Veronica Hamel

Veronica Hamel is downright scary as a kidnaper in Sunday's CBS movie "Baby Snatcher" (9 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8). Hamel plays Bianca, a woman so obsessed with keeping her insensitive and remarkably gullible husband (Michael Madsen) that she fakes a pregnancy. When the nine months are up, she needs an infant fast. Posing as a candidate for a nanny position, Bianca steals the month-old daughter of unmarried waitress Karen (Nancy McKeon).

Veronica Hamel is downright scary as a kidnaper in Sunday's CBS movie "Baby Snatcher" (9 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8). Hamel plays Bianca, a woman so obsessed with keeping her insensitive and remarkably gullible husband (Michael Madsen) that she fakes a pregnancy. When the nine months are up, she needs an infant fast. Posing as a candidate for a nanny position, Bianca steals the month-old daughter of unmarried waitress Karen (Nancy McKeon).

Co-starring in a multiseasonal hit series can be a kind of sweet captivity. It can set you up for life financially. It gives you a quantity of under-fire acting experience you couldn't get in decades anywhere else. Being a series star can also give you an image that sticks with you like a tattoo and is almost impossible to erase when you want to play someone else. For seven years Veronica Hamel was Joyce Davenport, the sharply intelligent and independent public defender on "Hill Street Blues."

Rio Mesa's time of 10:15.70 in the boys distance medley relay at last Saturday's Arcadia Invitational track meet was the fastest high school clocking in the nation this season. The team is composed of Ed Trotter (3:09.5 for 1,200 meters), Tom Barboza (50.5 for 400), Travis Cooksey (1:53.4 for 800) and Ramon Perez (4:22.3 for 1,600). Marcus Allen and Howie Long are two of the players who will represent the Raiders in a benefit basketball game against a celebrity team next Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

The Malibu Design House 1990, scheduled to open to the public Sept. 4 through Oct. 7, will hold a celebrity opening night gala at 7 p.m. Saturday. Comedian Tom Dreesen will serve as master of ceremonies, Steve Allen will entertain at the piano and other guests will include Jayne Meadows, Veronica Hamel and Jonathan Winters. All proceeds from the black-tie even will benefit the Wellness Community Valley/Ventura, an organization to help cancer patients.

Paul Rosenfield, writing about Cary Grant, asked us to name two other actors "who had the confidence to wear glasses." Let's disregard Robert Mitchum, Michael Caine and numerous other men; consider Mia Farrow, who wore glasses throughout "Zelig," or Shelly Hack, who did the same in "If I Ever See You Again." There's Sophia Loren, who's worn them on several national TV shows (yes, she has endorsed a line of frames, but why not?); such part-time bespectacled beauties as Cybill Shepherd (in "Taxi Driver" and "Silver Bears")

What would TV do without real-life personal tragedies to dramatize? Tonight's CBS movie, "The Conviction of Kitty Dodds" (9 p.m. on Channel 2 and 8), is yet another in that genre. This time, it's Veronica Hamel in the victim role, starring as Kitty Dodds, a battered woman serving a life sentence for having her abusive husband murdered. Kitty escapes, remarries, is discovered by authorities and returns to prison.

Co-starring in a multiseasonal hit series can be a kind of sweet captivity. It can set you up for life financially. It gives you a quantity of under-fire acting experience you couldn't get in decades anywhere else. Being a series star can also give you an image that sticks with you like a tattoo and is almost impossible to erase when you want to play someone else. For seven years Veronica Hamel was Joyce Davenport, the sharply intelligent and independent public defender on "Hill Street Blues."

The Karate Kid Part III (Columbia). Shooting in Los Angeles. Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita and director John G. Avildsen return for some high-kicking sentiment. This time the student and teacher have a parting of the ways and Macchio is led astray by a rival master. Executive producer Sheldon Schrager. Producer Jerry Weintraub. Screenwriters Robert Mark Kamen. Also stars Martin Kove, Robyn Lively and Thomas Ian Griffith. Summer release. The Package (Camhe/Haggerty). Shooting in Chicago.

Did you know that some types of breast cancer can't spread? That there are alternatives to mastectomy? That early detection can save your life--and your breast? "Breast Cancer: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You," premieres at 9 tonight (and repeats this month) on the Lifetime cable channel, is a must for any woman who wants to arm herself with an informed opinion in her doctor's office.