Signy Coleman

 You might have first spotted the beautiful Signy Coleman in the 1980s Huey Lewis and the News videos “Heart and Soul” or “I Want a New Drug.” Or you might have caught her as one of the new Valentine Girl prospects Sue Ellen Ewing was checking out on our beloved “Dallas” in 1987. Or you might have first seen her as Celeste DiNapoli on our beloved “Santa Barbara.” Heck, you might have even first spotted her as Hope on “The Young and the Restless,” a longtime character that was only killed off earlier this year.

Well, BRBTV had the lovely Ms. Coleman on the phone a week or two back, and she filled us in on a whole lot of great stuff she’s got going on in her life. In the next installment of a sort of “SB” series, following in the path of our interviews with David Baker and Anthony De Longis, we’ll tell you a few of the thoughts she expressed to us about what she’s got going on now.

Primary on Coleman’s agenda at the moment is “Snaggin’ the Stag: A Culinary Agenda,” a cookbook she and her sister Bethany have been collaborating on. Wrapped up in that particular project, it’s evident when you talk to Signy, are great recipes, some fab continental adventuring, and a whole lot of love. The extended title is “Luring the Hart from Forest to Table, A Book of Cookery,” and the writing is rich in imagery and emotional as well as culinary connection. Coleman and her sister traveled to exotic locales like Morocco to secure the inspiration and the research in great taste.

“It’s sort of memoirs of food and love and the chase that’s involved,” she tells us. “We tested all the recipes. We dressed, we photographed, everything is ours. We researched. There’s a lot of historical information, as well. It’s just really sexy and interesting and funny. My sister is as passionate about food as I am. There are so many good stories about food and love. … Everybody’s got a good story about food.”

http://www.snagginthestag.com/
It’s a subject matter for which Coleman truly has a passion.

“I pore through cookbooks and Bon Appetit magazines,” she says. “I read cookbooks like people read novels. When you write something and step back from it objectively and think, omigosh, I would want to read this, you get very excited about it.”

Also on Coleman’s agenda right now is the completion of the official Signy Coleman website, which she and her sister have been working on. Coleman says she found a need for it after reading some less-than-true stuff about herself around the Internet.

“No, I am not married,” she laughs. “And I haven’t been for years! And yes, I am actively pursuing George Clooney!” (OK, that was a joke! Read: Joke!)

But besides that great stuff, Coleman also does volunteering work and cares for her daughter Isabella, who’s still at home (her older daughter Siena, whose dad is Coleman’s “SB” costar Vincent Irizarry, is at college).

That’s a pretty full **plate**, so to speak! We’ll have another excerpt of our interview next Wednesday, when we’ll talk a little about her time on “Dallas” and “SB.”

You’ll see the full interview with Signy Coleman in the next edition of the BRBTV reference book “Send Me to Santa Barbara,” the fourth edition, which we hope to publish in the next few months. (Keep in mind that the purchase of any e-edition of a BRBTV reference guide entitles you to all free future updates!)

 November 2008

 Signy Coleman: Reminiscing about “Santa Barbara” and “Dallas”

 Last Friday, we let you in on some highlights of BRBTV’s interview with Signy Coleman, whom we remember so well as Celeste DiNapoli of “Santa Barbara,” and who also did a 1987 episode of “Dallas.” Today we take a look at a few of the things she has to say about her time on those shows.

“I was fortunate to be working with some great people,” she tells us of “Santa Barbara.” “Like working with Vincent (Irizarry), and that turned out pretty well, because we got married and had a beautiful daughter, Siena. Jill Farren Phelps was just tremendous, as well. She was just an amazing person to work with. In terms of cutting my teeth in the business, it was a beautiful experience. I feel very fortunate.”

The role of Celeste struck a certain chord with her.

“I liked her in her strength,” she says. “She was definitely a survivor. The circumstances that she found herself in — I related to it on a very personal level, because when I was doing the modeling circuit and flew to Paris, there were so many girls in one room. The amount of girls that are brought in — and to see who’s going to stick and who’s going to fall by the wayside. To see who’s going to get eaten by the monster machinery. I saw a lot of girls very chewed up and spit out, and in circumstances that they never thought they’d be in. Fortunately, for whatever reasons, it didn’t happen to me.”

But the role of Celeste — the former hooker with a heart of gold — wasn’t always a piece of cake.

“It was very difficult to play at times. There were times that I would leave the studio very uncomfortable, like I needed to go home and take a shower. But at the same time, what a great thing, to be able to experience the circumstances of that life without really experiencing the circumstances of that life. That’s one of the great parts of being an actor — you get to step into the life of the character without suffering the consequences.”

There are similiaries between the role of Celeste DiNapoli and the one-shot role that Coleman stepped into for the “Tick-Tock” episode of “Dallas,” where she was part of a cattle-call (for lack of a better word — this is Texas we’re talking about!) to find the new Valentine Girl for Sue Ellen Ewing’s company, Valentine Lingerie.

“‘Dallas’ was one of my favorite shows at the time, and it was a tremendous treat to be in the company of actors like Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy,” she says. “It was wonderful. I think I held my own. ‘Dallas’ was such a spicy show. I loved the diversity of the characters. Of course, what draws a person to a show? Conflict. They always had such great conflict to the show.”

And to be spotted on-screen amid a line of girls, and remembered so many years later? As with the two Huey Lewis and the News music videos she appeared in, that’s chick power!

Moving forward in her screen work, because even though she’s been writing lately she still certainly wants to keep on acting … Coleman did take a meeting a couple weeks ago with execs of a certain TV show we’re quite familiar with. And that’s all we can say about that!

You’ll see the full interview with Signy Coleman (including how she got that unique name — and it’s pronounced “sig-ny,” by the way) in the next edition of the BRBTV reference book “Send Me to Santa Barbara,” the fourth edition, which we hope to publish in the next few months. (Keep in mind that the purchase of any e-edition of a BRBTV reference guide entitles you to all free future updates!)