the network’s standards and practices department, tasked with keeping the airwaves free of obscenities and nudity, a source told the Daily News. “Its content was the result of a conference call” earlier this week among CBS executives, the source said.
“It was never intended to be written down or emailed anywhere,” the source said. “It wasn’t approved by anybody.”
The music industry was amused by the network’s efforts.
“Right, they’re telling rock stars how to dress?” a music industry exec sneered in response to the memo. “Good luck with that.”
Other topics covered in the memo included a plea to avoid commercial identification “of actual brand name products on T-shirts,” instructions that “foreign language on wardrobe will need to be cleared” and a call to ban artists and other Grammy audience members from wearing “lapel pins or any other form of accessory” that represent an “organized cause.”
In capital letters, the memo states: “OBSCENITY OR PARTIALLY SEEN OBSCENITY ON WARDROBE IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR BROADCAST.”
Conference calls about keeping a live telecast clean are commonplace at broadcast networks.
They are especially prevalent at CBS, which has run afoul of the FCC’s indecency rules before – most notably during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show when pop-star Janet Jackson suffered a “wardrobe malfunction” that exposed her bréast.
