The silhouette of Prince is visible above fans as he performs during the half-time show of the NFL's Super Bowl XLI football game. - Reuters photos

NEW YORK (AP):

In the sensitive post-wardrobe malfunction world, some are questioning whether a guitar was just a guitar during Prince's Super Bowl half-time show.

Prince's acclaimed performance included a guitar solo during the Purple Rain segment of his medley in which his shadow was projected on to a large, flowing beige sheet. As the 48-year-old rock star let rip, the silhouette cast by his figure and his guitar (shaped like the singer's symbol) had phallic connotations for some.

A number of bloggers have decried "Malfunction!" including Sam Anderson at New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer. Daily News television critic David Bianculli called it "a rude-looking shadow show" that "looked embarrassingly rude, crude and unfortunately placed."

Very few complaints

CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said Tuesday that the network has received "very few" complaints on Prince's performance. CBS last aired the Super Bowl in 2004 when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's "wardrobe malfunction" sparked criticism and a subsequent crackdown on broadcast decency from the Federal Communications Commission.

But this time, it was the NFL that produced the half-time show (MTV had in 2004). Spokesman Greg Aiello said the league has received no complaints. "We respect other opinions, but it takes quite a leap of the imagination to make a controversy of his performance," Aiello said. "It's a guitar."

Prince performs during the half-time show of the NFL's Super Bowl XLI football game in Miami, Florida, on February 4.