LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE! CBS SET TO AIR "ICE WARS"

     CBS held a news conference yesterday to promote "Ice Wars:
The USA vs. The World," a "manufactured" competition to be held
in November featuring U.S. Olympic skaters Nancy Kerrigan, Kristi
Yamaguchi, Brian Boitano and Paul Wylie.  Their international
opponents on the "icy battlefield" will include Oksana Baiul,
Viktor Petrenko, Katarina Witt and Kurt Browning.  The winning
team will receive $400,000 to be divided evenly among team
members.  But Kerrigan took issue said with the "Ice Wars"
billing, calling it "a little harsh."  Kerrigan:  "I'd like to
promote something other than war."  In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont
writes, "The event rings exceedingly heavy-handed. ... To pair
ice skating and war is, at best, a reach.  At worst, it's yet
another marketing spin that scorches beauty with an overkill
branding iron" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/18).