Let a Star Reinvent You

When lifestyle expert B. Smith (far left), a model-turned-restaurateur, met aspiring Master Chef Debbie Frangipane at the GE Monogram Design Center in New York City, the two discovered they had more in common than a love of cooking: They both work with their husbands. Debbie and her other half co-own Savory Adventures; B.‘s husband helps with the business side of her enterprise. “My husband is great at that stuff, which lets me do other things like this,” B. says. "I’d rather do this than be on a conference call with all three B. Smith restaurants, as he was today."

Debbie made her pistachio-encrusted sea bass (find the recipe here) for B., and it was a hit. “I think there was a little too much Parmesan in it for me,” says B., “but other than that it’s a very nice dish!”

Photographer Danielle Levitt is captured shooting the pair for MORE. Both are comfortable in front of the camera (B. stars in her own DVD series; Debbie often does TV in Florida). But Debbie is clear that she wants to be more than a television personality; she wants to be taken seriously as a cook. “I don’t want to be the big-boobed woman with the Southern accent,” she says. “I want to be like Cat Cora, a killer in the kitchen.”

B. shows Debbie her cookbooks, saying, “I love clean comfort food” (her latest is B.Smith Cooks Southern Style). B. later suggests Debbie do a cookbook of her own. B.’s approach? Cut and paste recipes, set up chapters and turn to visuals for inspiration.

Actress-comedian Caroline Rhea gives aspiring stand-up act Jacki Kane (on stage) some tips at Comix club in New York City. Caroline wants to know: What’s Jacki’s most comfortable performance look? “This,” Jacki says. “Mad Men , 50s-ish.” (Although she did take the heels off when the photographers put their cameras down.) As for who inspires her comically, Jacki says Stephen Wright and Ellen Degneres. “My worst stand-up gig was at a Holiday Inn in the south,” she says. “It was all flannel and boots and they hated my guts. In the south, they don’t like a smart mouth woman.”

Caroline helps Jacki with her delivery throughout their session, and reminds her to stop talking out of the side of her mouth. “Comedy is very auditory and musical,” Caroline says. “I can’t sing at all, but there is cadence. You’re the Vermouth in a martini.”

“Don’t go by rote,” Caroline tells Jacki, who admits to using note cards during stand-up for fear of forgetting her jokes. Over the course of her meeting with Caroline, Jacki warms up to improvisation.

Eventually, Jacki even starts bouncing off Caroline’s jokes: When Caroline says, “I always say my libido was removed with my placenta,” Jacki comes back with, “I say my waist was last seen with my libido.”

Jacki, a mother of two, and Caroline, mom to a one-year-old, both see the humor in parenting. “I have two kids, which is scary—for them,” Jacki jokes. “I grew up in the 70s. We were the reason caution labels now exist.” They also know that, on stage, sex kills. “Good luck getting to third with my control freak pantyhose,” Jacki says. “I have a same sex marriage: The sex is always the same…nonexistent.”

When Donita Vann (far left) visited Nicole Miller’s studio in New York City, she admitted she was so nervous, she couldn’t eat. But when it came to working on her designs (such as the one shown here), Donita was all pro.

When giving Donita advice on how to sell her designs (some of which are found on her site phillygurl.com) in stores, Nicole offers a pricing tip: multiply the cost of production (including materials and labor) by two and a half—that’s the retail price.

“What Donita is doing is admirable,” Nicole says before looking through Donita’s portfolio. “She loves what she does; loving what she does is motivating.”

WANT MORE REINVENTION INSPIRATION? CLICK HERE FOR A SLIDESHOW OF WOMEN WHO MADE THEIR SECOND-ACT FANTASY A REALITY.

For the complete story, including these celebrities’ best tips, get the February issue of MORE, on sale January 26.