By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-21 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, 2011
The Hollywood Reporter’s 2011 hiring spree had a habit of producing unexpected bylines. One of the more unusual: a working actress on the masthead.
Then
In September 2011, FishbowlLA flagged yet another addition to The Hollywood Reporter’s expanding roster — this one well outside the usual trade-press mold. The magazine named actress Lake Bell its automotive contributing editor.
Bell’s “Test Drive” column, covering Hollywood’s high-end automotive tastes, had already run in four consecutive issues of the revamped weekly. The credential was more than novelty casting: Bell is the daughter of Harvey Siegel, the motorsports entrepreneur behind Virginia International Raceway and New Jersey Motorsports Park, so the car beat was genuinely in the family.
At the time, Bell was best known as a cast member of Adult Swim’s comedy Children’s Hospital — a few years before she would write, direct and star in her own feature.
Now
Bell’s career moved well beyond a trade-magazine column. In 2013 she wrote, directed and starred in In a World…, a comedy about the voiceover business that won a screenwriting prize at Sundance, and she went on to a steady run of acting, directing and voice work, including the animated series Harley Quinn.
The hire also captured something about The Hollywood Reporter under Janice Min: a glossy-magazine sensibility that blended hard trade reporting with lifestyle features and celebrity contributors. It was a deliberate bet that the trades could compete for general attention, not just industry subscribers — a model the magazine pursued aggressively for years before the business contracted again.
Original report archived on the Wayback Machine.