WHAT A (WAX) FIGURE; VERY `BOLD' SOAP DIVA DARLENE CONLEY MAKES HER DEBUT AT MADAME TUSSAUD'S.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

California is famous for its worldwide export of strawberries, lemons, computer chips - and now soap opera diva Sally Spectra.

The flamboyant knockoff fashion designer, portrayed on ``The Bold and the Beautiful'' by Los Feliz actress Darlene Conley, will soon become part of the landscape in three of Madame Tussaud's famed wax museums.

The first of three statues, duplicating Spectra's mane of red hair and Rubenesque figure, will be unveiled this month in Amsterdam. Two identical figures in Spectra-vision will follow, one each for the famed museum's waxworks in London and Melbourne, Australia.

``It's an incredible honor,'' said Conley in a telephone interview between filming scenes on the Los Angeles-produced CBS soap. ``When they first approached me, I was dumbfounded. I almost fainted. It took me about three seconds to say yes.''

John Zak, the show's supervising producer, said the show's entire cast is pleased that one of its characters will be represented in the world-famous collection of wax figures.

``It's very significant ... because it's the first time a soap opera character has ever been immortalized by Madame Tussaud's,'' he said. ``It's an affirmation that this show is on the map and is an international sensation.''

The half-hour daytime drama usually ranks second or third most-watched among the 11 soaps in America but is consistently No. 1 in Italy, Belgium, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland, and is nearly as popular in India, Malaysia, Finland, Egypt and South Africa.

Worldwide, it is broadcast in 45 languages and is seen by more than 350 million viewers, making it the most-watched daytime drama.

And big-haired, attitude-laden Sally Spectra, who embodies the ``bold'' in the show's name, is a fan favorite.

Conley, who made her screen debut in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film ``The Birds,'' has played the raucous fashion mogul since 1989, winning Daytime Emmy nominations in 1991 and '92 for best supporting actress.

English sculptor Steve Swales (who also sculpted the Dalai Lama and Princess Diana for the wax museum) and his crew literally put Conley on a pedestal for two days several months ago in a suite at the Universal Sheraton hotel. They snapped photographs of the actress in full costume and makeup from every angle, then measured everything from the curvature of her eyeballs to the length of her toenails in an effort to make an exact duplicate of the actress in wax.

``Back in the old days, they used to put your face in a wax mold and fake the rest,'' Conley said. ``Now, they do it with surgical precision.

``The first session took nine hours, and I had this absolutely gorgeous young man (Swales) under my skirt for at least four hours, measuring away. That was the best part of the whole thing,'' she joked.

``He now knows me more intimately than either of my ex-husbands or my mother.''

All things considered, it wasn't that up close and personal.

``It's intimate, but they don't offend your modesty,'' she said. ``It's like going to the doctor.''

The pose that will welcome visitors to the wax museums is typically Sally Spectra: The figure is wearing a bottle-green ball gown with one leg peeking through a slit, the arms upraised in welcome.

Conley said she's seen segments of the statue, but not the whole thing assembled.

``But I know it's going to be magnificent,'' she said. ``He's made me look like a Greek goddess.''

The Amsterdam waxworks only recently opened, and the Sally Spectra figure is designed to draw a large audience to the new attraction.

If a December trip to Europe is any indication, the unveiling of the wax statue will be a spectacular event.

At the presentation of Italian fashion designer Rocco Barocco's new spring collection in Rome, the designer spotted Conley in the audience and demanded that she come on stage.

``The place went nuts,'' she said. ``We took pictures at the Eiffel Tower, and people came from all over, wanting autographs. We tried to walk through the (London) wax museum, and I was mobbed, absolutely mobbed. They love Sally over there.''

Conley will arrive in Amsterdam next week with an entourage of friends - including Barocco, Zak and a handful of other ``Bold and Beautiful'' cast members - to dedicate her statue.

``It'll be wonderful, enormous fun,'' she said. ``Sally would love it.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) A Madame Tussaud's employee tries to match ``Bold and the Beautiful'' star Darlene Conley's eyes during a modeling session for her wax figure. Conley, who plays designer Sally Spectra, is the first soap star to be immortalized at the famed wax museum.

(2) Sculptor Steve Swales takes precise measurements of Conley.

John Paschal