Sideshow

AND JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT: Janet Jackson, refreshing naturalist or unrepentant flasher?

Turns out her Super Bowl stunt was a hint about the photo on the cover of her next album.

The photo shows Jackson topless, from the left side, with her hands covering her chest and some of her torso in shadow. Her head is facing the camera, and she is smiling.

It can be seen on Amazon.com and other Internet sites that are taking advance orders for Damita Jo, scheduled to be released March 30.

A spokesman for her record label, Virgin . . . (pause for laughter) . . . , told New York's Daily News that Jackson "wanted a simple and youthful picture that she felt people would like."

And, the label says, the Super Bowl hasn't changed her mind.

AS FOR PEOPLE WHO STAY CLOTHED: At the fall fashion shows in New York this week, one item getting a lot of attention hasn't been seen on the runways. Being worn by models and other fashion-connected people, it's a pink T-shirt with the words: "I'm Afraid of Americans."

It's from an Australian company called Tight Knickers. And no, the sentiment hasn't been popular.

"Our retailers have been egged," company owner Jesse Margolis told the New York Times. "A congresswoman in Australia has written our sales reps letters trying to get them to discontinue the line."

HE SAYS HE WANTS TO BE THE NEXT DICK CLARK: In the end, the biggest American Idol winner may be Ryan Seacrest.

Reports out of Los Angeles are that the Idol host is headed for the morning drive-time spot at one of the city's biggest radio stations. Seacrest, 29, would succeed the DJ who hosted the show for 22 years, who also happens to be the man responsible for one of this country's few legal forms of torture: the song Disco Duck.

Rick Dees, 53, who launched his musical weapon of soul-sucking destruction in 1976, announced this week he would leave his show on KIIS-FM immediately because of a wrangle with corporate boss Clear Channel Communications.

If this pans out for Seacrest, a nationally obscure Los Angeles DJ when Idol debuted in 2002, it will be the second time in two months that he will replace a radio icon. Last month he was named the successor to Casey Kasem on American Top 40.

Also last month, Seacrest got his own TV show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest, a weekday syndicated rip-off of MTV's Total Request Live.

Anybody heard from Kelly Clarkson lately?

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