Bea Arthur won't do reunion or TV series

WASHINGTON -- Fans may be nostalgic, but Bea Arthur has no plans to do a reunion show for her two hit sitcoms, "Maude" and "The Golden Girls."

"I absolutely refuse to do a reunion," Arthur told AP Radio. "It'll never top what we did before."

Here's something else she won't do: another TV series.

"When you do a series, oh God, which I will not do again, it's your life, there's no other life, you neglect the family, you don't think you do, but you do," she said.

Arthur played Maude Findlay, the liberal scourge of television's Archie Bunker, from 1972-78, and Dorothy Zbornak, the outspoken divorcee of "The Golden Girls," from 1985 to 1992.

She chats and sings in "Bea Arthur on Broadway -- Just Between Friends," which opens Sunday at the Booth Theatre and will run through March 24.

Movie career was 'accident,' says actress

BERLIN -- Italian actress Claudia Cardinale says a life in the movies spanning more than four decades has left her with no regrets.

But she insists it was "just an accident" that she embarked on a career that on Friday earned her a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Cardinale said it was a great honor to be presented the festival's Golden Bear. "First of all, making movies is just an accident. When they asked me, 'Do you want to be in the movies?' I said, 'No' -- and they insisted for six months."

She was 17 when she won a beauty contest in her native Tunisia, earning her a trip to the Venice Film Festival.

"I never push to have things. I never call any director in my life, they always call me," said Cardinale, who starred in Federico Fellini's 1963 film, "8 1/2," with Marcello Mastroianni.

She has appeared in more than 100 movies and made-for-television productions, also working with directors Luchino Visconti, Klaus Kinski and Blake Edwards.

"They gave me everything. It's marvelous to live many lives," she said. "I've been living more than 150 lives, totally different women."

The actress, who also is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said she's now looking for ways to help women in Afghanistan.

Well-known stylist Fekkai predicts beauty trends

NEW YORK -- As designers offered a preview of fall 2002 during New York Fashion Week, well-known hairstylist Frederic Fekkai made some predictions about beauty trends.

Fekkai, who styled the models for the Diane von Furstenberg, Nicole Miller and Kenneth Cole shows, says hair will be soft, romantic and feminine.

"The beautiful trend will be to wear hair healthy and shiny, and not overdone," Fekkai said. "It'll be about great style but not too fancy. There'll be movement, curls and waves."

The change from sleek, highly stylized hair parallels what's happening in fashion.

"The clothes also are soft, not rigid, more innocent. You don't want to be 'the bad girl.' It's more about being 'the good girl,"' Fekkai said.

More than 100 men's and women's collections, including the designs of Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren and Oscar de la Renta, were presented during Fashion Week, an eight-day event that ended Friday.

--From wire reports