Her long blond locks are a trademark feature actress Dyan Cannon still sports, and at 72 she still has the figure of a fit 20-year-old. Once married to legendary actor Cary Grant, Cannon is writing a book on the subject and declined to talk about her former husband, for now. She appears in the Hallmark Channel original movie "A Kiss at Midnight" with Faith Ford and Hal Linden, about an online dating service vs. an old-fashioned matchmaker and the eternal search for everlasting love. It airs at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Q: What do you think about online dating?

A: [Laughs.] Well, I wish I could do it, but I can't. I have mixed feelings about it. I have had friends that have had very successful ventures and I have other friends that have had no happy endings. So, I think it is very individual and it all comes down to discretion and value and not settling. People don't seem to meet people anymore. I don't know why.

Q: How about you, do you get introduced to potential dates?

A: I did. A friend introduced me to someone I saw for a while. I'm not seeing him anymore. He's a really nice man. I didn't want a "kiss at midnight," let me put it that way [laughs].

Q: How practical are you when it comes to romance?

A: Well, practical to me means practicing. I wonder what that word really means. I am going to look it up as we are talking. I think that's an interesting question, and I want to make sure I give it a good answer. Practical means "over concern with the actual doing or use of something rather than with theory and ideas." Well, let me put it this way, I've had some great romances. Great romances. Life-changing romances. Haven't done so well at marriage.

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Q: Why do you think that is?

A:Something in me would like to prove the validity of that union. In my particular case, in the past, the way, way past, I looked to guys to kind of satisfy my needs and make me happy. I don't think that's practical.

Q: You have always portrayed this kind of spontaneous persona. Is that what you are really like?

A: Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm like. It's kind of a waste of time to do anything else. Years ago I heard a saying. It was "regret of the past and fear of the future are robbers of the now." It's a good one.

Q: You and Cary Grant seemed like polar opposites on the outside?

A: [Laughs.] You know what, Patricia, I am writing a book about it as we speak, and I am hopeful that it will help a lot of women and men. We'll leave him to the book. I will tell you one thing: I'm going to set the record straight.

Q: Has your career lived up to your expectations?

A: Oh, you know, I think my idea of career has changed so much over the years. In the beginning it meant my name above the title, and I'm looking up that word as we are talking. It means "an occupation taken for a significant period of a person's life with opportunities for progress." Yes, it would be yes to that. It went beyond whatever I envisioned, but the concept changed. The career that I had limited myself to didn't really enlarge the borders of happiness for me. I learned through trial and error that happiness is an inside out job.

Q: How does one adjust to playing the mother after years of being the ingenue? Was that a hard adjustment?

A: In the beginning it was. Because I still think of myself as the ingenue. I just do. [Laughs.]

Q: So you are not limited by a number on a birth certificate.

A: Absolutely not. How ridiculous. No way.

Q: You must be a size zero. Is that something you work at?

A: I'm blessed. My mom and dad passed on great genes, and I do work out at least three or four times a week. My weight doesn't fluctuate anymore. You know, experience. You know what I'm saying? You get hopefully wiser and you get your priorities straight. Being kind to myself is a priority now.

Q: Were you a people pleaser?

A: Oh, absolutely. That's why I was a good actress. That's kind of a left-handed compliment, but "Oh, gosh, will you love me if I say I can ride a horse? I'll ride a horse." Even if I hadn't ever been on a horse. You know?

Q: What is your passion now?

A: Day-to-day living. And I've been working on a project for the past seven years that is just life-changing, actually. After September 11th, I thought what can I do that will make a difference? Something that will prove that peace is not something that is escapable. That we can learn to live in harmony with one another. So for three months I auditioned teens all over California. I went to high schools. [I] went out onto the street and passed out fliers and I collected 30 very interesting young people, blacks, whites, reds, Muslims, off the street and very rich. After just meeting four times, for 12 hours at a time, these kids were loving each other. [They were] sharing views, helping each other, and it was beautiful to watch. So I have been following them off and on for seven years now, and I am making a documentary feature out of it. If I start to get down, I know how to get out of it because spirituality is the most important thing in my life. That's really my passion.

Q: Were you raised in a traditional religion?

A: I was raised in a home where my mom was Jewish and Dad said, "OK, the kids can be Jewish." Then he changed his mind and found religion. So I was whatever either one of them wanted me to be, actually. Then I just found the truth, that there is just one God who loves everybody the same, and that's where I live.