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Soap Star Finds Love In Tampa

Photo by John Chambrone

Clearwater native Crystal Hunt shows off her engagement ring.

By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 2, 2009

Clearwater native Crystal Hunt is heating up ABC's "One Life to Live" as the new vamp in town, but off-camera she's settling down with a Tampa surgeon.

Hunt, 24, who played bad girl Lizzie Spaulding on "Guiding Light" from 2003 to 2006, plays saucy Stacy Morasco on "One Life to Live."

The character first appeared last month as a Las Vegas stripper with mysterious ties to the fictional "One Life" community of Llanview.

"I like it because Lizzie was a teenager, and Stacy is all grown up and she's a troublemaker," says Hunt, who recently celebrated her engagement at her sister Dana Gamble's home in Odessa with family, friends and fiancé Philippe Spiess, 36. He's a urologic oncologist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute.

Hunt says they met after her aunt Diane Flanagan was diagnosed with kidney cancer in October 2007.

"A doctor who is a close family friend recommended Philippe as one of the best cancer surgeons," Hunt said in a recent telephone interview from New York, where "One Life to Live" is taped.

She says her mother, Nada, and her aunt kept telling her how terrific the doctor was — so handsome and with the best personality. She was not interested in their match-making attempts.

"I had said I would never date a doctor because some are cocky and have God complexes," she says.

But they persisted, and Hunt, who divides her time between New York and Clearwater, finally met him.

"The first time our eyes locked we knew there was something special between us," she says. "But I would never have admitted it! I was determined to not like this guy after the stink I had put up to my aunt! I threw a lot of sarcasm at him and thought he would never be able to keep up, but to my surprise, he turned around and gave it right back to me twice as hard, and I was hooked."

Her aunt's surgery was successful, and the surgeon she called Dr. Phil visited the hospital room every day.

"I made sure I was there when he made the rounds," Hunt says. "After my aunt left the hospital and was cancer-free, we went on our first date to The Melting Pot. And we couldn't take our eyes off each other. We both knew right there and then we each had met 'the one.' "

Spiess says he was reluctant to get involved with Hunt because of her career in TV.

"I didn't want to get into a relationship with an actress because I didn't want to end up on 'Entertainment Tonight.' I also wanted to keep a distance because of the doctor-patient relationship," he says.

"But I found that Crystal is grounded and very genuine with good family values," he says. "Sometimes I can't believe what I'm seeing when she's on television because that character is not my baby. Crystal is so sweet."

The two began a long-distance commuting romance.

"I go to New York and visit the set when Crystal is working, and I can see that she is an incredible actress," Spiess says. "I TiVo the show and fast forward to her scenes."

He's from Montreal and completed his fellowship at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He has been at Moffitt for two years.

Hunt has been acting since she was a child, appearing in TV commercials and beauty pageants. Her father, Clark, owns a Clearwater construction company. Her mother is a former New York model.

She landed the role of Lizzie Spaulding while she was still a student at Palm Harbor High School. Nominated for a Daytime Emmy is 2005, she played a supporting role in the 2007 Amanda Bynes comedy "Sydney White." She appeared in the 2005 family film "Derby Stallion" with teen heartthrob
Zac Efron and is in the chase thriller "Brooklyn to Manhattan," which hasn't yet been released.

Hunt also is part-owner of the Clearwater pet boutique My Pets Dream, which she runs with her mother.

She says her Dr. Phil was so romantic when he proposed on Christmas Eve. "I went to his place, and I could tell he was a little nervous," she says. "He took me into the bathroom and pulled back the shower curtain. The tub was filled with bubbles, water lilies and rose petals. He had written 'Will You Marry Me?' in green soap on the wall."

Dangling from the shower head was a diamond ring on a red ribbon. "He got down on one knee and proposed," Hunt says. "And then he opened a closet filled with balloons and flowers."

"Right now, it's crazy being in two different cities," she says. "But I come back on one weekend and he will come up the next. Someday we would like to live in the same city, but for now things are working out.

"If you could see us on weekends, you'd see him on one side of the room reading a medical journal and me on the other reading a script."

Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.