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Rinna a Roxie with moxie

INTERVIEW: 'Chicago' lead Lisa Rinna on love, theater and motherhood

05:59 PM CDT on Monday, June 4, 2007

By DARLA ATLAS / Special Contributor

What does it take to be a famous TV star, boutique owner, mom of two, newly trained professional dancer and soon-to-be Broadway diva?

Coffee, for starters. Lisa Rinna, who just stepped into a touring production of Chicago that previews Tuesday and opens Wednesday at the Dallas Summer Musicals, made a pit stop at Starbucks during a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. (For the record, she ordered a soy chai latte with dolce cinnamon.)

"We women multitask like no other," Ms. Rinna said as she paid for her drink. "The more I have to do, the better I do it, it seems like."

That could bode well for Chicago, in which she plays the schemer Roxie Hart opposite Tom Wopat as lawyer Billy Flynn. At first, Ms. Rinna wasn't going to do any traveling shows – she leaves the tour to step into Broadway's long-running Chicago on June 19, along with husband Harry Hamlin. But she changed her mind after Dallas was mentioned.

Dallas Summer Musicals
Lisa Rinna with part of the touring show's ensemble "I modeled in Dallas about 20 years ago; I did some catalog work for Kim Dawson," she says. "I love Dallas. My friend Emmitt Smith lives here, so I just went, 'Yes, I'll do it. How fun will that be!' "

Although Ms. Rinna didn't shuffle off with the famed disco-ball trophy during the second season of Dancing With the Stars, the experience was still life-changing, she says. For one, it inspired her to consider the role in Chicago. She already knew how to sing, having been professionally trained early in her career. Now she also had dancing chops, thanks to lots of hard work "and having one of the best dancers in the world teaching you" on the reality show.

But in live theater, "I have to act and sing on top of the dancing," she points out. "Learning how to dance Fosse is like walking, chewing gum and patting your head." (Choreographer-director Bob Fosse suffered a heart attack during the first week of Chicago rehearsals in 1975.)

Ms. Rinna, who has two daughters with Mr. Hamlin, got her break on Days of Our Lives and became a household name on Melrose Place , where she played the love-to-hate-her vixen Taylor McBride. Which sounds a bit like Roxie.

"I think they have a similarity in that they both want to be loved – badly," Ms. Rinna says of the two characters. "And they go to lengths to do it. Roxie kills somebody because she wants to be loved – i.e., famous – so badly, and Taylor McBride used everything to her advantage to be loved."

Like almost every other woman of her generation, Ms. Rinna loves Melrose Place. Alas, unlike the rest of us, she can't indulge in the reruns: "I don't like to watch my work much," she admits. "But I might sit for a second and have a good chuckle."

Sitting for a second is about all the time she can spare. In addition to her 5,000 other jobs, Ms. Rinna will be the new red-carpet host for the TV Guide Channel, replacing Joan and Melissa Rivers.

"I've always loved going to those shows, and I love celebrities and fashion," she says of her gig, which begins with the Emmy Awards in September. "So this is like a dream job for me."

As for the pressure of knowing every celebrity who approaches her on the carpet, she's not concerned. "My mother was a big fan of celebrity, so she knew everybody and who was married to whom," Ms. Rinna says. "So I sort of have it in my blood from her. I innately know this stuff, God knows why."

And the approaching star shouldn't worry about being judged, fashionwise. "I will go the other way," she says. "I'll focus on the positive: what works, what's great. I'll be more like a girlfriend. I think the critical route, that's been done."

As talk inevitably turns to her daughters, Delilah, 8, and Amelia, 5, Ms. Rinna admits she's not sure how everything gets done.

"Mothers of the world – even if they don't work – are the hardest-working women on the planet," she says. "You do what you have to do, and you're blessed to do it."

Her daughters also don't seem to be shying away from the spotlight. When she thinks about their futures in showbiz, "I chuckle," she says. "Well, I chuckle nervously. But I think it's inevitable for the girls, to be honest with you."

During a stop in Atlantic City for the Dancing tour, Amelia and Delilah got to perform during the disco number.

"They had little costumes made for them," Ms. Rinna recalls. "There were 10,000 people in the audience, and my oldest came out and performed for five minutes at the very end of it. After it was over, she said, 'Mom, I've never felt so free.' Harry and I looked at each other and said, 'Uh-oh.' "

The girls' middle names were the inspiration behind Ms. Rinna's other passion, the boutique store Belle Gray. She and her husband have two shops in California and are thinking about expanding to Las Vegas.

Asked if she's able to remain a hands-on presence at the stores, she says sure: "I'm on my way to one of them right now."

Lots of customers who drop by are fans hoping to run into Ms. Rinna. Does she stop and chat with them?

"No, not at all," she admits with a laugh. "They can take a picture, but I don't have a lot of time."

Darla Atlas is a freelance writer in Fort Worth.

darlajatlas@yahoo.com