Issue with MAILC env variable?

I'm trying to use the -r option in "nail" to change the from address headers. It works fine if I just have an email address, however if I use the (Name) nomenclature the hobbitd bombs with this error:

/usr/local/xymon/server/etc/hobbitserver.cfg: line 97: syntax error near unexpected token (' /usr/local/xymon/server/etc/hobbitserver.cfg: line 97: MAILC="/usr/bin/nail -r "user at blah.com (Xymon)""

Env is this: MAILC="/usr/bin/nail -r "user at blah.com (Xymon)""
MAIL="$MAILC -s"

From the command line this works fine as well:

/usr/bin/nail -r "user at blah.com (Xymon)" myemail at something.com

Is there something in Xymon that is interpreting the parenthesis? I've even tried to escape them with \ to no avail.

Thx, Tom