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A family spokesman said the tall, deep-voiced star of TV's Maude and The Golden Girls died at home early Saturday. He said Arthur had cancer, but he declined to give further details.

Television season finales get dangerous this year: Seven characters from major shows will bite the dust, four will get married, and two will be institutionalized — plus, we'll have a new "Idol," and Tyra will tell us who America's next top model is. What makes a good season finale? TV critics weigh in.

The Academy Awards took over Hollywood last night as some of the world's biggest stars were honored for their work in film. Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner, sweeping the ceremony with eight awards, including the prize for best picture. Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris offers a wrap-up of last night's festivities.

The National Endowment for the Arts released findings Monday from its Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. It found that more than 78 million Americans enthusiastically make art in their free time, but they are spending less time and money going to watch the professionals.

According to one study, more than a third of college students don't measurably improve in critical thinking skills through four years of education. The study, presented in the new book Academically Adrift, measured, among other things, how much students improved in writing skills and how much they studied.

In an effort to reduce the deficit, President Obama has proposed a limit on charitable deductions for the top income bracket. Arts nonprofits are concerned that they will be disproportionately affected — at time when they're already hurting from the economic downturn.

And the best part? The annual passes are free.

An enormous work of art opens Saturday in New York's Central Park. The Gates Project is the brainchild of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The husband-and-wife team's work consists of 7,500 squared arches topped with orange flags.

As the chaos of Fashion Week in New York City winds down, writer Najwa Moses reviews the style extravaganza that left her impressed with the shows -- but underwhelmed by the clothes.

Latin America is seeing a resurgence of t-shirts and other memorabilia celebrating the legend of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara. The return of Guevara appears to reflect both grassroots anger over U.S. foreign policy and publicity for The Motorcycle Diaries, a new Hollywood movie based on Guevara's writings that portrays the guerrilla as a romantic idealist. NPR's Martin Kaste reports.