<< back                                           October 27 2005
USA Today Life
Author: Bill Keveney

Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton is coming back to TV as part of an Italian-American family, but this one isn't named Barone. In TNT's The Engagement Ring (Nov. 28, 8 p.m. ET/PT), Heaton plays Sara Anselmi, a woman trying to unite vineyard-owning families divided by a long-broken relationship between her mother (Lainie Kazan) and the other vineyard's bachelor owner (Tony Lo Bianco).

Those efforts are complicated when a ring and marriage proposal arrive by mail, decades late. With the help of Lo Bianco's nephew, played by Vincent Spano, Sara prepares a traditional Italian feast, hoping to reconcile the Napa Valley clans.

The theme of the two-hour film is, "What is true love, and how do you know it when you see it? Is it that passionate, romantic, crazy feeling, or the history you build together over many years of being with each other?" the Emmy-winning Heaton says. "Emotions run very high in this movie. It's like a comic opera."

The two-hour Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Presentation film, directed by Steven Schachter (Door to Door, The Wool Cap), features Heaton's husband, David Hunt, as Sara's fianc¨¦.

"And we're still married to each other. Can you believe that?" jokes Heaton, who also is in development on a comedy series with ABC.

Relations remain strong with her Raymond family. "I'm going to see them this weekend, because Monica (Horan), Doris (Roberts) and I are getting an award," the Women of Achievement Award from the Women in Film & Television International, which will be presented by Ray Romano, she says.