Mira Sorvino's baby almost died during a dinner at Jerry's restaurant in New York, after she choked herself on a piece of bread. Both Mira and the baby were lucky to be helped by the restaurant manager, Toi Racy, who didn't lose her temper and saved the child with Heimlich maneuver.

Mira admitted that, if it wasn't for Toi, her baby would have died. The actress recalls: "There's nothing worse than seeing your child turn purple. I grab her and a woman who was sitting right behind me, Toi Tracy, an angel, basically grabs her from me and says: 'I just took the baby Heimlich course.'

She grabs the baby, turns her over on her stomach, starts hitting her on the back as you're supposed to do. It wasn't working 100% but I reached into her mouth and I got a piece of bread out of her mouth.

She'd been chewing on a little piece of bread because she's teething really badly and I didn't think she could ingest it and I was wrong."

Mira Sorvino, born September 28, 1967 is an Oscar-winning American actress, who has appeared in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion", "At First Sight", "Blue in the Face", "Summer of Sam" and "Mighty Aphrodite".

Sorvino dated Quentin Tarantino for several years and more recently French actor Olivier Martinez. On June 11, 2004 she married Christopher Backus in a private ceremony and on 8 November, Mira,37, has given birth to their first child.

Mira is a celebrity daughter herself - her dad is actor Paul Sorvino, renowned for his gangster roles in films such as Goodfellas.