FROM SHOP TO STAGE. Two new stars of Broadway's 'Chicago' have heads
for business - and bods for sin

By CHRIS ROVZAR

In the musical "Chicago," Lisa Rinna and Brenda Braxton play women who make a business out of killing.

In real life, the two are making a killing with their businesses.

Both are entrepreneurs who found success starting their own small companies.

Rinna owns an expanding chain of clothing stores called Belle Gray (named after her daughters, Delilah Belle and Amelia Gray), and Braxton last year began an upscale men's grooming salon in Harlem called BBraxton. And since the two have been facing off in front of the curtains, they've begun trading tips and advice behind them.

"My oldest daughter was having a hard time because we [Rinna and husband Harry Hamlin, who also stars in "Chicago"] usually put them to bed at night, and now we can't. All of a sudden, she started to freak out. Brenda came in and said, 'Why don't you have them come to the show every night, so they can be with you and then they can go to bed?'" explains Rinna. "I thought, 'That's a great idea,' so we did it. Not only did they completely connect with Brenda right off the bat, but it worked. They let our nanny put them to bed and it's all good
now!"

On the business front, Rinna is better equipped to dole out advice. In 2006, she left her job on the television show "Soap Talk" to open a store.

"I love fashion and I love to shop. My husband studied architecture in college," she says. "We started to investigate how to do it and, five months later, we had a store. We did it all ourselves, we didn't hire anybody. I went downtown, bought all the clothes myself!"

Rinna now owns two Belle Gray locations in California, and expects to open another in Las Vegas in 2008.

Braxton also came up with the idea for her own business with the help of her husband, power fitness trainer Anthony Van Putten.

"My husband said there's no place really where guys can go, other than sitting in nail salons with women, where they can get manicures and pedicures," Braxton explains. "The novelty of it is that a lot of women know what they like in men. Just like how a lot of male designers know how they want women to look. That's a good idea!

"This isn't really something that's new," Braxton adds. "Back in the '30s and '40s, especially in Harlem, that's what they did. The dapper gentleman."

Now that her business has taken off, Braxton said she, too, is thinking of expanding to Vegas in the fall - so she and Rinna can have a second act together.

Visit the "Chicago" stars' shops at www.bellegray.com and BBraxton, 1400 Fifth Ave., at W. 116th St., or www.bbraxton.com