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Even without appearing at the Grammys Sunday night, Janet Jackson's presence will be inescapable.

The singer was supposed to have presented a special award for Luther Vandross, but pulled out amid the furor following her Super Bowl performance.

Also avoiding the show will be Jackson's good friend, rapper and music producer Jermaine Dupri, who announced Friday he was resigning as president of the Recording Academy's Atlanta chapter.

"I didn't want to be a part of something that's not treating people in the right light," Dupri said. "I feel like what's going on with Janet is unfair."

Jackson's halftime partner, Justin Timberlake — who tore off the piece of clothing that exposed her right breast — will be there, however. He's up for five Grammys, including album of the year, and is scheduled to perform.

But many expect that Jackson's absence will be felt more than her presence would have been, and that her stunt will overshadow the awards themselves. (Fellow R&B acts Beyonce Knowles and Pharrell Williams, and rap stars Jay-Z and OutKast, lead the nominations with six each.)

"All night it will remind Grammy viewers, who are an antiestablishment lot, that this is not really their party," said Tom O'Neil, author of The Grammys who runs the awards handicapping website Goldderby.com.

"When the Grammys are at their hippest and best, they reward artists for daring to be social rebels. Now it's outrageous for the Grammys to punish Janet Jackson for performing that same role on someone else's stage. ... This just proves that the Grammys are really still the Grannies."

Spokesmen for the awards ceremony and for the Recording Academy didn't return phone calls seeking comment Friday.

Blender magazine Editor Craig Marks pointed out that the Grammy ceremony is a conservative affair under normal circumstances. Now, CBS is instituting a five-minute delay to allow enough time to edit out any potentially offensive moments during the show at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"I would imagine that this would be the most staid, surprise-free, least-lewd Grammys of all time," Marks said Friday from Los Angeles. "The Grammy producers, the network, the labels, the managers and the artists, too, probably realize that some kind of extra crotch grab or cuss word would not be beneficial to their careers."

And what can we expect from Timberlake?

"I think he would be smart to ignore it," Marks said. "I don't think he would be smart to apologize. He already did it, it's enough."

JC Chasez, Timberlake's 'N Sync bandmate, said the uproar over the Super Bowl exhibition will have repercussions long after the Grammys.

"Now it turns into a censorship issue," said Chasez, who refused to sing the national anthem at Sunday's Pro Bowl after the National Football League yanked him from the halftime show because of his lyrics. "You're terrified that if I do this song, are they going to play it on the radio? I think music and entertainment are in a great place right now. One bad apple is spoiling the bunch."

Meanwhile, other performers continue to steadfastly support Jackson.

"I'm a big fan of Janet's," rapper-producer Missy Elliott told a news conference Thursday in Los Angeles, where she was promoting a joint tour with Knowles and Alicia Keys. "I'm not here to judge her performance or what she's done. I think she's an incredible talent. I stand behind her always."

But Foo Fighters lead singer Dave Grohl said Jackson's breast-baring stunt was nothing more than self-promotion and "blatant exhibitionism."

The former Nirvana drummer believes the music industry has been harmed by the recent skin-revealing exploits of Jackson, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

"Get them on the Playboy Channel," Grohl said Thursday at a pre-Grammy rehearsal party. "Keep them out of my MTV. I want to see bands and music."

Los Angeles — Justin Timberlake said Wednesday that his own family was offended by his racy Super Bowl halftime duet with Janet Jackson, but he insisted he thought only her bustier would be revealed when he pulled on her costume, not her breast.

Uproar over what Timberlake described as a "wardrobe malfunction" is showing no sign of letting up. A publicist for Jackson said she's probably pulling out of a scheduled appearance at Sunday's Grammy Awards, which will be broadcast on a delay system to avoid any similar incidents.

Timberlake, in an interview with KCBS-TV outside the Staples Center, where he was rehearsing for the Grammys, said he understood "how unfortunate this is."

"I do understand that there were a lot of people that were completely offended by what happened, including my own family. And I think that's probably the part that's frustrating the most for me and it's completely, completely, completely, regrettable," he told KCBS.

He also said he was frustrated that his character was being questioned.

Timberlake said that before the show he got a call from Jackson and her choreographer saying they wanted to do a "costume reveal."

"Now I was under the impression that what was going to be revealed ... was a red brassiere, bustier," he said.

He said he did not have time to rehearse the move before taking the stage, and was shocked at the outcome. Jackson's right breast, clad only in a sun-shaped "nipple shield," was exposed for a second to some 89 million viewers.

"I mean, I was completely shocked and appalled, and all I could say was "Oh my God, Oh my God," Timberlake said.

Jackson's spokeswoman said a red lace garment was supposed to remain, and Jackson issued apologies Monday and Tuesday.

Jackson was supposed to present an award during the Grammys telecast, but she may back out, her publicist, Steven Huvane, told CNN.

"We don't think she's going to go," he said.

A call to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which oversees the Grammys, was not immediately returned Wednesday.

CBS promises to institute a video delay system to avoid any similar incidents at the Grammys. The network faces a Federal Communications Commission investigation into whether the Super Bowl show violated decency laws.

ABC also said it will implement an audio and video delay for its domestic broadcast of the Academy Awards on Feb. 29.

The NFL, meanwhile, responded to outrage over the Super Bowl show by replacing one of Timberlake's 'N Sync bandmates, JC Chasez, in the Pro Bowl halftime show Sunday in Honolulu.