TV & VIDEO - Aug. 16, 1989

Actors hired by NBC’s advertising and promotion department appeared in a brief segment of a news special that the network had sent critics for review, NBC officials acknowledged Tuesday. But the actors’ segment--known as a “tease” that precedes the start of the program--never was aired as part of Maria Shriver’s “Fatal Addictions” special broadcast last Wednesday, NBC News spokeswoman Peggy Hubble said. NBC News President Michael Gartner and the show’s executive producer, Paul Greenberg, “said they didn’t think it was appropriate in the body (of the program),” Hubble said. The actors’ segment, prepared by NBC’s advertising and promotion department, was edited by Greenberg’s staff into the opening “tease” of what ostensibly were news scenes from the one-hour show. The segment showed “what were supposed to be two lovers in a dark hallway, and you see a guy snorting cocaine,” she said. In the broadcast version, the segment was replaced by another involving news footage taped for the program by NBC News staffers.