NEWS ANALYSIS - Redstone family rift may not be healed - Despite the Viacom chairman's efforts to play down the split with daughter Shari, sources say the truce is tenuous.

Since the public blow-up in July between Sumner Redstone and his daughter Shari over corporate governance and succession issues at their family-controlled entertainment empire, the 84-year-old chairman of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. has been on a campaign to convince the world that the feud has blown over.

In August, he orchestrated a family dinner in New York that was described by the New York Post as a rapprochement.

Last month, he was quoted in the Boston Herald praising his daughter, who runs the family's theater chain, National Amusements Inc., from a suburb outside Boston.

And late last week, Redstone told The Times through a spokesman: "We love each other; there's no rift."

But according to several people close to the two, relations between father and daughter are anything but lovey-dovey, and their conflict appears very much alive.

"Shari still intends to try to resolve the differences with her father privately," said her spokeswoman, Nancy Sterling.

The nasty dispute might not be resolved any time soon, though, leaving succession at the $50-billion media conglomerate an open question.

All substantive talks between the two camps have come to a grinding halt, according to people close to father and daughter who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private. The media chief is in no hurry to make a move, said a person close to him, adding that Sumner is content to have issues of succession decided after his death.

The media mogul appears to have all the leverage. Although he could buy out his daughter's 20% stakes in CBS and Viacom, there is nothing compelling him to do so since he controls both companies.

Such a purchase probably would require him to sell his own shares, something he has long been loath to do. That would put unwanted pressure on the stock prices of the two companies.

In addition, he has the right to remove his daughter from the board of directors and fire her as vice chairwoman if he wanted.

After the conflict erupted in the press this summer, the two Redstones publicly divulged that they were considering severing their business ties. Under one scenario discussed by their lawyers, Shari would give up her board seats and sell her voting stakes in exchange for full ownership of National Amusements.