Janet Jackson isn’t ready to let down her walls

Miki Turner Entertainment writer

LOS ANGELES - A hush fell over one of the banquet rooms at the Four Seasons recently when Janet Jackson strolled in.

Dressed in wide-legged black trousers with a form-fitting black-and-white shirt/sweater combo, Jackson had that sort of deer-in-the-headlights look in her eyes as about 30 reporters fired questions at her.

The rest of the cast of Tyler Perry’s new film “Why Did I Get Married?” were with her, but that didn’t seem to ease her nerves. Jackson answered the questions directed to her, but her largely unexpressive responses were rarely longer than a few soft-spoken sentences.

Jackson, 41, however, was much more revealing about an hour later during an exclusive interview in her hotel suite. She candidly responded to questions about her career, her dreams, walls, drama, love, marriage, divorce and the status of the Jackson Family Reunion tour.

That may or may not be coming to an arena near you.

“I don’t know, there’s been talk and I honestly don’t know and I’m one of them! I really would love to see it happen,” she said wistfully. “I’m such a fan of my brothers and to see them all on stage together, I would die for that, die for that.”

She was also dying to get back into acting after a six-year hiatus. Jackson plays a therapist in Perry’s latest film about eight married college friends trying to rise above all the drama they experience during a holiday in the Colorado mountains. Although Jackson is clearly the star with the most name recognition in this film, Perry said she checked her inner-diva at the door.

“Janet was very, very adamant going in that she wanted an ensemble piece,” said Perry, who has been trying to work with Jackson for years. “She said, ‘It’s perfect for me’ and she was very fair that way. I think the biggest hurdle was getting over Janet Jackson as you’re watching the movie. But if you watch it for longer than 15 minutes, you realize that Janet is not Janet. She’s Patricia. She’s the character and she totally surrendered to it.”

Off screen she just one of the girls.

“She’s so down to earth and genuine,” said Tasha Smith who plays one of Patricia’s girlfriends from college in the film. “When we weren’t working she’d kick it with us and we were just girls having fun. And while we were working I forgot it was Janet Jackson. I was like where’s ‘Rhythm Nation?’ Where’s ‘Pleasure Principle?’”

In no hurry to get married again
There’s no doubt that Jackson’s on-screen marriage to Malik Yoba was far more pleasurable than her real-life unions with James DeBarge and Rene Elizondo were.  Jackson married DeBarge, who reportedly had issues with substance abuse, when she was 18. That bliss lasted just over a year. She wed Elizondo during a secret ceremony in 1991, they parted in 1999, and were divorced in 2001.

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But now that she’s apparently found her true soul mate in hip-hop mogul Jermaine Dupri, Jackson is in no hurry to rush back into holy wedlock.

“I don’t know if I actually would sign the piece of paper and actually get married,” Jackson said. “I think for myself, going through it twice and being divorced twice, it would be more of a spiritual commitment — finding your soul mate and exchanging vows.”

It helps that Dupri is as successful as his mate, and that they can bond on the thing they love the most — music. They are currently partnering on Jackson’s 10^th studio album, which will also include tracks produced by Ne-Yo and Rodney Jerkins. Noticeably absent so far are Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, the Grammy-winning hit makers who worked with Jackson on a string of successful collaborations including: “Control,” “Rhythm Nation,” “janet” and “The Velvet Rope.” Jackson told reporters that she was unsure at this point if Lewis and Jam would be involved at all.

Perhaps Jackson senses that she needs to try something new. Musically, the five-time Grammy winner, who scored 10 No. 1 hits during the previous two decades and is the third top-selling female artist of all time behind Madonna and Barbra Streisand, has been struggling to find her footing again after a series of largely panned efforts — particularly “Damita Jo,” which was released after Jackson’s controversial “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl.

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