LOS ANGELES – There are worse things in life than being dubbed “the black Cary Grant.”

“I’m very flattered, obviously,” says Taye Diggs, star of UPN’s highly praised drama “Kevin Hill’ in an interview. “I guess my mother raised me well. I try to come across with a bit of grace, a bit of class.”

Considered one of the best new fall shows on any network, “Kevin Hill” revolves around a high-powered lawyer and playa whose life does a 180 when he suddenly inherits his dead cousin’s infant daughter.

Think “Three Men and a Baby” meets “Baby Boom,” by way of “Ally McBeal.”

It’s the first regular series role for Diggs, 33, a handsome, hard-bodied, soft-spoken dandy whose film credits include leading roles in “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” with Angela Bassett; “The Best Man” and “Brown Sugar.”

Diggs had never even seen a UPN show before his agent gave him the “Hill” script, promising it would change his life.

And how. “Kevin Hill” is the most promising show in UPN’s 10-year history, and the network is banking on it to bring into focus a schedule that two years ago was suffering from “multiple personality disorder,” in the words of entertainment-division boss Dawn Ostroff.

No pressure, eh, Taye?

“I know it’s there. I’ve quote, unquote, carried movies before,” says Diggs, a Newark, N.J., native raised in Rochester, N.Y.

“People like to say I’m carrying this show. I don’t look at it as that. We’re going to be shooting one day at a time. I feel very confident with my work and with the writing. I’m even more confident about the players.”

Costars include Jon Seda as the main character’s buddy, Patrick Breen as his gay (naturally) nanny, and Michael Michele as head of the small, all-female firm Hill joins after he decides to quit swimming with sharks.

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