Marie Osmond isn’t a daytime diva — but she is playing one on TV.
Osmond, 64, makes her soap opera debut as the calculating Countess Von Frankfurt on “The Bold and the Beautiful” starting Friday, Oct. 17 (1:30 p.m./Ch. 2).
The crossover story arc also features characters from “B&B’s” CBS stablemate, “The Young and the Restless.”
“She’s got serious attitude problems,” Osmond told The Post about the Countess. “She lives in Milan and she’s stuffy.”
The Countess journeys to LA from Milan to check out the Forrester Couture Collection; she’s a longtime client and wants to to see her friends Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) and Eric (John McCook) and their new fashion lines.
Meanwhile, Lauren (Tracy Bergman, “The Young and the Restless”) arrives in from Genoa City and brings Esther Valentine (Kate Linder, “Y&R”) along with her — since it’s always been Esther’s dream to own a Forrester Creations original.
The episodes also feature Taylor Hale, who returns to “The Bold and the Beautiful” and Alexis Gaube, who appear as models in the fashion show (starting Oct. 30).
Osmond said that “B&B” head writer/executive producer Brad Bell has been a “dear friend” of hers for years and they’ve talked many times in the past about Osmond appearing on the show.
“I started [watching soaps] years ago with ‘The Young and the Restless,’ which was created by Brad’s dad, William Bell,” she said. “To make a long story short, I was in Las Vegas for 11 years and had what I call a ‘real’ residency; I did five nights a week all year long and four [nights] during the summer and Christmas.
“It was hard to find time to do these extra scenes,” she said. “I was down in LA, helping my daughter with the children and I got a call from them saying, ‘Hey, we’re doing this big fashion show — both ‘B&B’ and ‘Y&R’ are coming together’ — and I went, ‘What the heck, let’s do this!’
“Brad wrote the part super-fast and it was a blast,” she said. “He said, ‘Is there someone you want to be?’ and I said, ‘I don’t want to be me. Make it fun.’ And that’s when he came up with the Countess.”
Osmond shot all her scenes in one day, starting at 5 a.m. and finishing up around midnight.
“That’s OK — I’m not scared of those things, you know what I mean?” she said. “When I was a kid I worked six days a week and, with school included, they were 16-to-18-hour days. It never stopped.
“I don’t know people who work harder than soap actors,” she said. “They get the script immediately memorized and go in and shoot it. You have to go in prepared, know your character and there’s no fumbling around with different [camera] angles to help you find something else.
“Honestly, I got the [script] pages and had two days to get everything organized in my head and memorized and ready to shoot, so it was very quick,” she said. “Some of the scenes were not in sequence; it was the same actors and same storyline but over a few days [in the story arc].
“It’s not for the squeamish, for sure, but it’s so fun.”
Appearing on a daytime soap checked off another item on her “bucket list” — and she’s researching her next adventure.
“I was a sculptor and I sculpted [my line of] dolls for 20 years,” she said. “I love the movement and fluidity of forming something from clay. When I was about 7, we were in Sweden performing and I went to a glass factory with my mother and watched them blow her this beautiful vase and crystal.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” she said. “And I don’t want to do a giraffe, I want to create a beautiful piece. To me, the fluidity [of glass blowing] is like water and I’m an artsy-fartsy person.
“Put me in that 200-degree room and let me sweat.”
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