Third Time’s a Charm?

Men in spacesuits are prowling our newsrooms, “Sesame Street’s” Bert has appeared on protest signs alongside the world’s most wanted terrorist and in spite of it all, the Emmys will go on, with the White House’s blessing.

“We’ve gotten the full support of the White House to proceed with this thing,” said CBS president Leslie Moonves. Granted, tickets to the Nov. 4 show will be tougher to land than a seat on the space shuttle. Originally planned for the 6,000-plus seat Shrine Auditorium near downtown Los Angeles, a scaled-back show is set to take place in Century City at the Shubert Theatre, which holds 2,150. (This could be one of the last big curtain calls for the Shubert; it’s set to be razed--along with the rest of the ABC Entertainment Center--late next year.)

Tuesday’s announcement marked the third time that CBS execs have scheduled it. “The tone is going to be very dignified,” Moonves assured us. That means business attire is still the dress code and we doubt host Ellen DeGeneres will be cracking any jokes about Anne Heche.

Celebrity publicist Pat Kingsley is looking forward to the show as an antidote to the constant stream of bad news. “It will be good for my morale,” she said. “We’re in the entertainment business. We’re not scientists. We’re not doctors.”

Meanwhile, stylist Phillip Bloch said the fashion world is starving for a taste of glamour. “Every less picture of Osama bin Laden and every more picture we have of some pretty starlet the better,” he said. “It’s a great distraction.” Besides, Bloch added, “I’ve done enough dresses for five awards shows, just for this show. Where’s my Emmy?”

Put a spell on you

You might think Bill Flanagan’s life is charmed. He works as a senior vice president at VH1, hobnobbing with Mick Jagger and Elvis Costello. He lives with his family in an apartment near SoHo in New York. He has time to write fiction for which he has received favorable reviews.

Alas, he is not charmed. He is cursed.

As Flanagan tells it, his friend Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, put a spell on him after Flanagan modeled a character on Blackwell in “A&R;,” his recent novel about the music industry. Flanagan joked that he lost his voice for a week after Blackwell served him a “head-shrinking drink” at a recent New York party. Flanagan took a sip, and “something shot through my arteries.” Shortly thereafter, the voice was gone. We’d sure like to get our hands on that recipe.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Flanagan was busy preparing for Saturday’s Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden, featuring Paul McCartney, The Who, Jagger, David Bowie, U2, Melissa Etheridge, Billy Joel, Elton John, Eric Clapton and others.

Fortunately, the “spell” was not permanent. Flanagan’s laryngitis disappeared in time for him to tell McCartney and The Who that they would have to keep their sets tight. (To fit as many artists as possible into the four-hour show, artists were not allowed more than three songs each.)

The concert will be broadcast at 7 p.m. Saturday on VH1, and will also feature short films about New York by Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and others. Proceeds from the sale of tickets, which range from $250 to $10,000 each, will benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund to help victims of Sept. 11. Organizers have also invited 5,000 members of the New York fire, police, and rescue crews to attend the concert.

Despite the good cause, Flanagan said he was being pestered for free tickets. “You don’t want to get in a situation where you’re giving four tickets for them and their entourage,” said Flanagan. “In this case, it’s completely inappropriate.”

Space cadets

One went into space, the other wrote about it, and both will be honored by the Space Frontier Foundation.

On Saturday, Dennis Tito, the billionaire financier who paid his way from Pacific Palisades to the International Space Station and back, will be honored by the Space Frontier Foundation Saturday during a banquet at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel.

He will receive the Vision to Reality award because “he helped prove a new market for citizen space travel.”

On Nov. 15, the foundation will throw a fete at the Playboy Mansion to honor Sir Arthur Clarke for “being an eminent author and scientist.”

The gala will be emceed by Larry King, and co-chaired by a motley crew of celebrities, including, among others, Tom Hanks, Hugh Hefner, Alvin Toffler and Buzz Aldrin.

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City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. E-mail angles@latimes.com.