‘Designing Women’ star Dixie Carter dies of cancer

(Los Angeles) Dixie Carter, who was already a Broadway and television veteran when she found perhaps her perfect part as the wiser and wittier half of a pair of Southern sisters who ran an Atlanta interior decorating firm in “Designing Women,” has died, her publicist said Sunday.

Carter died Saturday in Houston of complications of endometrial cancer, Steve Rohr told The Associated Press. She was 70.

The Tennessee native used her unmistakable Southern accent and style on series like “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Filthy Rich” before landing the role of Julia Sugarbaker on “Designing Women,” the CBS sitcom that ran from 1986-1993 and had an endless life in reruns.

She was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for a celebrated seven-episode guest stint on the ABC hit “Desperate Housewives.”

“This has been a terrible blow to our family,” Carter’s husband and fellow actor Hal Holbrook said in a written statement. “We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy.”

Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area but traveled home to Tennessee several times a year. It was not clear why she was in Houston when she died.

She married Holbrook in 1984. The two had met four years earlier while making the TV movie “The Killing of Randy Webster,” and although attracted to one another, each had suffered two failed marriages and were wary at first.

They finally wed two years before Carter landed her role on “Designing Women.” Holbrook appeared on the show regularly in the late 1980s as her boyfriend, Reese Watson.

The two appeared together in her final project, the 2009 independent film “That Evening Sun,” shot in Tennessee and based on a short story by Southern novelist William Gay.

The second of three children, Carter was born in 1939 in McLemoresville, Tenn.

Carter was the daughter of a grocery and department store owner who died just three years ago at 96. She said at the time of his death that he taught her to believe in people’s essential goodness.

“When I asked him how he handled shoplifting in his new store, which had a lot of goods on display, making it impossible to keep an eye on everything, he said, ‘Most people are honest, and if they weren’t, you couldn’t stay in business because a thief will find a way to steal,’” Carter said. “‘You can’t really protect yourself, but papa and I built our business believing most people are honest and want to do right by you.’”

Carter grew up in Carroll County and made her stage debut in a 1960 production of “Carousel” in Memphis. It was the beginning of a decades-long stage career in which she relied on her singing voice as much as her acting.

She appeared in TV soap operas in the 1970s, but did not become a national star until her recurring roles on “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Filthy Rich,” in the 1980s.

Those two parts led to her role on “Designing Women.” Carter and Delta Burke played the sparring sisters who ran the firm. The series also starred Annie Potts and Jean Smart.

The show was unmistakably a comedy but tackled such topics as sexism, ageism, body image and AIDS.

“It was something so unique, because there had never been anything quite like it,” Potts told The Associated Press at a 2006 cast reunion. “We had Lucy and Ethel, but we never had that exponentially expanded, smart, attractive women who read newspapers and had passions about things and loved each other and stood by each other.”

Carter appeared on the drama “Family Law” from 1999 to 2002, and in her last major TV appearance she played Gloria Hodge, the surly mother-in-law to Marcia Cross’s Bree on “Desperate Housewives.”

Carter said the role was far from the kindly woman she played on “Designing Women.”

“It’s a vast difference,” Carter said while filming the series. “Gloria Hodge doesn’t have any redeeming qualities except her intelligence.”

Besides Holbrook, Carter is survived by daughters Mary Dixie and Ginna.

Cyndi Lauper to open homeless shelter for LGBT youth

Cyndi Lauper is proving girls do more than just “wanna have fun.” They also fight for causes close to their heart.

Lauper, according to DNAinfo [1], plans to open a homeless shelter in Harlem in New York City for lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual youth.

[2]

“Kids are coming out in greater numbers as they see themselves accepted and represented on TV and in movies, but they’re still being kicked out of their homes or running away and living on the streets,” Lauper said in a statement.

Lauper – who is working on the project with her publicist, Lisa Barbaris, and Colleen Jackson, West End Inter generational Residence executive directors – plans to raise money for the project through her True Colors Fund [3].

There are roughly 3,000 to 8,000 homeless LGBT kids in New York City according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

[1] http://www.dnainfo.com/20100406/central-harlem/cyndi-lauper-open-shelter-for-homeless-lgbt-youth-harlem
[2] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-cyndi-lauper-top.jpg
[3] http://www.truecolorsfund.org/

Chastity Bono announces sex change

(Los Angeles) Chastity Bono is having a sex change to become a man. A spokesman for Bono, born a girl to Sonny and Cher, says he “has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity” and began the sex-change process earlier this year. Publicist Howard Bragman said Bono is …

Shanna Moakler quits as Miss Calif. USA director

(Los Angeles) Former beauty queen Shanna Moakler has resigned as executive director of the Miss California USA pageant, a day after controversial titleholder Carrie Prejean was allowed to keep her crown.

Moakler, a former Miss USA , said in a statement issued by her publicist Wednesday that she no longer believes …

Existing gay marriages now on a great divide

With the California Supreme Court likely to uphold Proposition 8 but still recognize those already married, the couples are feeling both elated and isolated.

Jeanne Rizzo, 62, who married her partner of 20 years in September, was “somewhat heartened” Friday that her marriage is poised to survive Proposition 8 — but she was not celebrating.

“We don’t want to be on a marriage island,” said the Marin County resident, who runs a health advocacy group.

The California Supreme Court’s signal Thursday that it would uphold Proposition 8 but still recognize 18,000 existing same-sex marriages raised questions and concerns about the prospect of being a minority within a minority — part of an exclusive club whose doors have been closed to others.

While some gay married couples fretted Friday about being isolated culturally and legally, others expressed relief and joy that their marriages would remain valid. Some said they would feel pressure to be a symbol for same-sex marriage and to always present a positive image.

“If I’m on an island, at least I’m on an island with someone I love,” said Howard Bragman, a Hollywood publicist who married his partner before the November election in which voters passed the gay-marriage ban.

Jon Davidson, legal director for the gay-rights advocacy group Lambda Legal, called the couples “pioneers” put into “an unprecedented situation.”

“It will be challenging for those 18,000 couples,” Davidson said. “They are likely to be frequently asked to prove that they are married. . . . They will be going forward where no couple has gone before.”

At the same time, the gay married couples may help educate Americans about same-sex marriage, Davidson said.

“They will be kind of living examples of the fact that no one else is harmed by the existence of married same-sex couples,” he said.

See Existing gay marriages now on a great divide

Los Angeles Times