‘k-

KING DINNER FOR 2

$17.95

(good Mon-Thurs)
1 CHICKEN, 1 BEEF KABOB,
2 LAMB KAFTAS, 2 LAMB CHOPS

RICE, SOUP OR SALAD

exp. 01/31/02

Not good with any other offer.
Dine in or Carry out

QUEEN DINNER FOR 1

tr

Now majoring in sports medicine,
she works part time and has full-time
hots for Dr. Eric Hackett (Titus
Welliver), a handsome surgeon treat-
ing lots of professional athletes.
Born in the Bronx and reared in
tony Westchester County, N.Y., Kent's
own background couldn't be further
removed from her character's. Her
mother is a successful designer, her
father is the chief executive officer of
an international corporation based in
the Netherlands, and her sister,
Schuyler, makes a nice living as a tele-
vision screenwriter.
"In the show, my father [Paul
Sorvino] likes to kick back with a beer
to watch a football game on TV," she .
says. "My real dad is very much a
white-collar guy into fine wine and
traveling. They're both fantastic."
Acting was something Kent always
did. Fortunately, her family was able
to send her to the prestigious HB
Studios in New York City while she
was still a student at suburban Horace
Greely High School. Dead set on a
Broadway career, she enrolled as a
musical theater major at Syracuse
(N.Y.) University.
I wanted to sing, dance and act —
but any love I had for the musical the-
ater they beat right out of me, unfor-
tunately," she recalls, somewhat bitter-
ly.
'Syracuse is such a big school," she
says. "We used to go to Hillel to meet
guys because we figured that their par-
ents told them to go there to meet
Jewish nice girls. Within this enor-
mous school, we had a community. It
was great going to temple and realiz-
ing everyone in the room had some-
thing in common with you."

-

Out In The World

Six months after graduation in 1990,
she was in Los Angeles working with
some little crappy agent" and singing
and dancing for her supper at
Disneyland for a year. In a big blond
wig and a cancan outfit, she portrayed
Miss Lillian in The Golden Horseshoe

Jamboree.

"I actually enjoyed it and it was fun
backstage, where you'd see Pluto
drinking a cup of coffee and Snow
White smoking a cigarette," she says.
"Nobody was allowed out of character
in the park itself."
While kicking up her heels at
Disneyland, she ran into the leader of
a 14-piece band and performed for the
next four years with the Kent and
Miller Orchestra, "a kind of Steve
[Lawrence] and Edie [Gorme] of the
'90s thing." Though rarely headlining,

the group opened for such music and
comedy acts as the Manhattan
Transfer, Mel Torme, Paula
Poundstone and Dana Carvey.
Between gigs, she worked hard with
private acting coaches and eventually
quit the band to star in Funny
Business, a workshop musical intended
for Broadway.
The bubble burst at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, but she gained
invaluable practical experience in a
major stage production. Now focused
on film and television, she promptly
made her way back to Los Angeles and
hooked up with a team of new agents
and managers.
"It was very scary to leave the band,
my bread and butter for all those
years," she says, "but it was something
I had to do. And suddenly I started
working all the time."
She began with recurring roles and
guest shots on a number of sitcoms,
including Married ... With Children,
Life With Roger and Men Behaving
Badly. She then became a regular on
two short-lived shows: Jenny (1997)
and Stark Raving Mad (1999). Kent
even managed to work with her sister
once on Nowhere Man (1995-96), an
action series starring Bruce
Greenwood.
"Unfortunately, Schuyler — who is
my best friend — and I haven't
worked together very much," she says,
"because she's into The X-Files stuff
and I'm not."
That's Life takes an extraordinary
amount of time during the season, but
Kent still found the energy this sum-
mer to carry on a family life, including
a recent vacation in the Cayman
Islands. In addition, she had a role in
an independent comedy feature titled
Now You Know, in which she portrays
Marty, a former hardcore party girl
who suddenly finds herself totally
unattached and extremely pregnant. It
was a nice change of pace from the
fairly sensible Lydia DeLucca she plays
on That's L.
"I'm extremely lucky because my
husband can pretty much make his
schedule fit into mine — plastic sur-
gery is pretty much elective surgery,"
says Kent.
"In the future, the good thing is that
love is blind, so Terry will never do
anything to me. Like a lift or tuck.
The bad news is that all my friends
will look fabulous while I'm falling
apart." fl

(Your choice of one item)

BEEF, CHICKEN, LAMB KABOB,
CHICKEN BREAST OR LAMB KAFTA

$7 95

,

(good Mon-Thurs)

INCLUDES RICE AND SOUP OR SALAD

Served Monday- Frithry
11:00 am to 3:00 pm

Not good with any other offer.
exp. 07/31/02
Dine in or Carry out

FAMILY FEAST F IR

$34.95

(good Mon-Thurs)

CHICKEN KABOB, LAMB KABOB,
DEBONED CHICKEN, KAFTA

I

RICE, HOUSE SALAD OR SOUP

P

exp. 01/31/02

Dine in or Carry out

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a

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GOOD 7 DAYS! I Exp. 1/17/2002 nt

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OFF

HBO CHICKEN

FOR 2

WITH OR WITHOUT SKIN

I ALL DINNERS INCLUDE: SALAD OR COLE
I SLAW, POTATOES AND GARLK BREAD
I GOOD 7 DAYS! ■ Exp. 1/17/2002 nr

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24234 Orchard Lake Rd., N.E. corner of 10 Mile • 476-1377

1/4
2002

53