Imagine the shock to find this in my inbox from my on-the-case cousin:
“Dear Laura,
I assume this is based on you.”
I clicked on her link to find that the “this” is a new TV show, “The Mysteries of Laura,” in which Debra Messing plays a single mom homicide detective who looks great in a bathing suit and spits out one-liners like she has a staff writing for her.
And that her name is Laura Diamond.
My first reaction was to feel violated: That’s my name!
Then I remembered: it’s not only my name. There’s a singer who got http://www.Lauradiamond.com first. There are scores of Laura Diamond’s on Facebook. Once I wasn’t even the only Laura Diamond in the room. At a Santa Monica wine bar, after seeing my name on my credit card the waitress said, “Laura Diamond is my best friend’s name. And she’s sitting right over there!” She gestured to a younger, prettier, brunette Laura Diamond. I wasn’t even the best-looking Laura Diamond in the room.
I have some thinking to do. Should I use this to my benefit, and pretend that the show is based on my secret other life? Should I embrace the fact that my name sounds like it belongs to a homicide detective? I mean, that’s hot, right? Or do I need a nom de plume, lest people think Debra Messing’s character is writing books?
I can either embrace my moment in the limelight, or go back to my family’s pre-Ellis Island appellation — NBC is unlikely to name a character Laura Dimondshtein.
I think the only thing to do is to claim her with pride. After all, I do love Debra Messing.
Laura Diamond’s of the world, do you have any suggestions as to how to handle this?
Laura Nicole Diamond 
That’s wild. Though, there’s no Laura Diamond as cool as you, I’m sure. (These days I’m often not the only Valentina in a room anymore — but if they had my last name, too, that would be really bizarre!) Will you watch the show?
Thank you, oh Valentina, who has never known the blandness of being one of a dozen girls with your name or some variation — Lori, Lauren, Laurel, Lora, Lara, Laurie. I think all the Laura Diamonds should join together and start a political party. Or maybe a rock band, called the Laura Diamonds!
I watched the trailer, and it looks great. I HAVE to watch!
Omg – hysterical! I also have a doppelgänger named Susan Bernardo who is an English professor at a liberal arts college and writes critical essays about science fiction authors. This WAS the life I was headed toward til I left the PhD program at Yale and headed down a different path. I felt bummed at first that she did it and I “failed” but my choices started me down the windy road to the amazing life I have now writing kids lit 🙂 It’s all good!
I love that you confess that your name-doppelganger’s achievements made you question your own accomplishments. We are too human!
Ms. Laura D, you are a distinct, beautiful, funny, and smarter than all the Laura Diamonds in any room. Claim your name! (although I love the preEllis version too)
There are all the compliments I was fishing for! Judy Silk, you win a year’s supply of gummy worms.
Ah yes – the numerous names the sames. There are so may Judith Freeds that I long ago stopped counting – even ones with the same middle name and all about the same age. We live in the same cities, go to the same doctors, shop at the same stores and even take Pilates in the Palisades with the same instructor. None as TV characters however. Embrace it – that is kind of fun.
That’s what I’m going to do!
well the solution is obvious to me: if debra messing has decided to take your name, then… you should totally change your name to “debra messing”
I don’t think I could wear her name as well as she does. I think I’m going to apply to the LAPD and become a homicide detective, then convince myself she’s playing me.
“What’s in a name…?”
Amen, Bernice! From, R & N’s Aunt Lala.
I love Dave’s solution, but the name Laura Diamond is too beautiful to change. As Christopher’s mother, however, I could suggest Laura Diamond Heisen.
Perfect solution! No one, so far as I can tell, has named their TV cop Detective Heisen. I think I just decided to change that. A teleplay is in the works.