Garth Brooks may have feigned aw-shucks surprise when he won the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award for the second year in a row, Sept. 23, but in some quarters Brooks' win seems to have been a foregone conclusion. HBO, which produced Brooks' "Concert in Central Park" last year, placed an ad congratulating him on roping the award in Daily Variety on Sept. 22. (Funny, we always thought the winners were supposed to be a closely guarded secret.) A CMA rep denies that it leaked the results: "It was totally a mix-up on the part of HBO. They didn't realize he was a nominee and not an award winner when they purchased the ad," and a spokesman for Brooks was quick to distance the singer from his latest controversy: "We had nothing to do with the ad from this office." An HBO flack, meanwhile, was relieved at the outcome. "Oh, God, can you imagine if he hadn't won?"