Lauralee Bell Talks Directing & New Soap In Development, Plus Michael Damian Touts Netflix Success (EXCLUSIVE)

With their fictional characters’ on-screen wedding now a thing of the past following the conclusion of their two-part celebration on Monday, November 24, “The Young and the Restless” stars Lauralee Bell (Christine “Cricket” Blair) and Michael Damian (Danny Romalotti) are keeping themselves busy off-screen, with outside projects that are either currently in development or recently released.

In the case of Bell, she’s getting into the primetime soap opera producing game with a project she’s developing alongside “As The World Turns” alum Martha Byrne (ex-Lily Snyder), which comes more than a decade since Bell netted her first-ever Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class — Short Format Daytime Program for “mI promise,” the 2013 short drama, she wrote, direcected, executive produced and starred in.

Watch “mI promise” on YouTube

“It’s weird because the business is so crazy, it’s quiet, and then it gets busy again, and now there’s a bit of interest coming at us right now, so we’re just waiting to hear if this company wants to dive in. But yeah, it’s a primetime [soap]. Well, I still talk like we’re in the nineties, but yes, it would be, I love that. It’s like a ‘Dynasty,'” says Bell, giving a tidbit about the untitled project’s premise.

Comparing the traditional concept of “primetime” with today’s hybrid version when factoring in streaming, Bell notes, “My daughter and I, we were watching ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ [on Prime Video] over the summer and she’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I have to wait a week and whatever,’ and I’m like, ‘I love television like this.’ I love that agony of having to wait, and you can’t wait for Wednesday night, or for a certain night. That’s how I grew up. I mean, I couldn’t wait for ‘Knots Landing.’ I couldn’t wait for ‘Hart to Hart,’ we’re going way, way back. I couldn’t wait for ‘Love Boat’, all that. So, yeah, I mean, I would love it to be like that, where you have to really be excited.”

Chiming in, Damian was surprised to hear of some of Bell’s favorite shows growing up, pointing out how she never told him. “I mean, ‘Hart to Hart’ was so, so long ago. Well, ‘Knots Landing’ was my all-time favorite,” responded Bell to Damian. “It’ll be one of those,” Bell continued, referring again to the type of soap opera she’s developing with Byrne. “Be careful what you wish for, because we’ve definitely been pursuing this for a while, but it seems like the timing is pretty good coming up.”

In the meantime, Bell is excited about some of the changes taking place in daytime, particularly behind the scenes at “The Young and the Restless,” where the show’s decision to renovate the Newman ranch last year was a welcome one.

“I was just so excited to see the Newman Ranch, to see Victor [Eric Braeden] and Nikki [Melody Thomas Scott] move back in and have that be their home again, and to see them dance in the living room or have a conversation about their kids and how they’ve grown,” says Bell. “To me, just that is so representative of ‘Y&R.’ It’s just this solid, strong, iconic Newman couple that has gone through their life together and seeing their kids and grandkids come in the door, and again, there’s very few shows that can say they can do that, and it’s just every time I see them on the couch having a scene together, it’s such a heart grabber for me.”

Michael Damian: The Hit Maker

In September, Netflix released Damian’s latest film, “The Wrong Paris,” starring Miranda Cosgrove (“iCarly”) and Pierson Fodé (“The Bold and the Beautiful”), which debuted in second place on the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart, behind the juggernaut that is/was “KPop Demon Hunters.”

The film follows a young woman named Dawn (Cosgrove), who thinks she’s joining a dating show in Paris, France, only to land in Paris, Texas. Although she comes up with an exit plan, she ends up sparking the fiery-hot cowboy bachelor, Trey (Fodé). “The Wrong Paris” is the latest among several in which Damian has been a producer alongside his wife, Janeen Damian.

The film ranked first on the global chart during the period of September 15-21, 2025, with 21.8 million viewers (38.9 million hours viewed), topping the animated cult phenomenon by 600,000 views (21.8 million vs. 21.2 million), and more than three million additional hours viewed (38.9 million vs. 35.4 million). The film was #1 in 53 countries that week, and went on to spend four weeks overall in the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart. During the period of September 22-28, 2025, the film ranked in the Global Top 10 in 65 countries.

Watch the trailer for “The Wrong Paris” below.

While Damian was unable to reveal what’s next for him from a producing perspective, he did share, “I’ve got a bunch of different projects in development, and I was thrilled that everything went well with ‘The Wrong Paris’ being the number one streaming movie in the world, which is pretty awesome. And I’ve also been pushing, working really hard on the new record, the new album and the new single that I sang on the show.”

In October, Damian performed an acoustic version of his new single “Let Me Into Your Heart” on “The Young and the Restless,” which was part of a special storyline moment in which his alter ego shared the stage with cast members in a heartfelt musical sequence. He’s hoping the show will provide future opportunities to showcase Danny’s musical success.

“That would be great,” Damian states when asked if he’d like to perform more on the soap opera. “I think that’d be fun and that would be awesome.” As for what else he’s been up to musically,” Damian says, “I am working on a bunch of songs for a complete album, so as songs are finished, I’ll be sending them to the show and see if they work out. But I think it would be really cool to bring… I think that’s a really nice added element that worked really well for many, many years in the past. So, I think it would work organically now, especially with Daniel [Michael Graziadei] becoming a wonderful guitar player and getting into music and singing, which lends itself to coming together for some family music. It’d be fun.”

Less than two weeks after its release, “Let Me Into Your Heart” jumped to #29 on the Mediabase Adult Contemporary Music Chart. The song, written and produced by the Grammy Award-winning hit makers Larry Weir and Tom Weir, is the first track to be released as part of Damian’s highly anticipated upcoming album. The single is now available on all major streaming platforms, and the album will be released in January 2026.

Lauralee Bell: The Director

While acting and producing are the focus right now for Bell, she wouldn’t say no to the idea of directing episodes of “The Young and the Restless,” or even “The Bold and the Beautiful,” both of which were created by her parents, the late William J. Bell and the late Lee Phillip Bell. At the same time, her brother, Brad Bell, has spent the better part of three decades spearheading “The Bold and the Beautiful” as executive producer and head writer.

“I mean, I haven’t really thought about it, but I never say never,” Bell says when asked about potentially directing either soap or other shows, considering her prior experience in producing and directing “mI promise,” plus her well-received work with several behind-the-scenes featurettes highlighting key events and moments from “The Young and the Restless” in recent years.

“I never say no, but right now I’m so happy that Heather Tom [Katie Logan, ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’] is directing/writing at ‘B&B,’ and now Lizzie, Elizabeth Hendrickson [Chloe Mitchell, ‘The Young and the Restless’], is directing here, which is incredible. So happy for her. So we’ll see. Right now, I’m just happy we’re back on a bit more and able to tell this story. Yeah, I would have to be asked first and probably do a lot of studying.”

Soaps Bring Comfort

With soaps being some of the longest-running television programs still in production, it’s no wonder they’ve become something fans have relied upon to get through their day, which Bell says, “In this day, now more than ever, there’s such comfort in finding your show that just makes you feel safe and at home, and you can count on. And ‘Y&R’ should always be that for our fans.”

Speaking of fans, for anyone who did not watch Danny and Cricket get married for the second time, the full episodes are now available to stream on Paramount+. Meanwhile, the couple’s first wedding, originally aired on November 16, 1990, will be rebroadcast on Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving Day) in place of an original episode.

“If you’re a viewer and you remember watching the show with other family members, it’s also a very nostalgic moment for the viewer personally, because this is just a really heartfelt feel-good show,” comments Bell, talking about the first wedding. “So, if you’re going to watch one, this wedding should be it, because maybe you’ll think of that time you watched it with your grandma, or when you heard it in the background, or whatever. This is the episode to grab your personal heartstrings as well.”

Watch a behind-the-scenes featurette from “The Young and the Restless” below that highlights how Cricket & Danny’s special celebration came together from a production standpoint.