MySQL replication: temporarily prevent specific SQL statements replicating to the slaves?

SET sql_log_bin=0 is what you're looking for. Requires SUPER priv., and will turn off logging of commands from your session until you set it back to 1. See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-session-variables.html#sysvar_sql_log_bin

SET sql_log_bin=0;
UPDATE ... ;
INSERT ... ;
DELETE ... ;
SET sql_log_bin=1 ;

BE CAREFUL.....!

SET sql_log_bin=0;

Master MySQL server automatically set this 0 value to 1 after a while(after about one minute). It does not wait until we explicitly set it to 1. So according to my experience this not a safe way to turn off binary logging at all.....!