It was singer/entertainer/author Marie Osmond’s longtime friendship with B&B Executive Producer/Head Writer Bradley Bell that led to her official soap debut. “Before I started following THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, I watched THE YOUNG AND RESTLESS, way back to the DONNY & MARIE [variety] show [in the 1970s],” she begins. “Some time ago, Brad said, ‘We need you to do BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL,’ and I went, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’d love to,’ so it’s always been on my bucket list.”
Crossing off that particular item, however, turned out to be years in the making. “[My brother] Donny and I had a residency in Vegas for 11 years and we worked five days a week,” Osmond explains. “And in summers, we toured and at Christmas we have a Christmas tour, so it was just nonstop work for many years. Brad would check in now and then and I’d have to say, ‘I’d love to but I just don’t have the time.’ You can’t do a lot of other things that you’d like to do.”
Recently, Osmond was in Los Angeles when B&B called again (“My daughter had a baby, my ninth grandchild, so I’m down here helping her with their kids”), and this time, she had a different answer. “I said, ‘Why not? Let’s do it!’ ” she enthuses. “And they wrote a great part for me.”
Osmond was especially thrilled to be playing a character rather than a cameo as herself. “I told Brad, ‘Just write a part that you need and let me have some fun,’ ” she recalls. “He asked, ‘Do you want to play this jerky countess?’ and I said, ‘Yeah!’ ”
Bell created the haughty Countess Von Frankfurt, a faithful Forrester client who will decide which designer, Eric or Ridge, has put together the best collection for their big fashion competition. “My character has a real attitude and she’s hysterical,” chuckles Osmond. “She definitely lives in her own world. I only had two days to prepare, so I knew it would be a challenge to learn the lines. But I did The King and I on Broadway and in three weeks, I learned the accent, the songs, the costumes and the dancing. Everybody at B&B was so lovely and helpful; from the cast to the cameramen, every person was incredible. You could tell they all get along great and they’re a happy family. I have never seen such work ethics since the variety years of television. I loved being on that set.”
Not only will John McCook (Eric), Thorsten Kaye (Ridge) and Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) be a big part of the on-air drama, Y&R’s Tracey E. Bregman (Lauren) and Kate Linder (Esther) are crossing over to join the action. “Everybody was so much fun and fantastic to work with,” Osmond praises. “John is a doll, Thorsten is hysterical, Kelly is great, Kate is darling and I adore Tracey. It was long hours, which I’m not afraid of, and it moved very fast because they basically do everything in one take.”
No stranger to showbiz, a low-maintenance Osmond chose to be responsible for her own hair and makeup. “I brought in my gal just because of time [constraints] and I had to arrive really early to learn my lines,” she points out. “I wanted it to be easy for them at no extra cost or anything. I understand budgets because I’m a businesswoman, so I was like, ‘Let’s just make this easy. You don’t need to stress.’ ”
That same mindset extended to wardrobe, as well. “I brought in my own things for them to choose from,” Osmond notes. “I’ve been so blessed to rub shoulders with so many different people and you just learn a lot about both the production side and the entertainer side. And when you understand the production side, you know that the last thing anyone needs is a diva for real.”
With a career that spans decades, Osmond is going strong and has a passionate fan base that still surprises her. “My current album, Unexpected, debuted number one on Billboard [Classical Crossover chart],” she marvels. “And then it would drop out of the top 10 and it’s gotten back into the top 10 29 times. Isn’t that crazy? I’ve had number one albums but never that debuted at number one. I didn’t think it would do anything because it was really just to challenge myself. I sing opera, American songbook, standards, legit soprano, orchestral; it’s 17 songs in five languages. When I recorded Paper Roses, I was 12 and it went to number one when I was 13, which will be my 51st anniversary this year. At that time, Loretta Lynn asked me, ‘Why did you pick country?’ It would have been very easy for me to go pop because my brothers [The Osmonds] had connections. I told her, ‘I just love so many kinds of music,’ and she said, ‘Sing them all!’ ”
Osmond is also grateful when she garners another generation of fans. “I did a show a couple of weeks ago and I had 15-, 20- and 25-year-olds sitting in the front row,” she shares. “I stopped the show and said, ‘You guys are so young. Do you even know who I am?’ And one girl goes, ‘We found out you were the Nutrisystem lady, so we listened to your music and fell in love with it!’ ”
Now that she’s added a soap credit to her lengthy resumé, Osmond is resuming her hectic touring schedule, but wouldn’t rule out reprising the role of the countess. “Let’s first see how people like her or should we say dislike her,” she suggests. “She was definitely fun to play, so I say, ‘Never say never.’”
