Tattle: Swift action - and music falls on deaf ears

ANOTHER DAY, another good deed by

Taylor Swift

.

The cynics - and you know who you are - may say that the deed is tied to the Oct. 22 release of her next album, "Red," but it's not like Taylor needs the publicity.

So, even those who look to see the worst in celebs have to tip our fedoras.

Taylor is giving $10,000 and concert tickets to Boston's Horace Mann School for the Deaf after pranksters voted for the school in an online contest promising the winning school a Taylor Swift concert.

The pranksters, it seems, thought it would be funny for a school for the deaf to win.

Hardy har har.

You bozos ever hear of the great deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie?

Or . . . uh . . . Beethoven?

Taylor said that every student at the K-12 school will receive a ticket to her next concert in the Boston area. She and the contest sponsors also donated $50,000 to the school, and VH1's Save the Music program donated $10,000 in musical instruments.

"Any kind of specific instrument that can be purchased to bring music alive for these students will go a long way," Boston Public School spokesman Matt Wilder said.

Harvey Mudd College, in Claremont, Calif., won the on-campus concert and a $10,000 grant to its music department.

Sir Jimmy Savile

was the

Sally Starr/Captain Kangaroo

/ "Romper Room"/"Wonderama" of British television - an eccentric, aggressively jocular host of children's shows and a tireless charity fundraiser. When he died last year, at 84, he drew tributes from

Prince Charles

and thousands of fans.

It appears, however, that he was also a pervert.

Several women have come forward to claim that "Sir Jimmy" was also a sexual predator who abused underage girls.

The allegations have set off ripples of shock - but not of surprise. There had, colleagues said, long been rumors. The main question being asked now is: Why did no one do anything?

"Maybe it was just the fact that Jimmy knew everybody," Esther Rantzen, a former BBC journalist and founder of the ChildLine child-protection charity, told Channel 4 news. "We made him into the Jimmy Savile who was untouchable, who nobody could criticize."

Savile, who never married and lived alone, told filmmaker Louis Theroux (who'd made a documentary about Jimmy in 2000) that he'd never liked children. Part of his home in Leeds was a shrine to his late mother, whom he called The Duchess. After her death in 1973, he spent five days alone with her body.

Yeah, nothing odd there.

Child-protection advocates say that the case fits a pattern seen in the response to the child-molesting by Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and in the English town of Rochdale, where a gang of men groomed vulnerable young girls for sex. Authorities in both places have been criticized for failing to act on claims of abuse.

The allegations against Savile are made in a documentary, "Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile," to be shown Wednesday on Britain's ITV channel.

It's sure to make it to this side of the pond soon.

"The guy hasn't been dead for a year yet and they're bringing these stories out," said Savile's nephew Roger Foster. "It could affect his legacy, his charity work, everything. I'm very sad and disgusted."

Mark Williams-Thomas, who made the documentary, insisted that it was right "to tackle this highly sensitive subject and allow these women to have a voice - a voice that for many was not heard whilst they were children."

Reminds Tattle of the Alex Gibney documentary we saw at the Toronto International Film Festival, "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," coming to theaters in November.

*

Dave Grohl

says the

Foo Fighters

are officially taking a break.

Grohl sent an open letter Tuesday, calling the band "my life," but noting that "it's a good thing for all of us to go away for a while."

Grohl says that he's now focused on his forthcoming Sound City documentary and album.

* The indie-film hit "Beasts of the Southern Wild" will be ineligible for the Screen Actors Guild Awards because it was not made under provisions of the union's contracts, guild officials said Monday.

The producers have until Oct. 25 to bring the film into guild compliance to become eligible for the awards, though that likely would mean paying the actors more.

A spokesman for Fox Searchlight, which released the film domestically, said the company would not try to make "Beasts" SAG-compliant.

The low-budget "Beasts" has so far taken in more than $11 million at the U.S box office, so it's been quite profitable.

* Animal Defenders Internation-

al will present former "Price is Right" host Bob Barker with the Lord Houghton Award on Oct. 13 at a West Hollywood ceremony.

Barker has spent millions of dollars helping elephants, bears, chimps and other animals.

ADI president Jan Creamer says that Barker was chosen not only for a lifetime of service and generosity, but for repeatedly taking the animal message to Congress.

The award brings Barker international recognition, but he says that it means so much to him because of the respect he has for ADI, calling the group one of the finest animal-protection organizations in Europe.

* According to a variety of down-

home Internet sources, Honey

Boo Boo and her family will

receive a raise for the second season of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo."

Their pay will go from $5,000-$7,000 per episode, to $15,000-$20,000 per episode.

TLC got suckered. They could have gotten them for a case of pork rinds.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.