CHAMPAGNE WISHES, CAVIAR DREAMS ... HER LIFESTYLE IS OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS, BUT FOR THIS YOUNG ACTRESS, LESS IS MORE.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Staff Writer

When Adrienne Frantz's alarm goes off, she awakens to see squirrels skittering up and down the towering pine tree outside the window of her airy bedroom, and the Valley laid out before her.

``It's like being up in the trees,'' the soap star said, cuddling one of her four cats, Angel Larue. ``It's a great place to wake up in the morning. It's so peaceful.''

Peace and quiet is something Amber Moore - the teen-age hellion Frantz has played on the daytime soap opera ``The Bold and the Beautiful'' for the past three years - doesn't know much about.

The sweet-faced little golddigger worked as the rag-trade-rich Forrester family's baby-sitter, seduced the young heir to the family fortune, got pregnant, married him (even though he was in love with another girl), gave birth to his (or was it his?) stillborn baby, buried it in a desert grave and stole her cousin's baby to pass off as the Forrester grandchild.

Now, with Amber sick of her life of lies and dealing with the consequences, Frantz is playing the kind of scenes she loves - meaty and filled with emotion. The role brought her a nomination for the Outstanding Younger Lead Actress at Friday's Soap Opera Digest Awards.

When Frantz gets totally out of character, she settles into her new home in Studio City.

The three-level, renovated 1925 house, which she and her mom, Vicki, a clinical psychologist, moved into in October, is still a little bare, but that's to be expected. It's the 21-year-old's first house, a maze of 26 white-carpeted rooms on three levels, built up the side of a hill criss-crossed by meandering paths and dizzying staircases, punctuated by a lush garden, terraces and decks.

``Since I came to L.A. three years ago, I've wanted a house,'' Frantz said, comfortably ensconced on the sandstone hearth of her art deco carved fireplace, amid candles and bowls of rose-petal potpourri collected from her garden. ``It always was my goal, and I just started putting part of my paycheck aside for it.

``Six months ago, I just said, 'Today I'm ready to buy a house,' and this is the first one I looked at. I walked through the gate and said, 'When can I move in?' It just felt like this was my place. This was where I was supposed to be.''

It's a comfortable fit. The actress lives on the two upper floors, accessible from one street, and mom has a separate residence on the bottom floor, with its own garden and entrance on the street behind. The two share the actress's kitchen and upstairs office.

``We have it set up so we can be in the same place, but in two different houses,'' said Vicki Frantz, who took photos and magazines to the bank to show that her daughter had a responsible job and was capable of paying off a hefty mortgage, despite her youth. ``But if we want to watch a movie together, we can.''

That would be on the big-screen TV on the home's upper level. Upstairs also is the living room, with a cushy, buff-colored leather sofa, a mirrored bar and a tiny dining alcove overlooking the Valley. The room's centerpiece, a Christmas gift from a friend, is a funky painted game table: In its everyday incarnation, it's a chessboard with stylized painted wooden dogs and cats as the chess pieces. Turn the chess board over and it's a handpainted Monopoly board.

Cats, in fact, are becoming a theme throughout the house, from the punched-tin lantern on the bar to the carved, painted Indonesian table in the living room. Angels - from the blown-glass ones on the mantel to the delicate silver charm Frantz wears on a chain around her neck - run a close second.

Guest bedrooms are undecorated as yet, but the window-lined formal dining room - on the middle of the home's three levels, reached by a climb down a wide, steep staircase - is anchored by a long, dark-wood trestle table. A Venetian glass chandelier, which Frantz brought home from a recent location shoot, hangs over the table. Nearby are two early 20th-century china cabinets.

``That one was finished by my grandfather and has been in our family for years,'' said Michigan-born Frantz, indicating the larger of the two cabinets. ``I love antique furniture and old stuff. I pick it up whenever I see it.''

Her bedroom - an airy confection whipped up in tones of white and silver - is the room that appears to be the home's real living room, as in, actually being lived in. There's an alcove with a wicker sofa, books, teddy bears and pictures, a 1920s vanity Frantz refinished herself and a 150-year-old dresser, another family heirloom, which she plans to sand down and repaint.

``I like refinishing furniture,'' she said. ``It's something I do in my spare time - if I have any.''

Most days not filming ``B&B'' are spent doing interviews and photo shoots, making personal appearances, writing and recording songs (named best female vocalist at the 1997 Los Angeles International Music Awards, she's working on her first rock 'n' roll album) and reading scripts, looking for just the right movie.

She has already filmed two - ``Jimmy Zip,'' which won best feature at the Hollywood Film Festival, and ``Speedway Junky,'' Gus Van Sant's dark tale of runaways living on the streets of Las Vegas - both of which are due out this year. She plans to begin filming an indie, ``The Child Manuela,'' a remake of a 1931 German film, this spring.

Frantz wants to do the same kind of intelligent movies her role model, Meryl Streep, chooses to do, so she's turned down roles offered her in the latest teen-scream flicks.

``I've got my house; now I can play the roles I want,'' Frantz said. ``I don't want to do anything cheesy. I want to be in this for the long run.''

It's the same kind of determination she showed at age 3, when she announced that she wanted to take dancing and singing lessons, and at age 16, when she wanted to try her acting wings in New York, said mom Vicki.

``It was important for her to do what she wanted to do and follow her dreams. She's always had this dream of being an actress, and she goes about it in a responsible way.''

That's how she got her house, Frantz says: deciding what's responsible rather than what's fun.

``Most people my age, they get some money and they blow it on clothes or drugs or alcohol. And they have nothing to show for it. I try to follow my goals, but sometimes it's hard. It's a fine line: Do I really want those boots, or would I rather have a coffee table? Sometimes I buy the boots, but I'd rather save for the bigger goal.''

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Adrienne Frantz, who plays bad girl Amber Moore on ``The Bold and the Beautiful,'' is one of four soap opera actresses in contention for Outstanding Younger Lead Actress in the upcoming Soap Opera Digest Awards.

The awards, voted on by readers of Soap Opera Digest magazine, are the soap opera equivalent of television and film's People's Choice Awards.

Frantz, who will also be a presenter on the awards show, is in contention with Kelly Ripa, who plays Hayley Vaughn on ``All My Children,'' Alison Sweeney, who portrays Sami Brady on ``Days of Our Lives,'' and Maura West, who plays Carly Tenney on ``As the World Turns.''

NBC will broadcast the Soap Opera Digest Awards from 9 to 11 p.m. Friday from the Hollywood Palladium. ``The Bold and the Beautiful'' airs weekdays at 12:30 p.m. on CBS.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) It's a beautiful life for ' B&B's' Adrienne Frantz in her new Studio City home

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Adrienne Frantz poses with the custom-made cat and dog chess board table given to her by a friend. Frantz's grandmother taught her how to play chess at an early age because she believed all women should learn.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

(3 -- color) Vicki Frantz, left, and daughter Adrienne live in this three- story house in Studio City. The soap actress lives on the two upper floors, which are accessible from one street, while her mother resides on the bottom level, which has its own garden.

(4 -- color) The ``Bold and the Beautiful'' star plays with Cuddles, one of her four cats, in the living room of the renovated 1925 home she bought last October.

(5 -- color) The 21-year-old actress hangs out amid the trees on the deck of her home.

(6 -- color) no caption ("The Bold and the Beautiful" on TV)

(7) Adrienne Frantz, holding Lulu in the bedroom of her new home, loves it here: ``It's a great place to wake up in the morning.''

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

Box: IN THE SPOTLIGHT (See text)