Hal Holbrook

DIXIE CARTER, 70 Star of 'Designing Women' "Designing Women" star Dixie Carter, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, has died at age 70. Carter died Saturday morning, according to publicist Steve Rohr, who represents Carter and her husband, actor Hal Holbrook. He declined to disclose the cause of death or where she died. Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area. "This has been a terrible blow to our family," Holbrook said in a written statement.

Romance seems to be all over the place on TV tonight. I wonder why?"Unsolved Mysteries" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- "UM" wishes everyone a Happy Valentine's Day by looking at a bunch of alleged aphrodisiacs, seeking answers to the burning question of whether such foods as chocolate, honey and oysters can affect one's sex drive. Plus, is it really possible that an asteroid could crash into the Earth, ending life as we know it? (What a stroke of luck NBC has this show to air just two days before its ratings-month blockbuster, "Asteroid," dramatizes that very possibility!

Ending blacklisting was his finest hour Screen tough guy Kirk Douglas, at the Berlin film festival to collect an award for his lifetime achievements, said ending Hollywood's anti-communist blacklist in 1960 was his proudest moment. The three-time Academy Award nominee and honorary Oscar winner is being feted with a retrospective at the Berlin festival and yesterday was to receive the event's top prize. But "the one thing in my career I'm most proud of is the breaking of the blacklist," the 84-year-old said at a news conference Thursday.

'Girls Town'** 1/2 ; Rated R(language, mature themes)It's too bad TV's After School Specials don't allow this kind of language, because "Girls Town" would have been a great hour-long drama for high school students. At 90 minutes, it's a little overextended, but protective parents would probably shudder to have their kids see this film anyway. "This ain't no '90210,' " as Lili Taylor's character says. Instead, "Girls Town" is an intense condemnation of all the things that can make young women's lives desperate and horrific.

Theater students at the Baltimore School for the Arts spend most of their days polishing their skills - reading and writing plays, practicing dramatic techniques and shooting short films. Once a year, they get a chance to sit down with a celebrity actor or director and talk about how to make the leap from amateur to professional. The sessions are part of the Colgate Salsbury Visiting Artist Series, started five years ago by local television personality Rhea Feikin and named for her husband, who died in 1999.

Do we really need another talk show on daytime TV? At least one comedian thinks so."The Rosie O'Donnell Show" (10 a.m.-11 a.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- If talk shows are dead (and they certainly appear to be at least sick, judging by the number of casualties over the past year), what makes Rosie O'Donnell think she can survive? See if you develop any insights why during this debut show featuring George Clooney and Susan Lucci. ABC."Star Trek: Voyager" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WNUV, Channel 54) -- A crew member is killed during a science experiment but is reborn as a vengeful amphibian.

Where do TV doctors go to die? CBS, apparently."High Incident" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Marsh's daughter falls for an undercover narc at school, leaving Marsh (David Keith) fearful for her safety. ABC."Diagnosis Murder" (8 p.m.-9 p.m. and 9 p.m.-10 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- A double-dose of Dick Van Dyke and Co., and neither's a repeat. In the first, "Diagnosis" cements its status as the series where old stars go to re-visit their careers, as a quintet of famous TV doctors shows up. One of them gets killed (I won't tell you which)

ON AND OFF THE AIR:* The spring season just past featured many characters walking down the aisle, and one of the funniest sequences surrounded the odd-couple splicing on "Evening Shade" between Evan (Hal Holbrook) and former stripper Fontana Beausoleil (Linda Gehringer).Tonight's repeat (at 8, Channel 11) is the middle show of the three-parter that led up to the March nuptials. Evan's bachelor party turns into a do-it-yourself affair because the babe who comes out of a cake isn't available -- she's the bride.

There's no "Stand" tonight -- ABC is taking the night off rather than pre-empt "Roseanne" and "NYPD Blue." For entertainment, it's the network to watch anyway; for more serious fare, tune to PBS and "Frontline."* "A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle." (8-10 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Almost 25 years ago, Hal Holbrook starred as "The Senator," one of several rotating "wheel" elements in an umbrella show called "The Bold Ones." Tonight he plays the latest attorney presented under the Perry Mason banner, suggesting that life is indeed cyclical and that there are wheels within wheels.

An article in yesterday's Howard County edition of The Sun inadvertently listed two performance dates for Arturo Sandoval and Nestor Torres during the Columbia Festival of the Arts. Sandoval and Torres will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 28, in the River Hill High School auditorium.The Sun regrets the error.In the year Columbia turns 30 years old, it seems appropriate that the theme of the town's annual Festival of the Arts is "Reunion."But there's a small quirk: The director and assistant director of the 60-event, 10-day festival are newly arrived and until a year ago knew almost nothing about Columbia.