As The Young & The Restless celebrates 50 years of owning the daytime TV landscape, daughter of Y&R creators Lee and Phillip Bell, Lauralee Bell, is celebrating 40 years of playing goody-two shoes Christine ‘Cricket’ Blair. From teen model to Genoa City DA, there’s nothing our Cricket can’t do. Including incur the wrath of arch-nemesis Phyllis (Michelle Stafford): remember the time Christine and Paul got run down by a car driven by Phyllis (oops!) or the time Phyllis put a live octopus on Christine’s bed, the soap version of a horse’s head, I guess? Or the time Mary Jo Benson gunned Christine down?
Turns out Lauralee Bell doesn’t remember being gunned down by Mary Jo Benson either. But she does remember not using her surname when she was cast on her father’s show, never complaining, and always knowing her lines, lest she reap nepo-baby wrath from others. She also recalls telling the actor playing Cricket’s rapist to seriously manhandle her the way a rapist might, to make it as real as possible, and incurring the bruises the next day – so much so that makeup didn’t need to be put on her.
All part of a trip down memory lane I got to take with Bell, as she did a huge press tour last week to celebrate four decades of playing Little Miss Perfect on the global soap phenomenon. Here’s our chat:
(Featured Image: CBS)
