POP/ROCK - Nov. 6, 2001

Anticipating the Worst, Hoping for the Best

The 53rd annual prime-time Emmy Awards were postponed twice, then staged with elaborate security precautions in a much smaller venue. The CBS broadcast of the second annual Latin Grammy Awards was called off entirely. Organizers of Wednesday’s Country Music Assn. Awards have found a rather novel approach to ensure that their event--held at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House and hosted by Vince Gill--goes through.

During rehearsals, artists will be dressed for the show and their performances will be taped; that footage would be used if something prevents the show from airing live. Every nominee in every category will be announced as a winner, so footage is available for all eventualities. A live acceptance speech from the winner, broadcast from a TV studio, would be inserted into the taped show.

Though Sunday’s Emmys went off without a hitch, it pays to be prepared, explained Ed Benson, executive director of the Country Music Assn. And CBS doesn’t pay the association if the show doesn’t go on. Those revenues account for half the organization’s annual budget.

A Mite Too Vivid, Charlie Daniels Is Told

“We’re gonna hunt you down like a mad-dog hound and make you pay for the lives you stole.”

Nope, it’s not a line from a Sam Peckinpah movie but one from “This Ain’t No Rag, It’s a Flag,” a song by Charlie Daniels.

Debuting at No. 51 on the Billboard country music singles chart, the call for vengeance for lives lost on Sept. 11 is Daniels’ biggest hit in years. Still, it didn’t go over well with Country Music Television, which organized an Oct. 21 Nashville benefit concert for terrorist victims and prohibited the singer from performing the song.

Daniels denies encouraging violence toward law-abiding Islamic people. “We can no more blame [Sept. 11] on good Middle Eastern citizens than we can blame Hitler on people of German descent,” he said.

TV & RADIO

Streisand: Both a Show--and a No-Show

Gary Smith, producer of Sunday’s Emmy telecast on CBS, asked the notoriously stage-shy Barbra Streisand last week to close the show with a new arrangement of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Because he was a close friend who produced a number of her specials, the singer agreed. Besides, it was her “little way of doing something,” she said later.

But why didn’t the star go onstage to pick up her statuette for “Barbra Streisand: Timeless” when she was named winner of the Emmy for best individual performance in a variety or music program?

“Being part of a competition isn’t something she enjoys,” a Streisand spokesman told The Times on Monday. “When her last special walked off with a handful of Emmys, she prayed she wouldn’t win so she wouldn’t have to get up there.

“Besides, Barbra wasn’t there to receive an award but to sing this particular song at this moment in history. Accepting it on camera would be more about her--and take away the focus.”

Murdoch, Karmazin: Top of the ‘90s

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Viacom President Mel Karmazin were the two most significant players in TV and radio during the 1990s, according to Broadcasting & Cable Magazine.

The trade publication is celebrating its 70th anniversary by naming the most important people in the industries it covers for each of the decades it has been around. “The 1990s were the era of the mega-media company,” editor in chief Harry Jessell said. “Murdoch and Karmazin led the vertical and horizontal integration of the business.”

Winners of the top spot in each of the decades: 1930s, CBS founder William S. Paley and NBC founder David Sarnoff (“radio entertainment was king”); 1940s, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow (“his radio reports made broadcast news respectable”); 1950s, Lucille Ball and ABC Chief Executive Leonard Goldenson (“the rise of TV entertainment”); 1960s, CBS newsman Walter Cronkite (“communicated fairness through his on-air persona”); 1970s, current AOL Chief Executive Gerald Levin (“recognized the power of satellites to create new national networks”); 1980s, media magnate Ted Turner and Liberty Media Chairman John Malone (“Malone gathered the greatest number of [cable] subscribers and Turner gave them something worth paying for”).

THE ARTS

Anxiety Plagues November Art Sales

The multimillion-dollar November art sales didn’t get off to a promising start.

Envelopes sent to collectors by Christie’s auction house upset recipients because they contained a mysterious white powder--hard candy attached to a promotional announcement that had been crushed in the course of delivery, the New York Times reports.

The incident highlights how the terrorist attacks and a shaky economy have buyers and sellers on edge as major auctions get underway this week. During the Persian Gulf War, the art world froze--and bargain hunting reigned. European buyers, auctioneers fear, might be reluctant to fly. And Alfred Taubman, Sotheby’s former chairman, is going to court on Thursday on charges of fixing commission fees, further heightening anxiety

The auction houses have invested millions in guarantees to sellers--promising a certain sum no matter how the auction plays out.

QUICK TAKES

Tom Cruise will narrate the first Imax movie on space. Dealing with the construction of the International Space Station, it is set for a spring 2002 release.... The Polish Film Festival is celebrating Polish Independence Day with a gala at the Directors Guild of America theater tonight at which Stacy Keach will be honored. The festival runs Friday to Nov. 15 at the Laemmle theaters in Santa Monica.