It didn't exactly happen at the last minute - Wicked contract star Jenna Jameson's bumping from this year's Grammy Awards telecast was a done deal as of last Friday, with a former Playboy playmate allowed to appear in a production number with rap-rocker Kid Rock.
Jameson was supposed to have been part of a routine involving driving a three-wheel motorcycle which Kid Rock planned to use at the end of his performance - but he wound up being driven off by a former Playmate whom Playboy confirms was Neriah Davis, Miss March 1994.
Exactly who bumped Jenna isn't clear, but whomever it was did not see fit to ban two Vivid Video contract stars, Raylene and Kobe Tai, who were seen in the same Kid Rock spot dancing in go-go cages above the bandstand. Vivid spokesman Brian Gross tells AVN the two "were treated really well, by the band, and by everyone at the Grammys."
In fact, Gross says, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences president Michael Greene "walked by, and smiled, and said hi to Kobe. He didn't know who she was. He asked her, 'What do you have in that suitcase?' and she said, 'Wouldn't you like to know?' He smiled and said hello to all of us."
Gross also says Carlos Santana - whose eight Grammys tied Michael Jackson's 1983 record - also introduced himself to Tai at a rehearsal early this week.
Representatives of both NARAS and Atlantic Records, Kid Rock's label, had not returned calls from AVN as this story went to press. Jameson, meanwhile, flew to a dance appearance in North Carolina, according to Wicked vice president for public relations Joy King.
