Jeanie Buss, governor and minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and co-owner of the all-female sports entertainment property WOW (Women of Wrestling), says she’s proud that Los Angeles is her home, where she went to college (University of Southern California) and where she’s always worked.
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.
“I was born at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, but I think of myself as a citizen of Los Angeles,” Buss says. “I grew up in the Pacific Palisades, and for a time, I lived with my father [Jerry Buss] in a very famous old mansion in Beverly Hills called Pickfair, which was owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.”
She then moved to Manhattan Beach, Playa del Rey and now lives in Playa Vista, where “everybody has a dog, and the people who don’t, borrow someone else’s dog, because everybody’s out walking dogs,” Buss notes. “It really gives it a sense of community.”
The sports executive says Sundays are meant for activities that help you reflect on your life, and recharge for the coming week. For Buss, those include getting a manicure or facial, going to the movies and having dinner with interesting guests.
7 a.m.: Up and out with the dogs
After we get up, my husband [stand-up comedian Jay Mohr] and I take our dogs for a walk to the local Starbucks, which takes about five to eight minutes. I have a four-and-a-half pound Maltese who thinks she’s a 100-pound Rottweiler that can boss everybody around, especially me. Her name is Elly May, named after “The Beverly Hillbillies” character Elly May Clampett. Jay’s dog is a Pomeranian named Bertie. She looks like a teddy bear that’s come to life. After the dogs do their business, we go home.
8 a.m.: Breakfast at home
Jay makes scrambled eggs and bagels for us, then we talk about what’s going to happen that day, and laze around until lunchtime. If it’s a nice day, we go to the park across the street and enjoy the sunshine with the dogs.
11 a.m.: Walk to lunch
If we go out for lunch, we’d walk to P.V. House, where you can get brunch on the weekend, or a great turkey sandwich. On the weekends, I walk to most everything. I really like the idea of taking a day where you don’t get in your car, but you shop and do all your activities right in your neighborhood.
1 p.m.: Self–care
Then I might go for a manicure or a facial. I go to Varnish Lab for a manicure with Tommy, or Escape Spa in Playa Vista for a facial or a massage. If I need relaxing, there’s Swedish massage. If I’m feeling tightness in the muscles, I get a sports massage. It really depends on what I feel I need.
4 p.m.: Movies are a must …
After getting back home, my husband and I decide which movie we’re going to see at the Cinemark Playa Vista, which we walk to. I make it a priority to go to the movies every weekend. Going to the movies was one of the things that I did with my dad that I have really fond memories of. I remind people that that is our industry here — the entertainment industry — and going to movie theaters is a community event. I love this time of year because all the blockbusters are out. You get within a block of the theater and you can smell the popcorn cooking. I just saw the movie “Song Sung Blue” with Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman. I loved it, and had plenty of popcorn.
Or an escape room
If there isn’t a movie we agree we want to see, we’ll do an escape room. This last weekend, we did one where you are on the Titanic and you have 60 minutes to get everybody off the boat. If you can’t solve it within 60 minutes, then the loss of life is on your head. We accomplished the goal with a few minutes to spare. The place we went to is called 60Out Escape Rooms at [HHLA in Westchester].
6:30 p.m.: Dinner with the “Fourth Chair”
Then, on Sunday nights, we do something that we call the “Fourth Chair,” which was my husband’s idea. We invite my girlfriend Stacy Kennedy, who’s our buddy, and we come up with ideas on who we’d like to have dinner with. Then we invite that person for the fourth chair at dinner. No one ever gets a permanent invitation to sit in the fourth chair. It has to be a rotating guest.
We just have good conversation, a lot of fun, and talk about whatever’s going on in pop culture. Whatever pops up, we go down that rabbit hole. There’s never an agenda. You learn a lot about people in that kind of conversation that’s comfortable and free-flowing.
Usually, we go to Sweet Fish Sushi Bar & Restaurant in Playa Vista. I love all the sushi — the halibut, the red snapper, the spicy yellowtail and the carpaccios. The service is really good there.
Or, we’ll go to Caffe Pinguini, an Italian restaurant in Playa del Rey, right at the beach. I’d order a Caesar salad, followed by any kind of pasta. Last time, it was penne alla vodka. What’s great about them is they serve everything really hot, right out of the kitchen. It’s small, but has excellent food and service.
I also love going to Baltaire Restaurant & Steakhouse in Brentwood. It’s a steakhouse, but also has the best seafood tower, called the Grande Plateau. My husband and I love the lobster, crab, shrimp and oysters. We attack it like there’s no tomorrow.
9 p.m.: Laugh before bed
Nine o’clock would be the last walk for the dogs. We’re early-to-bed people. We might watch something funny, catch up on something we’ve recorded, like old sitcoms, “South Park” or “Saturday Night Live” from the night before. We like to laugh before we go to sleep. My husband could watch a documentary on the Civil War, which would put me right to sleep. I like to have a little bit more uplift before I fall asleep.
