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\nLauralee Bell opened up to PEOPLE about her The Young and the Restless character, who\u2019s Christine Blair to some and Cricket to othersBell joined Y&R, which was created by her parents, in 1983 as teen model CricketBell\u2019s character and Michael Damien\u2019s Danny Romalotti\u00a0are engaged in the latest season<\/p>\n
A bug is an unconventional nickname, but it\u2019s one Lauralee Bell has been dealing with for over four decades<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Bell, 56, debuted on The Young and the Restless<\/a> \u2014 which was created by her parents William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell \u2014 in 1983 as a teen model named Cricket. Over the years, as Cricket went to law school and became a district attorney, she stopped using her entomological nickname, opting for her real name, Christine Blair, instead.\n<\/p>\n But for Bell, nothing compares to her original moniker. She tells PEOPLE exclusively that she thinks of her long-time character as \u201conly Cricket.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Lauralee Bell as Christine ‘Cricket’ Blair in ‘The Young and the Restless’.<\/p>\n CBS via Getty<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve only been okay with hearing that name if I’m in the courtroom or in a legal situation because obviously the other wouldn’t work,\u201d she says of Christine. \u201cBut I love that the OGs will forever and always call her Cricket.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Bell feels \u201ceven more\u201d strongly about using the name Cricket now that the character and Michael Damian\u2019s Danny Romalotti are \u201cfinally\u201d getting engaged again<\/a>. Danny and Cricket\u2019s love story started back in the \u201880s when, as Bell says, Cricket was a \u201clittle groupie girl\u201d in love with a rock star.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Bell notes that Danny hasn\u2019t always called the character Cricket, though, that \u201cthere was a time\u201d when he called her \u201cChris\u201d instead. \u201cWe were in trouble,\u201d Damian, 63, jokes about that time in the characters\u2019 lives, when Cricket was in a relationship with Doug Davidson\u2019s Paul Williams<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n The nickname Cricket also comes with one more perk. \u201cI love that there’s an emoji that’s a cricket because I use it now all the time,\u201d Bell says. \u201cEveryone should have their own emoji.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Both Bell and Damian are \u201cgrateful\u201d their fans have stuck around to see them get engaged again. \u201cI think the nostalgia is really beautiful and that’s what they’re connecting to,\u201d Damian says.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Looking back at the genesis of their on-screen romance in the 1980s, Bell says, \u201cThe scenes that we had every day were extremely playful. We were chasing each other around the apartment. We were putting ice down each other’s backs. We were tickling each other. We were playing strip poker. We were doing things that really draw people in because they feel like they’re watching your intimate moments.\u201d Damian calls their early romance \u201cvery sweet, very innocent.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Lauralee Bell in 2024.<\/p>\n Paul Archuleta\/Getty<\/p>\n Cricket and Danny married for the first time in 1990, but, thanks in part to the machinations of Danny Romalotti superfan Phyllis (Michelle Stafford<\/a>), they ended up divorcing.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n As for Bell and Damien, Bell thinks their on-screen relationship works in part because they have \u201cvery much the same sense of humor.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe also are really going to continue putting in as much playfulness as we can moving forward,\u201d Bell says. They also feel comfortable touching each other and playing around in scenes because of their decades of friendship and working together.\n<\/p>\n