janet jackson: reduced but not restrained

Janet Jackson, Reduced but Not Restrained

LOS ANGELES — Janet Jackson is anything but the sadomasochistic, no-pain-no-gain type of exerciser she may appear to be. In fact, she admits, “I hate working out, hate it.” Ms. Jackson was talking at a downtown dance studio here, as she and her backup dancers were being led through a series of grueling drills by her longtime trainer. While she made it through the half-hour workout without breaking a sweat, the singer has no doubt been killing herself of late.

She says she has lost nearly 60 pounds in six months. In a culture obsessed with the shrinking and expanding waistlines of celebrities, Ms. Jackson’s astonishing weight loss, in some circles, has become a frequent topic of conversation. Though it’s hard to tell from her recent interviews, she said she would rather discuss her new album, “20 Y.O.,” than her chiseled abs.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I want it to be successful,” she said of the album, which hits stores today. “I really want people to enjoy it. I want it to bring smiles to people’s faces.”

Ms. Jackson didn’t exactly bring smiles to people’s faces during her halftime performance with the pop singer Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Super Bowl. Before millions of viewers, Mr. Timberlake tore off part of her corset, exposing her breast, which just happened to be adorned with a silver nipple ring. The ensuing scandal not only introduced the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” into the public lexicon, but her supporters say it also crippled sales of her last album, “Damita Jo,” one of the poorest-selling of her career.

Jermaine Dupri, Ms. Jackson’s boyfriend of four years, who became the president of urban music at her label, Virgin, last year, said it was a very tough time in her life. He criticized his predecessors at Virgin, saying: “They didn’t push the project. Nobody handled their business.”

Even people in her own camp, he added, abandoned her. “The managers fled once the Super Bowl thing happened,” he said. “They were all nervous and couldn’t take it and got out. But that’s good because it was God’s way of letting her see who was real and who she needed to have around her.”

He also said that Virgin mistakenly tried to make a woman who ruled the charts for much of the late 80’s and 90’s too pop. “She’s a black artist, and for the past three years I feel like they alienated the urban community,” he said. “That’s why I think her sales have been down.’’

Jason Flom, who took over as the chairman and chief executive of Virgin in October 2005 as part of a major executive shake-up, said he could not comment on the label’s handling of Ms. Jackson’s previous album because he was not running the label at the time. He also declined to comment on whether her deal with Virgin, which ends with the release of the new album, would be renewed. He did, however, offer that “she’s one of the few legitimate superstars in the industry, and we’re happy to have her.”

Now Ms. Jackson is hoping to return to her glory years. As Mr. Dupri noted, she has not had a Top 10 hit in the last five years. One listen to “20 Y.O.,” and it quickly becomes clear that the Super Bowl fiasco has not toned down Ms. Jackson’s sex-kitten musical persona. Singing in her signature breathy, come-hither voice, she’s as nasty as ever on songs like “This Body” and “Do It 2 Me.” She volunteered that “Do It 2 Me” was about a no-strings-attached sexual encounter. In a review of the new album, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote: “Janet is as crafty and poised as ever. Her flirtations are still a pleasure, but an overly familiar one.”

And she’s no more inclined to keep her clothes on. In the video for her second single, “So Excited,” her blouse continuously disappears and reappears.

Her hard-earned curves have also been on full display in various glossy magazines in recent months. She appears all too eager (and some might argue desperate) to prove that at the ripe old age of 40, she has still got it, both musically and physically. Today’s pop charts feature young women who were in preschool when Ms. Jackson was cooing about the pleasure principle. Nevertheless, she says she’s not worried about the competition.

“I don’t feel I have to compete,” she said in a feather-soft voice eerily reminiscent of a dreamy 6-year-old. “I’ve done this for more than 20 years. I’ve already been where they are.”

That afternoon Ms. Jackson was dressed in wide-legged black sweatpants, sneakers and a tomato red hoodie, with her hair pulled into a ponytail. She wore little makeup — eyeliner, mascara, lip balm —and had no discernible wrinkles. She could have passed for 25.

As she raced through a series of complicated dance routines, she seldom missed a step. Watching the petite singer (she’s 5-foot-4, 120 pounds) move effortlessly across the room, it became increasingly difficult to believe that a scant few months ago she found tying her shoelaces difficult because she was too large. Her stomach and breasts used to get in the way, she recalled.

“I always had to move them to the side,” she said, sighing heavily. She said she stopped wearing a watch and several rings because they were uncomfortable, and walking was difficult. “My joints would kill me,” she said.

Ms. Jackson, who moonlights as an actress, said she packed on the pounds for a role as an aspiring country singer in “Tennessee,” a movie produced by Lee Daniels, the man behind “Monster’s Ball.” Gaining weight, she said, was not hard.

“Every time I wanted a piece of cake, I had it,” she said. “Every time I wanted pasta, I had it.” Likewise, French fries and ice cream. And anytime she wanted a drink, she added, “I had it.”

When filming of “Tennessee” was pushed back indefinitely, she began a regimen of exercise and healthy diet to lose the weight. “People think it’s impossible to lose this much weight, but it’s not,” she said. “Everyone can do it; you just have to be really disciplined and want it.” She’s now working on a weight loss book and DVD.

Even as the numbers on her scale rose, she said, Mr. Dupri’s commitment to her was unwavering. “We’d be sleeping, and he’d grab all the extra meat on my stomach and say, ‘You’ve got to love it all, baby; it needs love, too.’ ”

She giggled, and her large doe eyes grew warm. “I’m just so thankful God brought us together,” she said. “He’s a true angel.” She talked about loving his smile, his little hands, even his toenails. “I know that sounds crazy, I know, but I love everything about him,“ she said. “Everything.”

Her willingness to gush at length about her relationship with Mr. Dupri is surprising, given that Ms. Jackson kept her nearly decade-long marriage to Rene Elizondo Jr. a secret until the couple announced they were divorcing in 2000. But she’s a changed woman, one who is ready to bare more than just her body, she said.

Whether Ms. Jackson will walk down the aisle for a third time (in the mid-80’s, she was married briefly to the R&B singer James DeBarge) is up to Mr. Dupri, she said. Ditto on the children front. “If it’s something he wants to do, I’m down,” she said. “If it’s something he never wants to even get close to, I’m down.”

Even after 20 years in the music business, Ms. Jackson said, she is still passionate about performing and intends to continue touring for decades to come. “Tina Turner does it, and look at the Rolling Stones — what are they, 95?” she said. “As long as it’s still fun for me I’ll do it — unless, God forbid, I break a hip.”