Stunt stars get into the awards act

There’s your red carpet, your gleaming statuettes and your celebrities by the bucketful. But unlike most Hollywood awards shows, the World Stunt Awards offers things you don’t see every day.

In the show, which airs at 8 tonight on the USA Network, the industry’s extreme athletes will be honored in categories such as “best fight,” “best high work,” “best fire work” and “hardest hit.” While viewers will see these stunt pros doing what they do best -- drop from zip lines, fall from buildings, drive their motorcycles onstage -- they will also catch them outside their comfort zone: in the spotlight.

Now in its third year, the show was created by soft drink mogul and adventure enthusiast Dietrich Mateschitz, owner and CEO of Red Bull Energy Drink Co., to honor the usually anonymous, behind-the-scenes players. The “taurus” statuette represents the bullish strength, ability, versatility and determination that stunt performers need not only to excel but also to survive.

Along with the awards, which are determined by the stunt community, Mateschitz created the Taurus World Stunt Awards Foundation to provide financial help to players who have been injured or disabled and to the families of those who are killed. Last year’s recipient, Jacob Chambers, 24 (best fire stunt winner for “The Last Castle”), survived a serious motocross accident in 2001 and is back at work.

This year’s grant will be presented to the family of Harry O’Connor, who died last year doubling for actor Vin Diesel in a parasailing stunt while making “XXX” in Czechoslovakia. A veteran stuntman and ex-Navy Seal, O’Connor, 45, crashed into a bridge during a maneuver that director Rob Cohen has said he considered fairly straightforward.

Mateschitz funds the grants, said producer Mitch Geller. “He realized nobody’s there to protect these guys if they’re injured.... If a guy injures his back, there’s only so much insurance he can get.”