  We discuss exclusive double diffractive (EDD) production of heavy quark -
heavy antiquark pairs at high energies. Differential distributions for $c \bar
c$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.96 GeV and for $b \bar b$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 14 TeV are shown
and discussed. Irreducible leading-order $b \bar b $ background to Higgs
production is calculated for the first time in several kinematical variables.
The signal-to-background ratio is shown and several improvements are suggested.
