NEW YORK — Gabriela Montero says she and the others in the inauguration quartet were not trying to fool anybody by having recorded music played in the biting cold of their performance.

Shaken by comparisons to lip-syncers Milli Vanilli, the pianist insists she and fellow musicians Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Anthony McGill "did the right thing."

The Venezuelan-American said yesterday by phone from Boston that "unfortunately, some people have chosen to focus on the wrong thing."

Just before Barack Obama was sworn in Jan. 20 with temperatures in the 20s, the quartet appeared to play "Air and Simple Gifts," composed for the occasion by John Williams. Montero said the quartet actually did play, but that their music was drowned out by the amplified recording.

"We decided that it would have been a disaster if we went out there with that cold, with the wind, and played our instruments out of tune," she said. "Can you imagine what kind of tone it would have set? ... It would absolutely have been a pathetic way to lead a president into his oath and the moment that this country was waiting for so eagerly."

HAGGARD'S WIFE KNEW OF 'BATTLE'

CHICAGO — Former evangelical pastor Ted Haggard's wife says she knew about his same-sex attraction for years and had felt he was "winning the battle" before a scandal involving a male prostitute brought his downfall in 2006.

In an appearance with her husband on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to air today, Gayle Haggard said she was shocked when he told her the truth about the allegations against him. "The first words out of my mouth were, 'Who are you?' " she said, according to a show publicity release yesterday. But Gayle also said he told her early in their 30-year marriage that he "struggled with some thoughts."

"I felt it was the thing that could destroy Ted if he gave in to it," she said. "So I prayed for him and I felt as though he was winning the battle."

SPRINGSTEEN SETS NEW WORLD TOUR

NEW YORK — Bruce Springsteen's Super Bowl performance will be a teaser for a world tour. The tour kicks off April 1 in San Jose, Calif., and hits Europe, including Spain and Sweden.

His new CD, "Working On a Dream," came out yesterday.

FINAL FRONTIER FOR RODDENBERRYS

LOS ANGELES — The "Star Trek" creator and his actress wife, also from the show, will spend eternity together in space. "Memorial spaceflight" provider Celestis Inc. said Monday it will fly the ashes of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry into space next year on a rocket-launched spacecraft. The Roddenberrys' cremated remains, sealed in capsules, along with digitized tributes from fans — and the spacecraft — will travel ever deeper into the cosmos and not return.

After Gene Roddenberry died in 1991, his wife had Celestis launch a part of his cremains into space in 1997. She died Dec. 18.