FUN, FEARLESS FEMALE

Josie's
New Joy

Yup, Josie's back pacing Melrose Place. Find out what sexy stuff is in store for the season ahead, the bald guy who got her so hot and bothered - and the cute little change she's looking for in the near future.

By Dennis Hensley

*Any minute now, Josie Bissett's going to be calling from the set of Melrose Place, the nighttime soap that, between the bitchslapping and backstabbing, most often resembles a well-coiffed campaign to turn bed-hopping into an Olympic sport. Though the show's scripts are top secret, smart money says that when Josie is asked to describe what went down on the set that day, she will relate at least one of the following scenarios: (1) somebody went into the pool involuntarily, and (2) somebody got jiggy with it between the sheets.
     "Funny that you'd ask," exclaims Bissett, who this season reprises her role as the beleaguered but basically decent Jane Mancini. "During the scene I just did, I go up to Michael and tell him that I want to have sex." Michael of course, is Jane's smarmy ex-husband, played with despicable aplomb by Thomas Calabro. Earlier this season, the volatile twosome reunited at a class reunion and have been reacquainting themselves with each other's erogenous zones ever since. "Then Michael says, 'Jane, I thought you hated me,' and I say 'I need to feel close to you. Your place or mine?'"
     That covers the jiggy. Guess we're out of luck with details on the pool.
     "No," Josie says with a laugh. "Someone does fall into the pool today, but it's not me. I haven't been in the pool in years."
     Pool or no pool, Bissett's back in the swim of things, where Melrose is concerned. After leaving the show in the middle of the '96-'97 season - citing burnout that comes with churning out more than 30 hours of psychodrama a season - she's back to see the show into its seventh year, sashaying into the sweltering courtyard like a cool breeze.
     "Taking time off was the best thing I ever could have done," the 28-year-old actress says reflectively. "I'm so glad I listened to what I really needed instead of continuing to try to power out another season, because I was totally exhausted." Among her sabbatical pastimes were banging out two TV movies, including ABC's upcoming take on Armageddon, Called The Fire Above. She's also been taking private classes in photography and (eek!) computers and visiting her family in Seattle - where she owns a paint-it-yourself pottery store. "When I left the show, I had no intention of coming back, but I got antsy and I wanted to return to series work," she admits.
     Contributing to her decision to return was that Bissett's sabbatical didn't turn out as she'd planned. She had originally hoped to use her time off to start a family with her husband, actor Rob Estes. Though she did become pregnant, she later miscarried. "It's the one thing that I can't make happen," she says quietly. "I can't control it, and that's frustrating." Rather than dwell on the experience, she decided to go back to work.
     "I put a call in to the people at Spelling last spring, and two months later I was back at work. It didn't give me too much time to think about whether I was doing the right thing, which I guess is a good thing."

5 Things I've Learned From Jane Mancini l If you're going to spend as much time in the sack as Jane does, make your bed cozy. "I have Shabby Chic T-shirt Collecton sheets. They're the softest." 2 When things get too crazy,seek professiona1 help. "I'd love to have Rosie O'Donnell appear on the show as my therapist. How funny would that be?" 3 Never bury someone alive, like Jane and Sidney (sic) tried to do with Richard. "Make sure the person is dead before you bury him. That episode was way over the top, but I enjoyed doing it." 4 Instead of disappearing for a year and a half like Jane, use short therapeutic getaways to clear your head - "like visiting a day spa solo." 5 Never trust a man who says "You can trust me." Jane's getting a little better at that, but not much. It's still Melrose.

     Though she's returned to the sex-soaked sandbox of Melrose, Bissett's not giving up on her dream to became a mother. "I love kids. I light up whenever there's a child around me. I'm really looking forward to that part of my life. We'll get through this season, and then well try again.
     Finding time to make a baby shouldn't be hard, considering the two are together almost 24-7. Estes, her husband of six years, is also in the Melrose mix, playing Amanda's (that is, Heather Locklear's) hunky love slave, Kyle McBride. "Our characters don't interact much," josie says, "but it's nice to know where he is or see him at lunch." Given that the couple's trailers share a common wall, one has to wonder if they've come up with a secret knock yet, the percussive equivalent of a booty call?
     "No," says Josie with a knowing laugh. "But we will."

Something Old,
Something New...
Bissett met her husband shortly before she landed Melrose, at an audition for a TV movie in which neither of them was cast. What they did get, two months later, was an apartment together. Two years after that, they married. It was then that Josie came up with her nickname for Rob: Buddha.
     "Now it's turned into Bude," she explains. "See, the day before our wedding, he shave his head - all the guys in the wedding party did - and he looked like a Buddhist monk." Some brides might have panicked at such a surprise, but not Josie. "It looked great," she gushes, "especially with the tuxedo. He looked so hot."
     Bissett credits their longevity in part to their sharing many of the same passions, like theater, sports, and card games, though she admits they're both fiercely competitive. "If we were playing basketball or something, and I win, Rob does not like that," she says. So does she ever let him win, just to keep the peace? "No way," she growls.
     The couple also enjoy scuba diving, a pastime that used to terrify Bissett. "I'm not much of a daredevil," she admits. "I always felt like the time that I was on the roller coaster would be the time it was going to break. And with scuba diving, it always scared me to swim without my regulator in my mouth," she says, referring to the mouthpiece that connects a diver to her oxygen supply. She admits, though, after several diving trips with Estes, she once removed the regulator on purpose to share an underwater kiss with her husband. "That was a big thing for me," she says with a sigh.

Working the Catwalk
Josie Bissett's excellent adventure in show business began in Seattle where, as a teenager, she took a break from working at the Gap ("I have flashbacks of folding sweaters every time I go in there") and playing soccer to enroll in modeling school. "We walked around with books on our heads for the runway section of the class, she recalls. "I really liked strutting down the runway." At 16, she left home to strut her stuff in Japan, where her enthusiasm and all-American good looks served her well... for a while anyway.
     "I was hanging out with a lot of young models, and use would go to the clubs and get free drinks," she remembers fondly. "One night, I had a few too many and we were walking home and laughing, and I tripped and fell. It left a big gash on my check, and my lips and eyes swelled up. Needless to say she headed b ack home to Seattle to heal for a little while.
     At 17, Bissett headed to Hollywood and began to land commmercials as well as small parts in movies (The Doors) and TV series (Quantum Leap, Doogie Howser, M.D.). Four years after her arrival in Los Angeles, she won a part on Melrose Place, where she's been ever since, with the exception of her one significant break. "I feel very fortunate," she says sincerely, "though I was always very determined and very sure I would be successful, because I believe in myself," she says simply. Lucky for us, she's playing Jane again - about the only one on Melrose that we can believe in too.