By Luaine Lee
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

STUDIO CITY, Calif. — Fate can trip you up, but sometimes it has a better idea, says actress Nancy Travis.
Travis, best known as the British crumpet from “Three Men and a Baby,” and for her comic turns in “Becker” and “The Bill Engvall Show,” says, “We all have a certain plan for our lives and think it’s going to go in a certain way, and we start to act on those plans. But you just never know what Fate is going to throw in your path. It completely changes your destiny.”
That happened to her. “But it wasn’t a huge surprise. I always knew I wanted to get married and have children but I also was incredibly ambitious and wanted to be the No. 1 actress at the top of the charts,” she says, seated at a conference table in an office here.
“And then I met my husband, fell in love. And that connection made me re-evaluate things and I realized that if I wanted to have a healthy marriage and raise a family, there needed to be balance. It changed my thinking about things.”
Married for 15 years to executive-producer Rob Fried, Travis is the mother of two sons, 7 and 11. She was up late last night helping her older son with a report due today.
Travis says she’s fortunate to work often in Los Angeles, near her home. In her latest project, the Hallmark Channel’s “Safe Harbor,” she plays a Florida woman, Robbie Smith, who plans on sailing around the world with her husband when fate steps in. The couple is temporarily saddled with three wayward boys, a chore so challenging it eventually becomes a way of life for them.
“What they (the Smiths) did was hugely bold and hugely admirable. It’s such a wonderful thing that they were able to do that, and so selfless,” says Travis, who’s dressed in Levi’s, a brown pullover and a white cami.
“And they probably would call it selfish because it was so fulfilling for them. Also the message is it doesn’t have to be a grandiose thing, it can be something small. But it’s helping your fellow man, doing something that’s not about your own interests.”
“Safe Harbor,” which also stars Treat Williams as Doug Smith, airs May 30.