The San Diego Union-Tribune September 6, 1990, Thursday Joe Stein; TV/RADIO CRITIC material during MTV's "Video Music Awards" telecast that he was yanked from the air and banned from the cable network for life. Now, here it is, time for another MTV awards show, billed as "a world party," and the most-controversial performer on the show has a strange but direct link to Clay. Sinead O'Connor, you might recall, caused a stir several months ago when she boycotted her scheduled appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" because Clay was the host and she found his anti-woman, gay-bashing approach to comedy offensive. Now it's O'Connor who finds herself in the position of being considered offensive. No, it has nothing to with using foul-mouthed humor or performing rap songs with naughty lyrics. O'Connor's none too popular in some circles because she refuses to allow "The Star-Spangled Banner" played before her concerts in this country. She's so militantly opposed that she has threatened not to perform if the national anthem is played. She insists that her stance is not meant as an insult to Americans, but that any national anthem in any nation is inappropriate before her concerts. However, in view of rising nationalism here in the face of the Middle East crisis and because there have been hints of O'Connor sympathies to the outlawed Irish Republican Army, anti-O'Connor feelings abound. O'Connor's hit "Nothing Compares to U," by the way, has been nominated for four MTV Music Awards and will be performed on tonight's program. TONIGHT'S PROGRAM, which will be aired on MTV at both 6 and 9, is promising to turn the spotlight on some of "television's hottest families." too. Michael Ontkean and Sherilyn Fenn aren't related on "Twin Peaks," but the ABC show's certainly hot, so they fit the mold loosely as celebrity presenters. Keenen Ivory Wayans and brother Damon Wayans of Fox's "In Living Color" are a perfect fit, and members of the cast of "Married...With Children" do, as well. But David Cassidy and Susan Dey of "The Partridge Family"? That show has been off the air since 1974, so you hardly could call the Cassidy-Dey team "hot," although it will be nice to see their reunion. Arsenio Hall will host the show from the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. beamed to more than 100 nations via MTV Europe, MTV Australia and MTV Japan and shown to American servicemen stationed around the world. AMONG THE OTHER celebrities appearing on the MTV show will be Madonna, Janet Jackson, Phil Collins, Aerosmith, M.C. Hammer, Motley Crue and a reunion of New Edition. Madonna still is suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous reviews for her work in the recent "Blond Ambition" concert on Home Box Office. Her performance garnered terrific ratings, but also inspired heavy-duty criticism for vulgarity and detached manner. One writer, Robert Bianco of the Pittsburgh Press, viewed her performance this way: "If you like, you can find a metaphor for our times in the soullessness of the performance. Like an Engine' would be a better title for the next Madonna hit -- one gets the feeling the mechanized, computerized performance would have hummed along without change, whether the audience was 50 or 50,000." Phil Collins, by the way, will be front and center in his own TV special on Saturday. It's called "Seriously, Phil Collins..." and will be telecast from 8 to 9 p.m. on KFMB (Ch. 8). Billed as a music-variety-comedy special, the lineup of guests includes Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Barbara Mandrell, Henry Mancini, Vanessa Williams and even a professional wrestler -- the Ultimate Warrior. ON THE SUBJECT of music and CBS, the network is making plans to televise "The 24th Annual Country Music Association Awards" from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Oct. 8. It will be shown live from 9 to 11 p.m. in some parts of the nation and tape-delayed in that same time period for West Coast audiences.