Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 13

l)f Hartford cmnmt CONNECTTCUT LIVING SECTION WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 1993 Child-abuse accusations as good as guilt Country goes big time in I prime time 1 By JOCELYN McCLURG Courant Book Editor raditional values. Political correctness. Book banning. Censorship. The words and images associated with attempts to influence what people read or, more often, don't read are always inflammatory, sometimes literally.

Think of Nazis throwing books on raging infernos, or the "firemen" of Ray Bradbury's classic novel "Fahrenheit 451" By ROGER CATUN CourantRock Critic ow big is country music? CSi Barbara T. flTr Roessner I Big enough so "The 27th Annual Country Music Asso ciation Awards tonight will for expand to a Grammy-sized three hours for the first time. For an awards ceremony that wasn't thought to have national appeal when it began in 1958, it's as big as all prime time, with more than 40 country stars scheduled to appear in a show hosted Iby the dueling grins of Clint Black (the with the hat) and Vince Gill (the one without). For anyone who hasn't been keeping up with country in the past few boom years, it will look like quite a different world. No craggy old crooners of whis-key-drinkin' songs.

Today's staple of stars are fresh-faced, fluffy-haired delivery systems of catchy songs that might have been mistaken as poprock rushing to extinguish independent thought by burning caches of forbidden books. During Banned Books Week, the Mark Twain Memorial enters the fray with a major symposium Friday and Saturday called "Bookbanning in America" that is attracting such heavy hitters as William Styron, Arthur Miller, Nat Hentoff George Plimpton and Kenneth Clark. The symposium, which will include other prominent speakers, panel discussions and lectures, is open to the public. In a country torn between conservative attempts to preserve "family values" and the censors i.A A not long ago. It ain't your father's country sic anymore.

In fact, stars once associated with the country boom of the 70s are being politely ushered out the door with hall of fame nominations. Once, CMA Hall "politically correct" movement that monitors speech offensive to minority groups, the topic of book banning has become more complex than ever. "You can't say that censorship comes only from the right or left," says Hentoff, author of "Free Speech for Me But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other." "Irs everybody practically who wants to exile thoughts and ideas and language they don't approve of." Banned Books Week, which is sponsored nationwide by the American Participant in the ympoaium on book banning will Include, clockwiM from top, William Styron, Arthur Miller, Robert Cormier and Nat Hentoff. Photo credits, clockwise from top: Peter Simon; Inge Morath, Magnum Photos; Beth Bergman and Martha Kaplan fry "y--T'Hw of Fame indue- Willi Nelson tions went to true pioneers of the country-western style, which grew out of hillbilly and other regional styles. Now, the average nominee for the hall of fame are performers who still tour most the year and continue to release new albums.

The difference is that "new country" radio formats usually ignore these old- timers in favor of the fresh young newcomers. Although this is fine for new country artists (rock 'n' rollers should have it so easy), it is truly unfair to giants such as George Jones and Merle Haggard, whose music is still vital and often imitated by these young upstarts. For all the talk of country's vaunted 1 new traditionalists, there are plenty of old traditionalists being prematurely ushered to the pasture. Last year, Jones took his Hall of Fame award with genuine gratitude, but answered it with typical sass with a new song titled, "I Don't Need Your Rockin Chair." Performing it that night, he was joined by virtually every newfangled country star present for the event eager to share the stage with him by singing And, in an odd twist, his single, which also featured Gill, Black, Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt, Joe Diffie, Alan Jackson, Pam Tillis, Mark Chesnutt, T. Graham Brown and Patty Loveless, is among the nominees for vocal event of the year.

Please see New, Page B3 Library Association, celebrates the freedom to read and the First According to the association, school WP9 A Last week, a Connecticut prosecutor wrote a new and frightening chapter in a book we'll call "McCarthyism in the '90s." After a 14-month investigation, Litchfield State's Attorney Frank Maco publicly declared Woody Allen a child molester. Then he declined to prosecute Allen out of concern for the "victim." Oh yes, he had probable cause for an arrest, Maco said. Oh yes, he had sufficient evidence to make a case. And yes, he personally believed the ferociously publicized allegations that Allen sexually molested his own adopted daughter. But no, Maco said, he just couldn't see putting the child through the trauma of a criminal proceeding.

In other words, Woody: You're guilty, but there's no need for the state to go through the hassle of proving it. You're guilty, but you won't get a single moment let alone your day in court. You're guilty, without a trial. From the beginning, Allen has hardly been a sympathetic character in the sordid tale of a troubled family publicly imploding. After all, he's the one who started the whole mess by having a secret affair with Mia Farrow's adopted daughter, then insisting, once he was discovered, that he'd done nothing more unusual than taking the dog for a walk.

Through the ensuing custody battle and media war, the guy showed a complete lack of self-awareness, made all the more damning by his legendary preoccupation with psychoanalysis. But self-deception is not a crime. And merely being accused of sexual abuse does not a criminal make. Except in America. Except now.

The other night, Michael Jackson sobbed on stage. Again, it's hard to have a whole Tot of sympathy for a 35-year-old man with the voice of a 3-year-old and a career built on crotch-grabbing. But the fact is Michael Jackson hasn't been formally charged with a thing. He hasn't been arrested. He hasn't even come close to his moment in court.

And yet his sponsors are panicking and his career spiral-ing down. Why? Because like the old McCarthy-ism, the new McCarthyism requires only the thinnest of accusations for an instantaneous conviction. The charge alone is so volatile, so politically explosive, so culturally loaded, that it is tantamount to having done the deed itself. Communism in the 1950s was certainly less a threat to this nation than child abuse in the 1990s. Sexual abuse does occur with terrifying frequency.

And too often, too little is done to rescue its victims. Sexually abused children are disabled for life by pain, anger and a sense of betrayal the rest of us can't begin to imagine. Through courage and hard work many overcome their disability, but others do not. I know a few of the permanently crippled adults so wounded by the past that they cannot marry, cannot nave children, simply cannot be intimate with another human being. If only we, as a society, were willing to do more which inevitably means spend more money to provide the services that can prevent or help redress such grievous wrongs.

But we cannot correct our failures, or quell our fears for our own children, by rushing to irrational judgments and trampling the basic rights of the accused. Wnen we do that we forfeit our own rights, too. And who's to say that you or I won't be next? Celebrities aren't the only ones vulnerable to such injustice. It happens to ordinary people in family courts across the country, usually in the midst of emotional divorce and child-custody disputes. Charges are made, and suddenly, without substantiation, parents' reputations are tarred and their involvement with their children curtailed, even severed.

Some may disagree that untried and unproven allegations of sexual abuse are so much and so imminent a danger. But I don't think anyone would argue that child abuse is a vile thing that must be stopped. And that brings me to the flip side of the injustice perpetrated against Woody Allen: If the prosecutor really does have a case against Allen, if he really does have evidence of abuse, isn't he duty-bound to do everything in his power to take Woody into court and nail hitV Please see Mark Twain, Page B6 Lauren on the college sales trail )) Fashion v. By DONNA LARCEN Courant Staff Writer A truck sale usually conjures the image of overstocked merchandise at deep discounts. But when the truck carries a new line of Ralph Lauren's clothing designed for college kids, the pnee is retail, not wholesale.

"Are they kidding? Jeans for University of Connecticut students wait In line to shop for Ralph Lauren clothes a Sheldon Tanner sets up the alea tent. Lauren's Double RL line Is on the road to college campuses. George-Edward Ruhe Special to I he Courant Union building in Storrs. "Those other sellers are out there," said Sam Hamilton, manager of the 18-wheel Peterbilt store on wheels that will also be open today. "We're trying to attract college kids to our line with this mobile store." Double RL (it's the brand used on the Colorado ranch that stands for Ralph and wife Ricky Lauren) is what Lauren is calling a vintage look.

"What I've done is put together what I love, what I've worn all my life," Lauren said in a recent New York magazine interview. "Old jackets, old plaids. Things I've accumulated over 30 years." He is true to his word. The $68 Please see Lauren's, Page B3 $68? I'm a college student. I can't afford this," said Christy Ur-banski, 2 1 a senior at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

Lauren, regarded in retail as a master marketer and fashion trendsetter, is bringing his mountain to Muhammad. His Double RL line is taking his act on the road, presenting casual clothing to college kids who like buying from his rivals: The Gap, J. Crew, L.L. Bean and off-price stores such as Bob's and T.J. Maxx.

Tuesday marked the start of a three-month road trip for the Double RL truck, which pulled onto the green behind the Student Wanted: one Barker's Beauty Fabio's power Bob Barker has been hunting for a new Barker's Beauty for "The Price Is Right" now that Dian Parkinson, who raised some eyebrows with her Playboy spread, has left the 21-year- Fabio, flowing-haired calendar boy and sculpted-bodied heartbreaker of romance novels, flexes his considerable muscles and, unfailingly, women swoon. "I do not old CBS game show. They're trying out candidates now. Being a Barker's Beauty is a job with the potential to last. "Janice Pennington has been on the show from the beginning," notes Barker, How does one qualify to be a Beauty? "Well, of course she has to be lovely, and have some talent," says Barker.

"And of course, she has to be able to make a refrigerator an exciting thing to behold." Dolly's debut Inside Almanac B4 Ann Landers B4 Crossword BS Games B3 Horoscope B4 Jumble BS Nielsen ratings B2 Showtime B2 Television B2 Word watch B6 What's going on today Milt Jackson Quartet Opens Quinniplac College's Guest Artists Jazz Series today at 8 p.m. at the college's Alumni Mall, Mount Carmel Avenue, Hamden. Tickets are $12 and go on sale one-had hour before show. Information: 281-8794. Seven Angels Theatre "Ain't Misbehavin'," musical, today at 2:30 and 8 p.m.

Tickets: Hamilton Pavilion Performing Arts Center, Plank Road, Waterbury (757-4676). i Bought anything from a kid lately? As schools and sports teams do more fund-raising, young children are more and more hawking products door to door. Does this put a strain on young children and their parents? If your child has had to sell something, or if you've been a customer, please let us know what you think. Call Courant Source at 246-1000 or (800) 246-8070. The four-digit Source number It 5437.

A touch-tone phone it required. think I am the sexiest man," he tells People magazine. "I always see behind the camera to the person who looks at my picture. I make sure my eyes look right into the person." And when his admirers get to meet their fantasy man in the awe-inspiring flesh, Fabio says: "I always try to put in a good word. If you are good to people, good will come back to you.

The universe is run by this law." Speaking of universal laws, it seems the 32-year-old Italian's appeal may have a metaphysical aspect, too. "Fabio has a very special magic," says Tina Jakes, 33, of Atlanta, the co-editor of a quarterly Fabio fanzine, The Gentle Conqueror. "Just about every wonan he loses weight." Dolly Parton has finally found the format in which she'll make her bow as a sitcom star. She'll play the host of a cooking show for a country-music network. If all conies together as planned, the show will make its debut next fall.

From t. and wire report.