Cheryl Hines an Enthusiastic Mom

Tue., Mar. 9, 2004 7:40 PM PST by Sarah Hall

Cheryl Hines has uncurbed her enthusiasm.

The star of Larry David's HBO comedy series gave birth Monday to daughter Catherine Rose--her first child with husband, Paul Young, a talent manager.

Mother and baby are said to be doing fine, and Hines and Young are "overjoyed," according to a statement.

The pair wed in December 2002. Hines has proclaimed Young the anti-Larry David, saying he is nothing like her aggravating television husband.

"Paul doesn't annoy me," the Emmy-nominated actor told W magazine in its January issue. "Talk to me in 15 years. But for the most part, he's really easygoing--the opposite of Larry."

Hines' repartee with her TV spouse is off the cuff, which comes easily to her, thanks to a background in improvisational comedy.

After she arrived in Los Angeles by way of Florida, Hines took the traditional struggling bartender approach to acting. Unlike the majority of the masses, however, she succeeded in swapping martini mixing for stage gigs at the revered Groundlings Theater.

After she was spied in a local actor's showcase, Hines was snatched up for the role of Cheryl on Curb your Enthusiasm, which she attributes to the training she received with the Groundlings.

"Without that training, I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten the role," she told Brentwood magazine in its September/October 2003 edition.

For the first two seasons, David wouldn't show her outlines for the shows, preferring to force her to ad lib.

"I'd just show up on the set and stand there," she recalled in Brentwood. "Sometimes he'd tell me and sometimes he'd say, "You'll figure it out."

The hit show will tape its fifth season next fall.

In additional to portraying Cheryl David, Hines will lend her voice to the DreamWorks animated series, Father of the Pride, about a feline family that stars in a Siegfried and Roy stage performance.

"At first it's a little intimidating," she told Brentwood of providing the voice for a cartoon lioness. "You're in this booth and there are 10 people staring at you on the other side of the glass. But you can do whatever you want. It's an animated character, so you can let go a little."

The series also features the voices of John Goodman and Carl Reiner, and is set to debut on NBC in the fall.

Bernie Yuman, manager for Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, has said that the illusionist duo is still on board with the project, despite Roy's ill health after he was mauled by a tiger last fall.