Effective Lagrangian from higher-curvature terms: absence of a vDVZ discontinuity in AdS space

We argue that the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity arising in the M-2 --> 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 and/or the massless limit M-2 --> 0 is attained faster than the cosmological constant A --> 0. We discuss the effects of higher-curvature couplings and an explicit cosmological term (A) on the stability of such a continuity and of massive excitations.