  We argue that the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity arising in the $M^2
\to 0$ limit of the massive graviton through an explicit Pauli-Fierz mass term
could be absent in anti de Sitter space. This is possible if the graviton can
acquire mass spontaneously from the higher curvature terms or/and the massless
limit $M^2\to 0$ is attained faster than the cosmological constant $\Lambda \to
0$. We discuss the effects of higher-curvature couplings and of an explicit
cosmological term ($\Lambda$) on stability of such continuity and of massive
excitations.
