Ward, 49, wouldn't have it any other way. "Howard and I love business and we love taking on big projects," she says. "We encourage the kids to think, and we don't believe in thinking small." Which explains their latest venture: emergency preparedness kits for families. The family was sitting around the dinner table one evening discussing how many of Hurricane Katrina's victims were left without food or water, Ward recalls, "when we started talking about living where there are earthquakes and how we need to be prepared too. Austin insisted that we put together a family emergency kit." But after finding that most available kits were either too bulky or too expensive or had to be ordered weeks in advance, Austin came up with a better plan yet: "He said, 'Dad, that's crazy,' " recalls Ward. " 'Why don't we make our own and sell it.' " Three months later they're doing just that. The emergency kits, tailored for adults, children and infants, are available online (see box) with all the profits going to Hope Village for Children.
The former Sisters and Once and Again star is so swept up in homegrown enterprises that she's all but ruled out a return to series TV full-time. She didn't even consider it when she was sent the pilot script for Desperate Housewives. "It would have been fun to be on that big a hit," says Ward. "But I couldn't have signed a six-year contract [as the show required]. I needed some time off, and to be with my kids."
Not that she intends to stop working. "The kids are the cornerstones of her life," says Sherman, her spouse of 13 years. But "they understand," he adds, that she also has a career. For which House's Laurie is grateful. "Sela is just wonderful as Stacy," he says. "She is smart, sexy, funny, and her voice is like the very best back-rub you ever had." Ward's House stint wraps next month. In February she's off to Shreveport, La., to shoot The Guardian, a Coast Guard action flick with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Then it's back home to the kids and more family projects (like Anabella's idea for a line of dog products). But is she sure she wouldn't rather be back in prime time? "Maybe," she says, "a comedy. I think I'm funny. Nobody else does, but I will prove it."
Mike Lipton. Monica Rizzo in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Monica Rizzo.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
