Dixie Carter

One more crack about her producers and Delta Burke might have to kiss "Designing Women" goodby. Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a producer of the CBS show, says in next week's TV Guide that she has almost lost patience with Burke, who has complained for months that she does not get enough recognition and respect on the set. "She seems to be continuing to escalate the situation to a point where a choice has to be made--and a choice will be made," Bloodworth-Thomason said.

CBS has shelved "Designing Women," "Nothing Is Easy" and "Hard Copy" and will bring back a Sunday night movie on March 8, the network announced Tuesday. "Designing Women," a sitcom starring Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts and Jean Smart as wise-cracking Southern belles, has been bounced around the schedule all season. It started out on Mondays, was pulled and replaced by "The Cavanaughs," then moved to Sundays and is now being pulled again.

Sean Penn will present respected stage and screen actor Hal Holbrook with Interact Theatre Company's first annual Edwin Booth Award for distinguished achievement in the theater at a gala benefit at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel on April 1 at 6 p.m. Among other celebrities slated to appear at the black-tie event are Leslie Nielsen, "Seinfeld's" Jason Alexander, Dixie Carter, Marilu Henner and Davis Gaines. Proceeds will be shared by the Preservation Assn.

Jean Giraudoux uses an "ondine" (French for water sprite) to sardonically comment on the oddities of human culture from an outsider's point of view in "Ondine," currently in a sparkling revival of Maurice Valency's adaptation at the Powerhouse Theatre. Like Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," Giraudoux's water sprite falls fatally in love with a human. Both stories underscore the problems of this mismatch.

Today was the first day of production for this season's "Designing Women" episodes but there were no signs that the war of words is abating between producers of the CBS sitcom and actress Delta Burke. In the latest barrage, executive producers Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason released 12 pages of rebuttal that contained comments from crew members, network executives and even Burke's co-star, Dixie Carter.

Delta Burke won't be the only "Designing Women" star on hand for the Emmy Awards Sunday night, after all. Co-stars Annie Potts, Jean Smart, Dixie Carter and Meshach Taylor had sent a letter to executives at Columbia Pictures Television, which produces the show for CBS, complaining that the studio failed to provide them with tickets to the telecast (cost: $500 each), despite the fact that the series is nominated for best comedy. Burke automatically got tickets because she is a nominee.

A sobering program about drug abuse sprinkles a bit of realism on this otherwise boisterous weekend of big-time Hollywood cheer. "Athletes & Addiction: It's Not a Game," Sunday at 4 p.m. on ABC (7)(3)(10)(42), features football stars Dexter Manley and Chuck Muncie as well as famed figure skater Tai Babilonia discussing their own experiences with drug addiction and treatment programs.