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By MARY EVERTZ
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 1, 2001
At Sunday night's Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall, WTVT news anchor John Wilson and his music educator wife Mary K. will be in the audience with their son Patrick, nominated for best actor in a musical, and his girlfriend, actor Jennifer Love Hewitt.
The Wilsons, who vacillated between being there or watching it on TV with other sons Mark and Paul and other family members, decided to go when they got the nod from Patrick's agent.
Patrick Wilson, who stars in the hit Broadway show The Full Monty, is one of five nominees in the best actor/musical category. Two of the others are Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane (of The Producers), who are co-hosting the Tonys. Patrick will also be on stage as he and fellow cast members do their signature number, Let It Go. CBS is still working out how it will show the stripped-down performers to viewers at home.
"We didn't want to be in the way . . . it is his night and he has to make the rounds of parties after the show," says Mary K. The Wilsons plan to fly up Saturday morning.
Even though he's up for the award, Patrick doesn't get star treatment. He'll do a matinee show before heading for Radio City.
After all the must-do festivities, the Wilsons will be giving a party for Patrick at one of his favorite restaurants in Manhattan. It will be a reunion of many of Patrick's former classmates at Carnegie-Mellon University, including his college roommate, Matthew Stocke, who happens to be his Monty understudy.
Among other guests will be Hewitt and her mother. Patrick and Hewitt's relationship is certainly no secret. They were recently featured on the theater site Broadway.com.
This is a busy, exciting time for Mary K., who after many years is packing up and leaving her musician post at St. Petersburg's Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Peter. Mary K., who earned a master's degree last year, plans to continue with her private voice students and establish a music resource center for the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida in St. Petersburg. She and John also have numerous singing engagements in the Tampa Bay area.
In two weeks, Mary K. will be flying back to New York to attend the Anglican Musical Conference and take her 81-year-old mother, Kathryn Burton of Richmond, Va., to see The Full Monty. Joining them will be Mary K.'s sister, Virginia Stringer of St. Petersburg, and sister-in-law, Gloria Burton of Hampton, Va.
The chances of Patrick staying in New York once he leaves the Monty cast are good, says his mom. He has been offered the lead of Curly in the revival of Oklahoma. "If he accepts the role he will be doing two shows that John Raitt did," says Mary K. (Patrick previously appeared in Carousel in the Billy Bigelow role.)
New York Mets veteran pitcher Al Leiter, whose home base is in Weston in Broward County, is giving some thought to what he'll be doing after baseball. The conservatively inclined Leiter tells American Spectator magazine he "might like to run for the U.S. Senate." He adds, "Maybe my biggest worry is that I would be a loose cannon."
At a playoff game before last year's presidential election, Leiter made his politics known when he tossed U.S. Senate candidate Rick Lazio a ball on which he reportedly wrote: "Rick, kick Hillary's a-."
Leiter and the Mets will play the Devil Rays June 8-10 at Tropicana Field.