Roll of the Dice

MTV may have “banned” Andrew Dice Clay for life--for sprinkling his live MTV Video Music Awards performance last September with a string of obscenities--but the video channel is willing to run paid advertising for “Adventures of Ford Fairlane,” the Dice-starring vehicle due out July 13 from 20th Century Fox.

Contradictory?

“We aren’t doing anything with ‘Fairlane’ that features Andrew Dice Clay in our programming,” says an MTV spokeswoman, insisting that the ban is still in effect. “And we won’t be running any contests or promotions involving the film.” She adds that MTV has been airing a video of Billy Idol’s “Fairlane” sound-track hit “Cradle of Love,” but “we made it clear to Fox that in order for us to play the clip it could not have footage of Clay in it.”

Why is MTV willing to run “Fairlane” trailers that prominently feature Clay?

“We had internal discussions over ‘Fairlane’ advertising,” says the MTV spokeswoman. “But we value our relationship with Fox and decided to keep our decisions about advertising separate from decisions about programming.”

Fox marketing president Bob Harper calls the two-edged policy “stubborn and hypocritical.”

“If Dice is banned,” asks Harper, “then why make an exception if we’re willing to buy airtime to promote him? We will advertise the movie, but we give less credence to the importance of MTV advertising these days. We just don’t think they deliver the audience or set the trends like they used to.”