Last week, Entertainment Weekly’s “Entertainers of the Decade” issue was released. Johnny Depp made the cover, and he was at the top of the list of fifteen, which included entertainers like Tina Fey, Peter Jackson and Oprah. Notably, Justin Timberlake made the list, and EW gave him a nice little blurb online:

He began the decade as ”just” a member of the hugely successful boy band *NSYNC and ends it as one of the most versatile and beloved entertainers in the world . ”I take my work very seriously,” says the singer-actor, 28. ”I just don’t take myself seriously at all.”

Few A-listers would have had the comedy cojones to put their ”D— in a Box,” as Timberlake famously did while hosting Saturday Night Live — and surely none would have been as hilarious doing it. But his pop-star day job is no joke to him, as evidenced by his two solo albums, 2002’s Justified and 2006’s FutureSex/LoveSounds, the latter of which featured the groovesomely lubricious ”SexyBack.’

[From Entertainment Weekly]

In the print interview, however, JT is interviewed more extensively about his decade in the spotlight. He was asked if he had any regrets, and JT said his biggest regret of the decade is not showing more support for Janet Jackson during Nipplegate, the epic SuperBowl half-time crap. Here’s JT’s take:

Justin Timberlake has reportedly admitted that he could have been more supportive of Janet Jackson in the aftermath of her famed wardrobe malfunction. Timberlake was performing on stage with Jackson at the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show when he ripped open her jacket to reveal her naked breast.

The incident resulted in the exposure of Jackson’s nipple to an estimated 140m TV viewers of the CBS show.

Timberlake said at the time that he had no idea that Jackson was topless and distanced himself from the furor.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the 28-year-old said that he regrets the way that he handled the situation. “I wish I had supported Janet more. I am not sorry I apologised, but I wish I had been there more for Janet,” he said.

[From Showbiz Spy]

From what I remember of the incident and the aftermath (and I’ve tried to forget the whole damn incident, including the bellowing, mind-blowing hypocrisy of many, many people), JT pretty much threw Janet under the bus. And I think Janet remembers it that way too. Granted, people were always going to get more geared up over Janet – it was her nipple, and there were likely other, sketchier factors about gender, race, subjugation, and media hypocrisy at play. But it would have been nice for JT to defend Janet more at the time, rather than more than five years later.