SECOND THOUGHTS ON EUROPEAN DATES : PERFORMERS PONDER TERRORISM RISK

Concern about terrorist reprisals for the U.S. bombing of Libya still fogs the travel plans of many American entertainment figures preparing for European appearances this summer.

Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg and other film industry heavyweights have canceled plans to attend the Cannes Film Festival, being held in Southern France May 8-19, and such performing artists as jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and the rock band Starship have scrubbed plans to tour Italy, France and other European destinations.

Other film personalities who have declined to travel to the Cannes festivities next week are actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Hershey and director Martin Scorsese.

But pop singer John Denver will forge ahead with plans for a summer tour beginning next Tuesday with stops in Amsterdam, Rome and Moscow, and several American dance troupes--the companies of Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham and Paul Taylor--say they will appear in Europe as planned this summer.

“We’re going to be keeping a close watch on the situation, and we will be following whatever advice the State Department has on traveling in Europe,” said the Taylor company’s manager, Ross Kramberg. “But our plans to tour (in Spain and France) have not been changed as of right now.”

The Martha Graham Company, whose 91-year-old founder/choreographer said the question of “to tour or not to tour” is “a question of our future,” will go ahead with a European tour in June and July.

“Our plans are still to go, but we’re concerned about the situation,” noted the company’s assistant general manager, Eugene Lowery. The company is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and Lowery said the European tour “is very important for that reason to Miss Graham and the company.”

Starship, whose recent “Knee Deep in the Hoopla” LP has sold more than a million copies worldwide, canceled its plans for a European tour and will instead concentrate on a 43-city American swing this summer.

“Even the shopping isn’t worth it,” commented Starship’s irrepressible singer Grace Slick after the group announced its cancellations.

The country-rock group Southern Pacific returned to the U.S. from an aborted tour of the Middle East after men with hand grenades were spotted in the officers’ club in which the group was playing. No attempt has been made to reschedule the tour, part of a State Department-sponsored cultural-exchange program.

But the seminal punk band the Ramones will tour England for a month this summer. “We’re not really afraid; we’re just uncomfortable,” said Andrea Starr, director of the group’s management firm.

Lionel Richie and Prince have already scrapped tentative plans to tour Europe this summer, citing concern over the potentially dangerous atmosphere in southern Europe. But Los Angeles-based pop bands Oingo Boingo and Wall of Voodoo will continue with their scheduled European appearance schedules, in northern Europe and Britain, respectively.