“Today my billboard went up in Times Square,” says Alani “La La” Anthony, a smile spreading across her face. “This is the biggest moment of my life. I worked at MTV for so long, and I used to look down over Times Square. To be able to go back and see my own billboard is something I never would have expected.”
It’s a watershed moment for the reality star, who has joined the ranks of Kim Kardashian and Bethenny Frankel in parlaying reality-TV fame into a burgeoning personal brand. The star of “La La’s Full Court Life” is branching out into TV and film production, books and has ambitions to be an actress.
“I would give anything to work with Judd Apatow,” she says. “I’m hoping to get my ‘Funny or Die’ skit in his hands so he can see my comedic acting.”
Until the director rings her agent, she and husband Carmelo Anthony, star forward of the Knicks, are writing a children’s book and their Krossover Productions — which has already released an acclaimed documentary on Mike Tyson — is making “Think Like a Man,” a movie version of Steve Harvey’s self-help book “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man,” starring Anthony.
This October, New Yorkers will get to judge for themselves when she joins the cast of the off-Broadway hit “Love, Loss and What I Wore.”
“I have a lot to prove,” she says. “I came from a world where people put you in a box. When you come from the world of hosting or reality, it’s always an obstacle until they see your work — and then it changes.”