Urban Legend (1)

When we interviewed "Everybody Loves Raymond" actress Patricia Heaton for our February 2002 issue, she mentioned she was interested in buying a house in Cleveland to live in part time. Her four boys, she said, love the tree-lined streets of Bay Village, where she grew up, and she wanted them to experience life outside L.A.

So when we heard (from three different sources) that she had bought a house in Bay and was adding on to it, we wondered if it was true and if she plans to live here full time after "Raymond" ends. The Heaton clan, however, isn't talking. Both a phone call to Heaton's production company and e-mail to her brother, Plain Dealer writer Michael Heaton, went unreturned. While we have credible reasons to believe this rumor is true, remember that Bay Village has been on this ego trip before: For years, it was rumored that Kevin Costner was building a huge house on Lake Road. When was the last time you ran into him at Heinen's?

Survey Says?

Give with confidence. A recent study shows that Cleveland's large charities are among the most efficient in the nation. They spend less on fund-raising, more on programs and amass more savings than charities in any of the other 25 biggest U.S. metropolitan areas.

Charity Navigator, the nation's largest charity evaluator, conducted the second-annual study. Cleveland's largest nonprofits also finished high in last year's inaugural survey.

"Most people, when they give a dollar to charity, they wonder if it is actually going to the charity's function," notes Charity Navigator executive director Trent Stamp.

The study discovered that, on average, the city's largest charities were rated No. 1 for percentage spent on fund-raising and percentage spent on programs, and amassed more cash than large charities in other metro areas, with median assets totaling $48 million.

Visit www.charitynavigator.org for more information.