Whats Hot On TV

This is me. LauraBelle, aka Laura Tucker. When I first signed onto AOL in 1993, I was stuck for a screenname. I used the only one I could think of, a nickname given to me from a guy I used to work with. Sometimes he’d call me LB, sometimes Belle, sometimes even the full LauraBelle, and oddly enough, occasionally Spartacus, but her never called me just Laura. I didn’t intend to keep that as a screenname, but somehow I adopted LauraBelle as an alter ego. She is much bolder than Laura.

When LauraBelle was first coined, she was a computer typesetter/graphic designer at a printing company. That’s kind of why I held onto LauraBelle, as once I resigned and became a stay-at-home mom, I wasn’t sure who Laura was anymore, but I knew who LauraBelle was. I continued graphic design as a freelancer, but soon it just wasn’t fulfilling enough anymore. It fulfilled me on a creative level, but not on another level, which I wasn’t quite sure what it was.

After a particularly bad year, which included a family tragedy, I wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper. While it went unpublished, it was passed around in emails, and I started hearing again how I had a certain talent there to express myself in writing. I hadn’t heard that in so long. I started work on a book about the family tragedy, but couldn’t figure out exactly where I wanted this story to go. While working on this book, I answered an ad for a writer for a reality TV site, and my whole world changed.

I didn’t plan on doing this TV writing long, but the longer I wrote for Reality Shack, the longer it became who I was, or perhaps it was that it opened me up to who I really was. As LauraBelle, I wrote recaps, interviews, and commentaries for American Idol, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, The Biggest Loser, etc. I still write there, 4-1/2 years later, as it’s too much of who LauraBelle is. It would be like leaving home.

Yet, I also yearned for more writing, and the more I did of this writing at Reality Shack, the more I realized it was who I was. I quit freelancing graphic design and opened myself up to freelance writing. I’ve had a variety of different gigs, writing both as LauraBelle and Laura Tucker. Each of them open me up more to who I really am.

I’m mainly an entertainment writer. It’s as if all those afternoons after school watching Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore, and the 3:30 Movie are finally paying off. Along with my writing at Reality Shack, I’m also writing reviews “with a point of view” at Viewpoints. I write film reviews, interviews, TV reviews, and a weekly What’s Hot at the Movies This Week column at Film Monthly. Along with running this blog, I also maintain a celebrity gossip blog at Troubled Hollywood .

I don’t always consider LauraBelle a writer, though. Sometimes I think of her as a storyteller. My objective when I write is to make people feel and think, and even laugh a little in the process. I have a very empathetic side to myself, and feel I do my best writing when able to bring that important piece of me into my words.

This is another of my alter egos. This is Miss Laura. She’s a second dan black belt in tae kwon do and an instructor at South Elgin Martial Arts. She kicks ass, as you can see. She doesn’t always feel like a girl and sometimes with her hair up feels like she’s a husky man, but in many ways it just doesn’t matter in that arena. All that matters to her then is that she likes feeling strong.

Someone recently told me they thought I was strong and determined, yet compassionate. It could be most possibly the best comment I have ever received. In examining that, I think maybe that’s who Laura is, as she’s part LauraBelle and part Miss Laura. She’s a storyteller that likes to entertain people and also likes to help people and make a difference in this world.

If I’ve made you think, feel, or laugh today, drop me a line at

LauraBelle@realityshack.com.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS