STARCOM DISCONNECTS FROM AOL - Starcom, which some considered a strong favorite in America Online's media account pitch, has pulled out of the review citing a potential conflict with an even bigger media client, Walt Disney Co., the Riff has learned.

FUSE EXTINGHISHES ITS... THROWS SUPPORT (OR IS THAT GASOLINE) BEHIND MTV - Normally, competitors - especially up-and-coming ones - can't wait to kick their rivals when they're down, but Fuse, the spunky music video channel owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, is throwing support behind MTV during a time of need. Or is it? Read for yourself an "open letter" Fuse has published following the "wardrobe malfunction" that occurred during MTV's production of the Super Bowl halftime show.

BOOB TUBE -- The Riff is as avid a lookout for tipping points as the next gal (or guy, for that matter), but we don't necessarily subscribe to the theory that Janet Jackson's breast will necessarily be the thing that finally gives the American public reason to run out and get a TiVo. But it sure is giving digital video recorders a lot of attention.

OF TOPS, SPEED AND SOME SUPER MOMENTS - What is it about live mass television audiences that causes white boys to do nasty things to black women? Overactive libidos aside, the Riff thinks it's about another kind of desire - the public relations kind. If you are to believe the statements of Viacom networks CBS and MTV that Justin Timberlake's partial disrobing of Janet Jackson during last night's Super Bowl halftime show was "unrehearsed, unplanned, completely unintentional" was written by spin controllers, you clearly did not observe their on-stage reactions in super-slow motion - over and over and over again …

A NEW NEW M&A MODEL, EH -- It used to be that Madison Avenue just had to worry about the French and the Brits gobbling up plumb U.S. advertising assets, but now the action is heating up north of the border, thanks to an innovative M&A strategy developed by Toronto-based marketing services conglomerate MDC Partners.

DRUMROLE PLEASE - After months of study and an untold sum in consulting fees, Carat today unveiled a new corporate identity. It is: "Carat.

WHO ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE TO KNOW IF YOU'RE A MEDIA PLANNER OR BUYER? - That's what the Riff's colleagues at MEDIA Magazine want to know and they've asked us to ask you if you could take a few minutes to tell them.

STORMY WEATHER THREATENS AGENCY RELATIONS -- The Riff always knew the relationships between marketers and their ad agencies were growing stormy, but now the Association of National Advertisers has canceled its annual Agency Relations Forum due to stormy conditions - the weather kind. The ANA has just alerted the Riff that, due to severe winter storm warnings in the New York metropolitan area, it is postponing the forum, which was scheduled for Wednesday in New York City.

VICE PRESIDENTS - Leave it to the libido-minded editors of Playboy.com to finally answer what's been on all our minds so far this campaign season: How do voters think each of the Presidential aspirants would measure up on the "oval bed.

CAUCUSED OUT - If Monday night's coverage of the Iowa Caucus was a look at what the networks plan for the rest of Election 2004, then they might want to rethink their plans. The pack mentality and spin cycle penetrated the caucus and made it from a laboratory of democracy into, well, a sideshow.