Original Dixie Chick: ‘Family Law’s’ Carter

Dixie Carter holds her tongue as one of her “Family Law” cast mates repeatedly flubs a line. The scene involves a volatile moral debate among the partners of Holt & Associates concerning an elderly client’s decision to assist in the death of his terminally ill wife. Seated at a conference table alongside the 61-year-old “Designing Women” veteran: 46-year-old Kathleen Quinlan, Christopher McDonald, also 46, and this season’s “fresh newcomer:” 49-year-old TV vet Tony Danza--all bankable personalities who have remained largely in the shadows of younger, more high profile legal eagles (and tabloid darlings) Calista Flockhart (“Ally McBeal”), Dylan McDermott and Lara Flynn Boyle (both of “The Practice”).

Why the invisibility factor for “Family Law?” One telling clue is hunched in a dark corner of the studio: An elderly, white-haired actor who begins shuffling at a snail’s pace toward the set to shoot his scene. The initially unrecognizable identity of the episode’s special guest star is revealed as Carter graciously takes the man’s little spotted hand in hers, welcoming him to her show with her comforting Southern charm. “Mr. Griffith,” whispers Carter to the former sheriff of Mayberry. “It is such a pleasure to have you join us.”

Yessiree--Andy Griffith. Another of those bankable veterans who never created much of a stir in the press or at the Emmys during his nine seasons on “Matlock”--one of those shows like Angela Lansbury’s “Murder, She Wrote” or Dick Van Dyke’s “Diagnosis Murder,” which runs forever, but is considered by most critics to be the sexless, prune juiced-down sibling of “ER” or “NYPD Blue.” Now with “Family Law,” it seems CBS has taken in another dependable, quiet, well-behaved grandparent, that is likely to stick around for a long time without causing much of a stir.

Compare “Ally McBeal’s” high-profile stunt casting of Robert Downey Jr., Anne Heche and Taye Diggs to “Family Law’s” Griffith, who appears in tonight’s euthanasia-themed episode opposite Janet Leigh--whose 1960 classic “Psycho” was remade 38 years later with Heche.

And then there’s Carter. Though the oldest regular on “Family Law,” her character, spitfire attorney Randi King, is arguably the youngest presence in the series. As Randi, a woman who served jail time for the murder of her abusive husband, Carter provides the majority of “Family Law’s” sass and sex appeal, an ingredient set up in the pilot when Randi began an affair with her 25-year-old Latin paralegal Andres Diaz, played by Ricky Martin look-alike Cristian de la Fuente.

Now 26, De la Fuente is on hiatus from the series, shooting the feature film “Vampires los Muertos” with Jon Bon Jovi. He’s not scheduled to return to “Family Law” until the spring. Currently in Mexico, he took time to talk about the older woman he’s been kissing for more than a year.

“If you look up ‘sexy’ in the dictionary, you will find a picture of Dixie,” says De la Fuente, whose mother is 58. “Everything about her is sexy. The way she talks. The way she moves. She’s a very active, young person--ageless.”

Network president Leslie Moonves first introduced Carter to De la Fuente as “a surprise from CBS.” While pleased with her “gift,” Carter had serious misgivings about the striking age difference between the characters. “Pairing up with someone that young is as dangerous as wearing clothes that are too young looking for you--or too tight,” says Carter, sitting comfortably in the lotus position in her onset trailer. “At a certain age, it’s just going to emphasize your age. I was concerned about looking older instead of better, but apparently the audience loved it.” As did the actors, both of whom admitted to enjoying filming their steamy make-out sessions.

“If I’m not excited,” says De la Fuente, “how can I possibly make people think our relationship is true?”

A Fondness for Younger Men

Before settling down in 1984 with third husband Hal Holbrook, now 76, Carter herself had a fondness for younger men. Even so, the actress insisted she and De la Fuente not be shown together in bed.

“That was my one request,” says Carter. “When we first started the show I said, ‘Let’s stay away from that,’ because that I felt was the place where it could get mawkish--where the age difference would all of a sudden not work.”

One of the few actresses in her age group who has never stopped working, Carter considers herself lucky, and claims she’s not troubled by being the most senior member on the “Family Law” cast--a dramatic shift from the anxiety she experienced prior to the start of her 1986-93 sitcom “Designing Women.”

“I wanted to be identified as Dixie, not the old one,” says Carter, who underwent a face-lift in 1986 to compete with younger actresses Annie Potts, Jean Smart and best friend Delta Burke, with whom she reunited in November after a 10-year estrangement. “I didn’t mind being the oldest one, but I didn’t want to be called that by the multitudes. And they didn’t, but if I hadn’t been chopped and sewn I guarantee I would have been.”

Before she started on “Family Law,” Carter had her neck liposuctioned, but now insists she’s finished with plastic surgery: “I’m not going to cut anymore. I want to look human. And as a comedienne, I’ve got to have a mobile face.”

She may look and act younger than her years, but many of Carter’s traditions and beliefs could be viewed by some as old-fashioned, even out of touch. In tonight’s Lifetime “Intimate Portrait,” Carter returns to her hometown of McLemoresville, Tenn. (pop: 311), where she maintains the more than 100-year-old family mansion in which she was born. A true Southerner whose speech is routinely sprinkled with expressions like, “Cross my heart, hope to die,” Carter flew the Confederate flag over her home until the mid ‘90s. It was only at the strong urging of her then college-age daughter that Carter begrudgingly lowered what is viewed by some as a symbol of Southern pride, and by others, a hurtful reminder of slavery and bigotry.

“When Mary Dixie came home from Harvard, she told me I had to take it down, and it really hurt my feelings,” recalls Carter. “One of her roommates was African American and was coming for a visit. Mary Dixie was ashamed. I think she misunderstood what I was flying it for. There was nothing racial in me raising it. I’m proud of the Confederate flag, which to me means being a Southerner. There was a lot of conversation, and it took me a week to give in.”

Not nearly as brazen as one might expect, Carter is (or works very hard to lead you to believe she is) a softy. “Family Law” co-star Quinlan recalls her first meeting with Carter in the New York theater world during the ‘70s left her feeling dwarfed.

“I was intimidated by her,” says Quinlan. “Dixie was a stalwart theater mademoiselle in New York--so self-assured on the stage, but she has this little twinkle in her eyes which lets you know she’s letting you in on a little secret.”

Having battled painful arthritis for years, Carter claims she never considered herself as strong or as brave as the powerful women she’s played on television--including her “Designing” alter-ego Julia Sugarbaker, and now, Randi. “Physically, I think I’m kind of wimpy, delicate--very fragile,” says Carter, whose older brother Halbert succumbed to multiple sclerosis in June. “Even my bones are very strangely tiny.”

But fragile bones won’t stop Carter from protecting her beloved series from critical attacks. She is determined to alter perceptions of “Family Law” as a second-rate legal drama. “We’re not in the [cool] club yet,” she acknowledges. “A couple of reviews used the word ‘formulaic’--another formulaic hour show about lawyers. I don’t think it is.”

And as for the television academy, which has ignored the series, Carter rationalizes, “It’s par for the course for me. ‘Designing Women’ never won any Emmys except one for hair, nor was nominated, though I think Delta got nominated for her show about being overweight. Awards are not important at all . . . unless you win one. And wouldn’t that be just lovely?”

* “Intimate Portrait: Dixie Carter” can be seen tonight at 7 on Lifetime.

* “Family Law” can be seen tonight at 10 on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).