[0] NEWS LITE : COUNTRY DUO CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT.

Country stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw are looking forward to the end of their joint tour - to get away with each other, not from each other.

The two are dating, and Hill says that's made this tour much more pleasant than shared appearances with other performers.

``We respect each other's work, and we also respect each other,'' said Hill, who performs in Evansville, Ind., this week. ``It's great to be out on the road with someone you're dating - when you're able to see the person daily. I haven't had that before.''

Still, they're ready for the end. The tour started in March and finishes in December.

``Things are a bit crazy right now,'' she said. ``The crowds have been fantastic everywhere we've gone. We love performing, but I admit I'm starting to look forward to December and a little break.''

The thrill of it all on live TV

John Frankenheimer has directed such acclaimed films as ``The Manchurian Candidate'' and ``The Birdman of Alcatraz.''

But his big love is the small screen. He won Emmys for the TV movies ``The Burning Season'' and ``Andersonville.''

Frankenheimer says ``the best years of my life'' were those he spent directing more than 40 dramas for the legendary live television series ``Playhouse 90,'' which ran on CBS from 1956 to 1960.

``I love doing television,'' Frankenheimer said in an interview on the eve of a reunion with others who worked on the program.

The Museum of Television & Radio kicked off its three-week William S. Paley Television Festival with a tribute Thursday to ``Playhouse 90.'' Among those connected with the series were writer Abby Mann and actors Polly Bergen, Lloyd Bridges, Charlton Heston, Tab Hunter, Piper Laurie, Cliff Robertson and Rod Steiger.

For the series, Frankenheimer directed such dramas as ``The Days of Wine and Roses,'' ``The Comedian'' and ``Journey to the Day'' with Mike Nichols.

``That's all I wanted to do,'' he said. ``If live television had continued, I never would have left it (for features).''

Towering role model First lady salutes her

predecessor

Hillary Rodham Clinton, who made headlines for her imaginary conversations with her crusading predecessor, unveiled a statue Saturday honoring Eleanor Roosevelt in the city where she was born and died.

``When I last spoke with Mrs. Roosevelt, she wanted me to tell all of you how pleased she is by this great, great new statue,'' the first lady joked to thousands who gathered for the unveiling in Manhattan's Riverside Park.

The 8-foot bronze statue, the work of artist Penelope Jencks, depicts Eleanor Roosevelt leaning against a rock, gazing in deep thought.

It is part of a $1.3 million renovation of the southern entrance to park funded by public money and private donations, including a donation from the current first lady.

``It seems that wherever I go, she has been there before me,'' the first lady said. ``Whether it is visiting South America or South Asia, sewing on a union label at a garment factory here in New York City, writing a newspaper column or speaking at a political convention, I can always count on someone's saying to me, `Well, I remember when Mrs. Roosevelt did that.' There's a great deal of comfort in those words for me.''

Eleanor Roosevelt, a tireless worker for social causes, was first lady from 1933 to 1945, longer than any other.

She was born in New York in 1884, taught classes in the city's settlement houses in the early 1900s, married Franklin D. Roosevelt and was a delegate after his death to the United Nations in the 1940s. She died in 1962.

``Eleanor Roosevelt was a great role model,'' said Marjorie Long, who credited her with breaking from family Republican tradition to become a Democrat. ``She said what she meant. . . . She had strong convictions.''

Indiscreet adviser

Why is Prince Charles' right-hand man leaving?

British tabloids say he was fired because he advised the prince to admit to adultery - a move that backfired, sinking the future monarch's popularity well below that of his ex-wife, Princess Diana.

Most royal watchers agree that former Royal Navy Cmdr. Richard Aylard is paying the price for persuading the prince to be open about his private life in a 1994 television interview.

But Charles' office says the parting after five years was amicable and by ``mutual agreement'' - just time for a change and ``fresh ideas.''

And Jonathan Dimbleby, the BBC journalist who conducted the 1994 interview and later published an authorized biography of Charles, said Saturday it was a ``knee-jerk reaction'' to conclude that Aylard was leaving because of the infidelity admission.

``I happen to think he was a pretty effective operator. Why he went, heaven knows,'' Dimbleby told Radio 4.

Charles confessed in the TV interview that he had been unfaithful to Diana before their 1992 separation, a revelation that some Buckingham Palace officials saw as a grave indiscretion. In his book, Dimbleby named the prince's paramour as Camilla Parker Bowles, then married as well.

Dimbleby said he believes the palace old guard would have ``put the boot in'' years ago if they wanted to get rid of Aylard because of the adultery confession.

The prince's office confirmed Friday that Aylard was leaving to pre-empt a story in The Sun, Britain's largest-circulation tabloid, that said he would be sacked. Charles' press secretary, Sandy Henney, said the prince liked to rotate staff every two or three years.

Aylard, 44, became a close friend of Charles' as his private secretary. His departure is expected early next year.

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Photo: Hillary Rodham Clinton and Franklin D. Roosevelt III sit by a new statue of his grandmother Eleanor at ceremonies in New York.

Associated Press