Lifestyle
How to have the best Sunday in L.A, according to Halle Bailey
When Halle Bailey moved from Georgia to Los Angeles as a wide-eyed preteen nearly 15 years ago, the city felt like a wonderland of possibility.
“Being from the South, when you first come to L.A., you’re like, ‘Hollywood. Wow. This is where all the celebrities are,’” says the Grammy-nominated singer and actress. At any moment, she thought she might cross paths with Halle Berry — the similarly named actress she’s often mistaken for — on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
But after living in the city for a while, Bailey, now 26, says she realized L.A. is made up of all sorts of different pockets — ones “where people are really Hollywood, bougie” and others “where people are chill, like hippies,” she says. Her favorite neighborhoods are Silver Lake, Venice and “places where people are just like, yeah, one love,” she says, laughing.
These days, Bailey is one of the celebrities people would be thrilled to see strolling down Hollywood Boulevard. She’s built a career that bridges music, TV and film: By 13, she and her sister Chloe Bailey — together known as Chloe x Halle — had signed to Beyoncé’s label; she’s earned six Grammy nominations (including one for her debut solo album released last fall); and she played young Nettie in “The Color Purple” and starred as Ariel in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” a blockbuster role she’s recently been reflecting on.
Bailey’s next venture? Starring in her first romantic comedy, Universal’s “You, Me & Tuscany,” which hits theaters April 10. She plays Anna, a young woman who impulsively crashes at a empty Italian villa by pretending to be the owner’s fiancée.
“It felt good to play a young woman who was grown, but still discovering herself,” she says. “I felt like I was playing the essence of the Halle who is finding herself now.”
On her perfect Sunday in L.A., Bailey would have a day of fun with her 2-year-old son, Halo. Here’s what they’d do.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
7:30 a.m.: Wake up and jump into mommy duties
I love mornings. I leave my curtains open while I sleep because I like when the sun wakes me up. We all doomscroll, which is kind of bad to say, but the first thing I check is my phone. Then I have mommy duties right at 8 a.m. Sometimes before [Halo] wakes up, I get a chance to do some things for myself like go outside and sit in the sun for some meditation or stretching. I don’t get to do it every day, but I try. Or I’ll make some tea or a smoothie and just have a moment of gratitude for waking up that day.
8:30 a.m.: Crank up the music
Once Halo is up, we do breakfast right away. I don’t know why I’m super into boiled eggs right now [laughs]. But I love a boiled egg in the morning with either avocado or hash browns. My baby loves hash browns too. I try to make a balanced breakfast and then from there it’s kind of party time.
We’ve been blasting the new Jill Scott album and it’s really cool how the music you play in your house can just change the mood, the vibe and bring good energy into the space that you’re in. And on a Sunday, I don’t know if it’s just because of the way I was raised, but automatically I think, “OK, I need to straighten up for the week. I need to get the house reset.” So maybe I’m cleaning up the kitchen or organizing toys, or making sure the bathroom is straight, or washing clothes while the music is blasting and we’re dancing around, having fun.
12 p.m.: Solo time while the baby naps
I’ll take a lunch break. If I’m in the cooking mood, I love making comfort food like chicken and rice with cabbage and mac and cheese. Something that is just warm and comfy. If I’m not doing that, I’m ordering Wing Stop or Chipotle. I would chill outside for a while until my son’s nap time, which is around 12:30 p.m. He’ll sleep until like 3:30 p.m., so then I have two hours to myself and sometimes I do nothing. Sometimes I just need to sit down and I’ll be on my phone on TikTok or I’ll watch a show. I recently binged the new “Love is Blind” season. I also started watching “Real Housewives” again, but, like, the beginning seasons. I really love the show “My Strange Addiction.” It’s just so hilarious to me. Those are some guilt-free shows that I turn on and my brain can turn off.
I might even go into the studio if I’m hearing a melody in my head or pick up my guitar. Sometimes I might take a nap too, and that feels really good on a Sunday.
4 p.m.: Go on an easy sunset hike
If I feel up for leaving the house, we’ll go for a walk, to the park or maybe even a sunset hike. I’ve always been a nature girl and I feel like it just grounds me, and I’m able to center myself, especially for the start of a new week. There’s a lot of really beautiful hikes in California, but I’ve found ones that are easy and safe to take a baby on so I’m not stressing if he’s running ahead of me or behind me. On a Sunday, you just want to rest, so you’re not trying to do a full-blown workout. Sometimes we’ll get halfway through and then we’ll turn back and go home [laughs].
Near Studio City, there’s a really good one called Fryman [Canyon]. It’s hard in the beginning, but as you get higher it gets easier and you see the view, and you’re just like, “I can do this.” We recently went to Point Dume, which I had never been to, but I saw the view on TikTok. It’s a really beautiful beach hike in Malibu and I love it there. The hike up is super easy, but there’s a field of flowers that you walk through to get to the viewpoint where everyone takes pictures overlooking the beach.
6:30 p.m.: Bath time
I love a bubble bath. If my son is with me that night, we do a whole fun toys in the bath type of vibe. But if it’s a solo night, it’s like candles, lavender bubbles, lights are dim, jazz music is playing in the background, like Billie Holiday, and that is the ultimate reset.
7:30 p.m.: Dinner and a show
If I have a sitter, I might go out to dinner. I like Lucia, which is a Caribbean restaurant in Hollywood. I think the first time I went, they had a really good oxtail mac and cheese. When I went back the menu had changed and I ordered the jerk chicken, which was also good. Also, I’ve been loving the Blue Note recently. I saw Esperanza Spalding there last year.
10 p.m.: Watch something low–stakes before bed
Sometimes I try to force myself to turn off all screens, all phones and go to bed because I need the sleep. It’s either that or I’m up watching something. I just really like watching things that make me feel like I can laugh and I don’t have to think about it. I get really emotionally invested in shows. If I try to watch “The Pitt” at the end of the day, it feels so emotionally exhausting. During the day is OK, but at nighttime, I just need to laugh.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 21: Laverne Cox attends the “Animal Farm” New York Premiere at Regal Theater on April 21, 2026 in New York City.
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In 2013, when the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black came out, the world met the character Sophia Burset — a Black trans woman serving as the resident hairstylist in prison.
For much of the audience, it was also the first time they met actress Laverne Cox — who landed the role of Sophia at the age 40, just when she was thinking of quitting acting altogether.
In her new memoir Transcendent, Cox talks about the challenges she faced long before Netflix came knocking: a mother who withheld love, a father who was never around and the brutal denigration she encountered growing up Black and trans in the deep South.
To unlock this and other bonus content — and listen to every episode sponsor-free — sign up for NPR+ at plus.npr.org. Regular episodes haven’t changed and remain available every weekday.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
Scott Simon talks with author Judy Blume at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival in May.
Tira Howard Photography./Courtesy Santa Fe International Literary Festival
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Judy Blume is the legendary writer of books for young adults including Are You There God It’s Me Margaret, Deenie, Tiger Eyes, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Blubber.
Her last book, 2015’s In The Unlikely Event, was published more than a decade ago. Blume now spends her time reading children’s books behind the counter at her bookstore in Key West, Florida. Though she says she is done writing, her books remain beloved; her readers numerous and devoted.
Judy Blume spoke with NPR’s Scott Simon at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival in May. Here are excerpts from that conversation, edited in parts for clarity and length.
Scott Simon: How did you begin to write? What do you think made you a writer?
Judy Blume: I was a reader. And, you know, I meet so many kids and they say, “I want to be a writer when I grow up, but I don’t like to read.” And I say, “You know what? Forget being a writer.” Because I think every writer — that I know anyway — grew up a reader. And certainly that was true for me.
Simon: What was the spark that set it in motion from reading to writing, do you think?
Blume: I was married young. I had two kids young. And I was desperate for a creative outlet. I loved taking care of babies, but I needed something else and it could have been anything.
Simon: I have read that at one point in your life you made felt art pieces?
Scott Simon with Judy Blume in Santa Fe in May.
Tira Howard Photography/Courtesy Santa Fe International Literary Festival
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Tira Howard Photography/Courtesy Santa Fe International Literary Festival
Blume: Oh God, my first career. You know, I stopped because the Elmer’s glue — I’m an allergic person — started to give me funny things on the tips of my fingers. I made $300 selling those. And I bought myself a small electric typewriter. And the rest is history.
But I always had stories inside my head — when I was 9 years old. I bounced a rubber ball against the side of my house for hours. But really what was going on were stories. Fabulous stories, very melodramatic. I never told anybody. I never asked a friend, “Hey, do you have stories inside your head all the time?” Because I thought they’d think I was weird, which I might have been. So the stories were always there.
Simon: When you were writing, what was the process like for you?
Blume: Well, I kept a notebook for each book and I scribbled everything in it. Everything, everything, everything for a long time. For months.
And then on the day that I feel ready to start, well, that’s either the scariest part of writing or the best. Because, you know, when you have a good day — I mean, I had kids, and I would sit down at the dinner table and I would say, like, “You will never believe what Tony did today.” Because they’re real. They’re real to you. And you’re living with them for months, sometimes years. And you’re locked up in a little room all day with them. That’s why 50 years is enough. I was ready to come out into the world.
But I have found another career that I love dearly. I have a bookstore and I love that.
Tira Howard Photography/Courtesy Santa Fe International Literary Festival
Simon: I get the idea that you, at least for the moment, don’t miss writing right now.
Blume: I don’t miss writing but I’m very glad that I wrote. I mean, writing changed my life. But it was time to let it go. Could I have come up with more ideas and written more books? Yes. But I’m really happy that I found something else that I love to do.
Simon: Do characters ever come calling on you?
Blume: No. They know better. They’re quiet.
You know how many letters I get? “We need Judy to write a book — Margaret In Menopause.”
Margaret is always going to be 12. She’s not knocking, saying, “Let me out. I’m in menopause!”
They are what they are. They stay in the book. They stay in the book. They live for me in the book. And then I have to let them go.
Director James Burrows attends the “Will & Grace” start of production kick off event and ribbon cutting ceremony at Universal City Plaza on August 2, 2017 in Universal City, California.
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LOS ANGELES — James Burrows, who helped create volumes of laughter as director of more than a thousand episodes of such classic television comedies as “Cheers,” “Taxi,” “Friends” and “Will and Grace,” died Friday. He was 85.
His family confirmed his death in a statement to People, saying he “passed away peacefully today surrounded by his family.” No location or cause of death was provided.
Burrows spent his career behind the camera specializing in situation comedies. Few viewers recognized him or knew his name, other than to see it flash quickly on the screen in the opening credits. But they knew his work.
Burrows got his start in television relatively late at age 35 in 1974, directing episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” and “Laverne & Shirley.”
He co-created “Cheers,” directing 243 of the 273 episodes, as well as all 246 episodes of “Will and Grace.”
He also helmed multiple episodes of such hits as “Frasier,” “Friends” and “Mike & Molly,” and the pilots of “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory.”
“When I direct a television show, I try to reach that sweet spot where the best script meets the best performance and the best chemistry between performers,” Burrows wrote in his 2022 memoir “Directed by James Burrows.” “Hitting that exact moment, where these factors land in combination, results in the sweetest and most enduring laugh.”
His family said, “Burrows understood that great comedy was never simply about laughter. It was about humanity, connection, and truth. That understanding became the foundation of a career that forever changed television.
“But beyond his remarkable achievements, Burrows will be remembered for something even greater: his kindness, generosity, and unwavering belief in the people around him. He possessed a rare ability to make everyone better and was known for remembering every person he met by name, making colleagues at every level feel seen, valued, and appreciated,” the family statement said.
Born James Edward Burrows on Dec. 30, 1940, in Los Angeles, he moved to New York when he was 5 years old. He spent five years in the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus until his voice started to change. He attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art.
His father was writer, director and producer Abe Burrows, whose Broadway hits included “Guys and Dolls” and “Can-Can.” The elder Burrows also mentored Larry Gelbart, future creator and producer of the TV show “M(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H.”
The younger Burrows spent hours of his youth in theaters and studios watching his father work, dining with him at such famed New York haunts as Sardi’s and Gallagher’s and meeting celebrities who attended his father’s New Year’s Eve parties.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, Burrows attended the graduate program of the Yale School of Drama, where his classmates included actor-comedian Robert Klein, playwright John Guare and film director John Badham.
At Yale, he was required to take directing classes and he got hooked.
Burrows’ first sitcom experience was as Burl Ives’ dialogue coach on “O.K. Crackerby!” which was directed by his father and ran for one season on ABC in 1965.
From there, he was an assistant on “The Patty Duke Show.” He moved back to New York and worked for Broadway producers Lee Guber, Frank Ford and Shelly Gross. He first met actor Moore while working on the Broadway production of “Holly Golightly,” an adaptation of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” that was directed by his father.
Burrows eventually worked as a stage manager for various road productions, where he met such actors as Hugh O’Brien, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Julie Harris.
By 1974, after working in dinner theater and summer stock, he turned on his television and saw Moore’s eponymous TV show. He wrote her a letter asking if there was any opening “small or smaller” at her production company that he could fill, according to his memoir.
Moore’s husband and business partner, Grant Tinker, invited Burrows to Los Angeles to direct an episode of the comedy. He apprenticed for MTM Enterprises, which had four sitcoms on the air at the same time.
Burrows cited his theater background for learning how to give actors direction and block out scenes. He’s credited for being one of the first sitcom directors to increase the typical multi-camera television shoot from three to four cameras.
The common thread between Burrows’ shows were the bonds between friends and unrelated families, whether it was the motley crew of regulars meeting at the bar in “Cheers” or the drivers working toward a better life in “Taxi” or the 20-somethings sharing the same apartment building in “Friends.”
“The best sitcoms transcend the screen and reach out and grab the audience by the throat and by the heart,” Burrows wrote in his memoir.
He relished discovering new acting talent while directing more than 75 pilots that were picked up as series.
“Having directed over a thousand shows means that almost any night you can turn on your television or go online and find a show that I directed. I’m very proud of that,” he wrote in his memoir.
In 2019, Burrows was an executive producer on live productions of “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” with famous actors re-creating episodes of those 1970s comedies.
Burrows was married in 1997 to Debbie Easton, whom he met when she worked as a hairstylist on “Frasier.” Daughters Kat Schatzow, Ellie Gluck and Maggie Burrows, who followed her father into directing, are from his first marriage to Linda Solomon, who died in 2004. His stepdaughter Paris is from his wife’s previous marriage. He has a sister, Laurie Burrows Grad, and seven grandchildren.
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