La La Anthony on Being an NBA Wife, Her Famous Friends and More

Wonderwall, Monday, August 22, 2011, 1:54pm (PDT)

By Rebecca Silverstein

• Imagine balancing motherhood, a career and NBA wifehood. Pretty chaotic, huh? Well, you don't need to imagine what that's like much longer. "La La's Full Court Life," starring La La Anthony and her New York Knicks hubby, Carmelo Anthony, premieres Monday at 9 p.m. EST/PST on VH1. Here, we chat with La La about the new series, how she and her hubby make a long-distance marriage work, and more.

  What made you decide to do a reality show?

  It was an interesting time in my life because Melo was going through a trade and possibly getting traded to New York, and it got a little crazy and I thought it would be cool to give people an inside peek at that, because you never see that.

  You have a lot of famous friends! Are they on the show too?

  Kelly Rowland is a huge part of the show. Serena Williams. Kim Kardashian. A lot of people coming out to support me, and you get to see us as girlfriends. You don't [usually] get to see that -- the things that we talk about when it's just us letting our hair down and letting loose.

  You and Carmelo are both from New York. Did moving back feel like going home?

  It did feel like we were coming home, but there's good and bad with coming home. Good is you're home. Bad is with family and friends everywhere, it's hard to find private time or time to just get away from it all. Ticket requests -- I mean, my BlackBerry crashed the first day I got there because every other phone call [was] "14 ticket requests!" "We want this!" "We want that!" People don't understand you need that moment to adjust and get settled in, so a lot of that is captured on the show.

  Congrats on you and Carmelo's one-year anniversary! How has it been?

  It's been great! We've been together for eight years, so I think we already knew everything about each other, there were no surprises after we got married. It was more making it official and putting a title on it, so for us, our relationship stayed the same and we just really enjoyed being around each other. We have a good time together, and that's what makes it work.

  How has being married to Carmelo been different from just being engaged to him?

  For me, it's this piece of you as a woman inside that just now says, "Wow, I'm married now." I don't think it's this big thing that everyone has to know about, but there's that part inside your heart of just knowing, "Wow, I'm a wife now. I am married." Also, to be able to say to our son, "We got married!" is important, because I always wanted to set that example.

• What's the hardest part about being married to an NBA player?

  I think it's the distance. Everyone's traveling all the time. He has his career, I have mine, and you spend a lot of time apart, so you've gotta make time together matter. You Skype and [do] all these fun things that keep it going. But also what I find about being apart is every time you see each other again, it's like a honeymoon all over again. You're so excited to see each other.

  Kiyan is so cute! Do you think you'll have more kids soon?

  I don't think so. I've finally figured out being a mom, working, my husband traveling all the time. We really feel like we have a good grip on it now that adding another child to the mix -- I mean, never say never, but right now, we enjoy our family as it is with three of us.

  In the series trailer, there's a part where you push the camera away when Kiyan's upset. You don't see that happen much in reality TV. What rules do you have about filming?

  I'm a mom first, and my son being happy and protected is my priority. It's a reality show, so I do want people to see my son, because my reality is Kiyan and watching after him, but at no point do I want him to feel uncomfortable. He knows that if he doesn't want to film or if he doesn't want the cameras around, there's no pressure on him to have to do that, and at that moment, he was having a bit of a breakdown and I needed to console him and be in "mommy mode," and I wanted to have that done in private, which is why I asked them to turn the cameras off. It's also a great thing about being executive producer of your show! You get a little bit more flexibility.

  You recently did a Funny or Die video called "Take Back the Perv." How did that come about?

  Those people at Funny or Die, they are creative geniuses! They had come up with the concept; I thought it worked with what I'm trying to do. I'm definitely stepping into the acting space more and wanted to show the comedic side of myself, and we had a great time filming that.

  What's up next for you?

• I just wrapped "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man." Steve Harvey wrote a book, and it got turned into a romantic comedy. It's an incredible cast: Jerry Ferrara from "Entourage," Taraji Henson, Gabrielle Union, Kevin Hart, Meagan Good -- the list could go on from here to New York City. And to be a part of that was really cool, because it's definitely where I see myself getting into. And I've been added to the cast of "Love, Loss and What I Wore" in New York. So I'm excited about that. It's a rotating cast, like Minka Kelly, AnnaLynne McCord, so to be added to be a part of something that women like that have done is an honor. Oct. 5 is opening night. It's a five-week run, eight shows a week, so definitely a grueling schedule, but enough shows that no one has any excuses why they cannot check me out at some point!