<< back                                        November 23 2005
 Scripps Howard News Service 
Author: Dave Mason

Patricia Heaton and others yelled and stomped around furiously as an Italian-American dinner erupted into jealousy, anger and chaos. It could have been a scene from "Everybody Loves Raymond."

But this is life after the Barone family as the "Raymond" star plays a woman who finds her destiny in a lost piece of jewelry in "The Engagement Ring." The TNT film debuts at 8 p.m. Monday (Nov. 28).

"It never occurred to me to compare them, but they are two volatile Italian families," Heaton said in a phone interview. "With the Barones, there's a lot of family issues and emotions. They are similar. I think ('The Engagement Ring') has a magical quality to it."

Heaton plays Sara Anselmi, who sees profit ahead if her family can purchase vineyards from another Napa Valley family, the Di Cenzos. The problem is history.

When they were young, Nick Di Cenzo (Tony Lo Bianco) and Alicia Rosa (Lainie Kazan), Sara's mother, fell in love. While in the Army, Nick mailed her an engagement ring he had won in a poker game, but when he received no reply, he thought she rejected him. Actually, Alicia never received the ring and thought Nick had found another woman.

They never spoke to each other again, married other people and went on to live separate lives.

The comedy erupts as Nick's son, Tony (Vincent Spano), and Sara work together to bring Alicia and Nick to the same table _ in this case, a dinner table _ to get past their differences and make a business deal. Sara gets some help from her fiance, Brian (David Hunt, Heaton's real-life husband), but things get complicated as she and Tony become attracted to each other.

Well, when you have a little wine, a little food, a not-so-little kiss ... who needs dessert? When all the yelling is over, that's the heart of "The Engagement Ring."

In the story, characters yell at an outdoor table, and stomp off furiously.

"I thought it was going to be impossible to shoot with all these people running around," said Heaton, who along with Hunt, was an executive producer.

But the filming went well, she said.

"I liked the parents' story," Heaton said. "I think in anybody's life, you question your decisions. Did I do the right thing? Everything would have been different if my character's mother had received the ring. I wouldn't have been born."

That kind of soul searching doesn't usually go on in TV movies, Heaton said.

Heaton today remains busy as a producer, and she and Hunt recently completed a documentary, "The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania," which Hunt directed. Their production company, Four Boys Films, is also creating the film "Amazing Grace," the story of William Wilberforce, who advocated freedom for slaves in 18th-century England.

Heaton, who wrote her first book, "Motherhood and Hollywood," said she is working on a deal to produce and star in another sitcom. (She and Hunt have four sons.)

Heaton said she has heard of no progress on a "Raymond" spinoff starring Brad Garrett, who played Raymond's brother Robert.

She said she felt "Everybody Loves Raymond" ended at the right time, even though she cried as the show wrapped up production in January.

"We explored everything we had to explore," Heaton said.