Dessert Plates: The women in
David Hunt's family had long
cherished the heirloom set of
Blue Willow china. For so long,
in fact, that by the time the
British actor, 44, married
Everybody Loves Raymond's
Patricia Heaton, 40, and the
dishes passed to the fourth
generation, the cupboard was
almost bare. "All that's
left of the set are these four
dessert plates," says
Heaton, who plays Ray Romano's
wife on the hit CBS sitcom.
"But what's so special
about them is that both David's
parents and his grandparents
had very long marriages [46 and
more than 50 years,
respectively]."
With three sons of their own --
Sam, 4, John, 3 and baby Joe, 1 -- life at the Heaton-Hunt homes in L.A.
and outside Cambridge, England, can be as crazy as it is on her show.
Nevertheless, Heaton has no problem taking the plates out of the display
case in her English kitchen and putting them to use. "I like what they
symbolize about marriage and continuation of family," says the actress,
who doesn't worry about breaking them. "Unless it's the Ming vase," she
says, "everything should be functional."
