TV Actress Comes Home To Help Out -- Bissett Raises Money For Charities
BELLEVUE - Kent native Josie Bissett, known by nighttime soap fans as Jane Mancini of "Melrose Place," has managed both an acting career in Southern California and co-ownership of a Bellevue Square business.
Last month her television character boarded a plane for home in her final episode for the Fox Network series. Bissett is coming home, too, to raise funds for the Bellevue Schools Foundation, Children's Hospital & Medical Center, and a national pediatric AIDS charity called DISHES, or Determined Involved Supermodels Helping to End Suffering.
"Nothing beats your hometown, and my family is here," said Bissett. "I miss them so much."
Bissett will kick off a charity auction Friday at the Paint Bar, a paint-it-yourself ceramic shop she owns with her husband, Rob Estes, also a "Melrose Place" star; her sister, Jenny Gibbs; and brother-in-law, Grant Gibbs.
The family has gathered a few dozen celebrity-painted ceramic pieces that will be on display during a silent auction throughout the month.
The auction will include pieces by locals such as youths from Children's Hospital, the Bellevue High School homecoming court and Seattle SuperSonic Coach George Karl; celebrities such as model Cindy Crawford and "Friends" star Lisa Kudrow; and cast members of "Melrose Place."
Bissett said she lugged her paints and unfinished ceramics to work to gather the "Melrose" collection. The cast produced ceramic items such as a soccer-themed picture frame by Andrew Shue and a jumbo mug by Jack Wagner that have been on display since the store opened.
"It's addicting. I fell in love with it," Bissett said of ceramic painting, a hobby she picked up in Santa Monica, Calif. She opened the Paint Bar in Bellevue Square a year ago.
"I thought it was the perfect thing for Seattle, especially with the weather," she said. "I wanted to open a business that I care about and that I could get behind."
Bissett's sister and brother-in-law help run the shop, and she is there almost monthly as she travels to the Northwest to visit relatives. Bissett hopes to move back to the Seattle area within five years, she said.
"Right now I'm doing things I sort of missed out on," said Bissett, who left "Melrose Place." "I worked so hard for so long and I got sort of burned out."
Bissett, 27, left Thomas Jefferson High School in Federal Way during her junior year. She moved to Japan to model sportswear and cosmetics, then headed to Los Angeles, where she found work in commercials, television and films. She was guitarist Bobby Krieger's wife in Oliver Stone's "The Doors" and was a regular on television's "The Hogan Family."
Bissett's last name was originally Heutmaker, but when agents stumbled over the pronunciation, she adopted her mother's maiden name.
While hosting a fashion show last year, she learned of DISHES, backed by the modeling industry. The Bellevue auction was a natural step, she said.
All proceeds will go to DISHES and the local charities. Just what the celebrity-painted pieces will go for is unknown, said Jill Heutmaker, operations manager at the Paint Bar and Bissett's cousin.
"I honestly don't know because this is the first time we've done this," Heutmaker said, "but the Heather Locklear, Cindy Crawford and George Karl pieces will probably go for a pretty good price."
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Actress Josie Bissett will be at the Paint Bar in Bellevue Square from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday to kick off a monthlong celebrity-art auction. The Paint Bar is upstairs, next to Nordstrom.