What she’s done lately

THE first time Janet Jackson ever celebrated a birthday was when she turned 23.

She was on the road touring and away from her family. “We grew up as Jehovah’s Witnesses and we didn’t celebrate any holidays, not Christmas, or Halloween or Easter — not even our birthdays,” she tells me over lunch in Beverly Hills.

“The first time I ever had a birthday party, it was a surprise and I was so embarrassed. I was 23 and I was on the Rhythm Nation tour and I had never experienced having a birthday or a birthday party. But I suppose you can’t miss what you don’t know.”