Minor illnesses are being massively under-represented at the moment, so let's all thank Jesus right now that Janet Jackson is doing something about it.

You see, Janet Jackson was supposed to be performing on Saturday Night Live this week but she's dropped out because she's got the sniffles. Or, as she likes to call it, 'the flu'.

A fairly serious bout of flu nonetheless, because Janet Jackson wound up in hospital because of it, but on the bright side at least by pulling out of SNL Janet Jackson has stopped an audience of millions from catching whatever degenerative brain disease you get when you're forced to watch a fortysomething woman repeatedly try to convince you of how sexy she is to a backing of tinpot R&B fluff.

Disease is laying waste to our celebrities at the moment, whether it's newsreaders dying from strokes or 1980s film stars being diagnosed with terminal cancer or widdly-woo rockers catching mystery tour-cancelling illnesses. Whatever happened to celebrities getting a little tiny bit ill and making a great big fuss about it? Huh?

Relax, because Janet Jackson has heard our pleas and pulled out of a TV appearance because she's got a bit of a cold. MSNBC reports:

Janet Jackson has dropped out of her upcoming “Saturday Night Live” performance because she has the flu, the singer’s representative said Tuesday. Celebrity Web site TMZ.com reports that the singer even checked into the ER at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. “Janet did go to the hospital last night due to the fact she’s been suffering from this flu that’s kicked a lot of people’s behinds,” publicist Patti Webster told The Associated Press in an e-mail. “She was never admitted and she is fine.”

Really? Janet Jackson? The flu? Surely Janet Jackson's immune system is as strong as an ox by now, what with everything she's been through. She's exposed enough flesh to the elements and given birth to enough phantom daughters over the years that a bit of a snotty nose shouldn't be able to stop Janet Jackson from appearing on a TV show.

If we're guessing correctly, Janet Jackson would have been on SNL to perform her new single Feedback. And that wouldn't have taken much energy, since it's basically just Janet croaking about how sexy she thinks she is through Dr Stephen Hawking's voicebox to the sound of an old Britney Spears cast-off. Janet Jackson could do that in her sleep. It certainly sounds like she recorded it that way, anyway.

Or maybe, just maybe, Janet Jackson is exaggerating her illness because her new album isn't selling and she's decided that pretending to be ill is a better way to drum up publicity for it than by twonking about on Facebook like REM.

Now we know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Have a heart hecklerspray. Janet Jackson had the flu, and the flu can actually kill people." Which is true – the flu can kill you, but it usually only kills people who are really really impossibly old and… oh.

In that case, close call, Janet. Sorry for ever doubting you.

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Janet Jackson drops out of ‘SNL’ performance – MSNBC