Raymond's two-time Emmy
Patricia Heaton is a busy mom
on and off the screen
Raymond isn't the only
person everybody loves - folks
are pretty crazy about his TV
wife too. For the past two
years, Patricia Heaton, who
plays Debra Barone, has walked
away with the Emmy for best
leading actress in a comedy.
"I've had so many people
tell me that it's exactly what
goes on in their family,"
Heaton says of the show.
Certainly Heaton 44, has no
trouble relating to her TV
persona; off-screen, she's
married to British actor David
Hunt and is the mother of four
boys, who range in age from 3
to 9. "My home life and TV
life parallel pretty much
exactly," she says.
"I don't have to do any
research for my role." And
Heaton needs no help from Anna
Romano, Ray's real life wife,
to figure out how to deal with
her TV husband. "I've
learnt that Ray annoys her just
as much as he annoys me, so he
really gets no relief at
all," she says with a
laugh.
Raising four young children
doesn't daunt Heaton, who
herself grew up with a brother
and three sisters in the
suburbs of Cleveland. "I
wouldn't trade it for the
world," she says.
Her TV and real lives diverge
to some degree. While the
Barones live in a modest
neighborhood on New York's Long
Island, Heaton and her family
divide their time between their
home in Los Angeles and their
retreat in rural England, where
they unwind during Raymond's
summer hiatus.
In her scant spare time, Heaton
is working on a book,
tentatively titled Motherhood
and Hollywood due in the fall.
Co-written with her brother
Michael, a journalist, the book
is a collection of essays about
her family life and career.
"I describe it as Erma
Bombeck meets Dennis
Miller," she says.
