constraining cell widths

I have a question on the formatting of table cells, 
hoping someone here can help me...

Say I have a table with two rows. The top row has 
one cell and spans two columns; the bottom row has 
two cells:
 _______
|   A   |
|_______|
| B | C |
|___|___|

Say that the width of A expands. This will cause the 
widths of B and C to expand also:

 ___________
|     A     |
|___________|
|  B  |  C  |
|_____|_____|

Is there a way to -PREVENT- this from happening? 
That is, I want to keep the widths of B and C fixed.
thanks in advance for any help on this,
-alex

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