interviews

Jessica Alba isn't slowing down one bit as her eco-friendly baby and household cleaning product company, The Honest Company, enters its sophomore year of operation. The mom of two — Honor, 4, and Haven, 1 — has spent the past few months introducing new products for the company and promoting her bestselling guide to healthy and chic living, The Honest Life: Living Naturally and True to You. On the final day of her publicity tour, she headed up to Greenwich, CT, to receive the Champion For Children Award from the Mount Sinai Hospital Children's Environmental Health Center.

It was there that Jessica and the company's cofounder, Christopher Gavigan, spilled the beans to POPSUGAR about the next area they'll enter: the health and wellness arena. At the end of the month, Honest will introduce organic toothpaste and organic vitamins (both prenatal and children's versions), two products that grew out of their own children's needs. Jessica explained, "I was given prescription prenatals from my OB, and not only were they crazy expensive, no matter how many samples he gave me, every one of them made me nauseous." Her new vitamins are free of artificial colors, scents, and flavors (they're flavored with real fruits) and kid-tested (and approved).

Here are some more highlights from the conversation.

Jessica on why she focuses on Honest diapers' design: "I think cute-factor is so important when you're looking at the little booger all day long!"

Jessica on how involved she is with the diapers' designs: "I'm really nitpicky. . . . That's where I was like, 'I'm obsessed with Alexander McQueen, he made skulls beautiful, we have to put skulls on a diaper.' And my partners were like, 'You're crazy; nobody's going to buy that!' And I'm like, 'Are you kidding me? Just try it!' It ended up being like our No. 1 diaper!"

Jessica on her favorite diaper design: "I'm really into the strawberries right now. I always loved Strawberry Shortcake, and [Haven's] a little ginger, so the strawberries look really cute on her."

Keep reading for more of Jessica's thoughts on her business and the power of the Internet.

Just because you've become a mother doesn't mean you have to become serious and give up your style. That's the motivation behind Jeremy Scott's unlikely collaboration with Cybex, the infant and baby gear company, that was announced earlier this week. The designer best known for placing Bart Simpson-patterned clothes on his runway models and pink teddy bears on Adidas sneakers has created a fun, playful collection filled with animated snack foods ready to duke it out.

Hours before introducing his new Food Fight design, two editors and I were invited to sit down with Jeremy at London's Shoreditch Studios to discuss his inspiration, the moms he designs for, and what he thinks of the criticism of his friend Kanye West's pregnant girlfriend.

PopSugar: You just designed a Smart car and now a stroller. Do you have a thing for wheels?
Jeremy Scott: I would think the connection is that I love the idea of branching out into all kinds of design. For instance, I am the first designer ever to design a car now. Everything else has been an interior fabric . . . to have my designs go into a larger kind of spectrum in that sense. That's one of the reasons I agreed to do the collaboration with Adidas — to open that further. But then to do cars and strollers and next things, it's very fulfilling. I love the idea of my work touching people's lives in different ways. So much of high fashion can be so insular. As much as I love it, it, just by nature, is so insular. I like how these things can be parts of people's lives in different ways.

PS: You actually changed the exterior of the Smart car. Is there anything you'd change if you could create your dream stroller?
JS: If it was all neon and lighting up! There is a lot of safety baby issues, so I had to think about what would make the most impactful punch while not causing any trouble. That's why I decided to go with print more than anything. I just thought, well, it could just speak volumes, and keep babies safe, which is the most important after all.

Keep reading to see what Jeremy says about who he designs for and his thoughts on Kim Kardashian's pregnancy.

New dad Nick Lachey has a lot on his plate — he's just released a new solo album, A Father's Lullaby, 98 Degrees has a new CD (and subsequent tour) launching next month, and most importantly, there's 7-month-old baby Camden, his son with wife Vanessa Minnillo Lachey. We were lucky enough to chat with the very talented (and all-around nice) dad and learn more about what it's like to write music for his own child.

POPSUGAR: Congratulations on your new album and new baby! At what point did you decide you want to record A Father's Lullaby?
Nick Lachey: It was pretty early on in Vanessa's pregnancy. I had so many emotions running through my head, and music has always been my way of expressing that. I hadn't heard of any guys with lullaby albums, so I decided to go for it. It was really an inspiring time in my life. I started to write the melodies when she was pregnant, then waited on the lyrics until the baby was here and I could get to know him.

PS: Of the album's 12 songs, you wrote four yourself, and the rest are more classic lullabies. How'd you decide what you were going to include?
NL: Some of the songs are ones that I had a personal connection to. I've always loved "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)," and my grandfather used to sing "You Are My Sunshine" to me as a child. The others are classic lullabies to give the album some context — like "Brahms' Lullaby" and "When You Wish Upon a Star."

PS: What's been the most surprising thing about fatherhood thus far?
NL: How it affects absolutely everything. It completely turns your schedule upside down, and your priorities change — definitely for the better, but it's a huge change.

PS: What's the best thing about being a dad?
NL: It's getting up with Camden first thing in the morning — going in to get him out of out of his crib around 7:30 and seeing him smile. That's our bonding time. I give him his first bottle, and I sing to him every morning.

PS: 7:30? That's not bad!
NL: Yeah, he's really a great kid. He sleeps very well. He's sitting up on his own now, and rocking. Crawling is just around the corner. He's becoming more and more expressive. It's a lot of fun.

Keeping reading to hear about Nick's plans to bring baby Camden along on his 98 Degrees tour and more!

It's no wonder that the always bright and colorful chef Anne Burrell absolutely adores Spring. I recently spoke to her about her shows on the Food Network, but she also had plenty to say about her favorite springtime produce, her ideal Easter menu, and how she stocks and organizes her kitchen.

POPSUGAR: We're approaching Spring. What produce do you love?
Anne Burrell: Spring is my favorite time of year. It's when Mother Nature is waking up again. Everything is light green, new, delicate, and delightful. Things like fava beans, ramps, spring onions, fiddlehead ferns, and morel mushrooms. It's such an exciting time of year.

PS: What does your ideal Easter menu look like?
AB: A big fat ham. If you're not a ham person, then definitely lamb, but I grew up having ham for Easter. Definitely lots of Spring veggies, like the ones I mentioned and asparagus. Of course, with an Easter menu, you have to have deviled eggs, because you just went for an Easter egg hunt. Definitely a bunch of egg salad sandwiches after that. I also love a Spring veggie crostata, a free-formed tart: mix fresh ricotta with Spring onion, some swiss chard, asparagus, and parmesan.

Keep reading to learn about Anne's pantry staples and Spring-cleaning projects.

Diapers, check. Cleaning supplies, check. Lip balm, check. Lifestyle book, check. Everything seems to be falling into place for Jessica Alba these days. A year ago, the actress and mom of two — Honor, 4, and Haven, 1 — had just launched The Honest Company as an eco-friendly baby and household cleaning product company. Today, the business has expanded to include lifestyle products, and Jessica's just published The Honest Life: Living Naturally and True to You, a guide to creating a healthy and chic home for the family. Filled with everything from toxins to avoid in furniture and decor items to Jessica's beauty, decorating, and parenting tips — including crafts and recipes her girls love — the book is a handbook for the hip, modern mom.

Celebrating the launch of the book, we sat down to talk with Jessica about her honest life over eco-friendly manicures yesterday.

PopSugar: What is the "honest life" for you?
Jessica Alba: It's functional, it's practical, it's not overly expensive, and it's authentic. It's what works for me. It's not judgmental.

PS: Is green living something you've always tried to do, or is it something you adopted once you became a mom?
JA: I never really knew anything about toxic chemicals or that I needed to look at ingredients until I was pregnant. That's certainly when the moment of awareness of what's in your environment and how it affects your health — this little person that you are all of a sudden responsible for. As I was doing research, it just felt like if you wanted to be eco or if you wanted to be healthier or green, everyone was so extreme — you had to be vegan or you had to do yoga every day and meditate. I believe all of that is great, but it's just so extreme. There had to be an in-between. I can be modern, young, and hip. You can eat meat if you want to, and you can wear makeup. You can live your life, but you can just make better choices.

PS: What was the first thing you changed in your life? Or the first product you threw away?
JA: I threw out pretty much all of my cleaning products. That was the first thing, because I was frustrated with green washing. Then I went to beauty after that. What am I putting on my body, what am I inhaling? That's going directly to my baby. Then, I was putting together my house at the time, so I was looking for the right materials. That was a whole other thing — trying to find what to even stuff your couches with, and how you find fabrics that aren't sprayed with flame-retardants, and wallpaper and paint. I was doing all of it at the same time.

Keep reading to see why Honor came home from school with rainbow hair one day and how Jessica brings the girls into the kitchen.

Anne Burrell is known for a lot more than just her spicy blond hair and mismatched socks. She's an esteemed chef who worked in some of the top restaurants in NYC, battled it out on Iron Chef as Mario Batali's sous chef, and now keeps her schedule packed with several Food Network shows: her cooking show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef as well as two reality shows, Chef Wanted and Worst Cooks in America. A few years back she published her first cookbook, Cook Like a Rock Star and she has plans to release another one this Fall. Keep reading to learn more about Chef Burrell's rewarding moments on TV, the most amazing thing she's eaten lately, and tidbits about her new book.

It's hard not to fall instantly in love with Tina Fey. She's wicked smart, obviously funny, and a mom of two — Alice, 7, and Penelope, 1 — dealing with bake sales and working motherhood, just like us. From her time as the first female head writer (and series regular) on Saturday Night Live to her multiple roles as the creator and star of 30 Rock, she's kept us laughing our way through political cycles and television studio politics. Now, she's taking a romantic comedy turn in Admission (in theaters March 22) as a Princeton University admissions officer who must face an applicant who could be the son she gave up for adoption 18 years ago. Lest you think the story becomes sappy, keep in mind that Tina stars alongside Paul Rudd in the flick, so the wisecracks fly nonstop.

I spent some time with the film's stars at a roundtable and asked them about their own experiences with parenting, where they turn for advice, and how realistic it is that our kids could actually attend Princeton. First up, Tina's thoughts.

There was a spot-on scene in the last 30 Rock where — as a new mom — you join an online chat group for moms and get into a catfight. Do you go to mommy blogs in real life?
That was definitely built on experience with things I have seen. I have never . . . I don't know how to post on any of those. So I promise you I have never posted. I have seen people pretending to be me post on Urban Baby. I had a friend call me and say, "Are you on Urban Baby?" I said no. I didn't know what that was. I do think some of them — Urban Baby specifically — have some of the worst human behavior I've ever seen in my life. Terrible. There is no one running [those sites] or they would fix it.

At one point in the film, Portia says where your kid gets into college is a reflection of your parenting. Do you think that's true?
I do think the line is very true. People think it is a referendum on their parenting, it's about how well they did. It's a dangerous trap that we all fall into. Like, I will go too far, like, "we're going to make the nicest cookies for the cookie thing." And then later they are on the ground and it doesn't matter. I think avoiding those kind of traps and just trying to be present for your children is best. It’s a lifelong lesson that I keep trying to learn.

What do you know now that you didn't before you had kids?
I think when your kids are really little, you just think, OK, I am going to look at What to Expect the First Year. But I got into a rut. I would still be treating the 11-month-old with the routine I had set up at 6 months. You kinda learn the longer you do it that their needs keep changing what they need and what they're capable of.

Your daughter Alice is in grade school. Do you think it's harder to get into Princeton or an NYC kindergarten?
A New York City kindergarten, for sure! There's so many kids on this little island. Plus, how can you possibly evaluate a 5-year-old? What if you take them that day and have to poop? If they have to poop, it’s over.

Keep reading for more of our interview with Tina Fey, including what interested her most about her new role.

Mardi Gras may have come and gone, but thanks to advocates like chef John Besh, New Orleans cuisine will always be in style. The Louisiana-based culinary personality — who runs nine restaurants, has authored three cookbooks, runs a charitable foundation, and hosts a forthcoming show on PBS — has been one of Crescent City's biggest ambassadors. We caught up with the chef poolside in South Beach, where we discussed everything from life lessons to ingredient obsessions.

POPSUGAR: What's keeping you busy right now?
John Besh: I have a new series coming out this Spring on American Public Broadcasting, which is called John Besh's Family Table, filmed in my house. It's strictly the foods that my wife and I feed our four boys, and the way that we create menus around that idea of cooking and eating as a family. My third cookbook will be released in the Fall; it's called Cooking From the Heart. It's about anecdotes and delicious recipes from my apprenticeships in both Germany and France, a tribute to stepping back good, gutsy food like blanquette de veau, that style of cooking. I wanted to focus on the idea of eating, dining, and learning more about yourself in the process — life lessons about food.

PS: Sounds like John Besh's Family Table is inspired by your book My Family Table. Tell us more about it.
JB: I created a book because my wife challenged me to the fact that I was running all over, sourcing ingredients for all of our wonderful paying customers. But at home, I kind of left that up to my wife. [She said], "If you cared half as much about what we're eating as [you do] your customers, then we would be a lot better off." That had me really think about why is it that I do what I do. It can't be just to make a living; I need to spread this kind of passion, and it starts with family. So I started operating the kitchen at home like I would operate a professional kitchen. Let's say I'm making this great centerpiece with pork shoulder and black-eyed peas; I'll take that shoulder and create anything from a green chili to Vietnamese noodle bowls to Cuban sandwiches.

PS: Why public broadcasting?

Find out his answer when you keep reading.

Julianna Margulies knows a thing or two about guilt. As the star of the hit series The Good Wife, she plays the repressed, estranged wife of a disgraced politician who is now learning the way around working motherhood. At home, she plays the real-life role of a working mom who rushes home just in time to read her son, Kieran, 5, a book before bed. As she says, "You feel stretched, and you always feel like you can't waste a minute." That's why the reading is so important to her.

I sat down with the Golden Globe nominee and red-carpet stunner at the recent LEGO DUPLO Read! Build! Play! event in NYC, where Julianna led a story time and play session for local kids to stress the importance of early child literacy. We discussed how she's woven reading into her nightly routine with Kieran since before he was born, the stress of being a working mother, and that moment when she really felt like a mother.

PopSugar: Alicia Florrick is obviously the ultimate working mother, and you are a working mom yourself. Do you bring any of your own stories or issues or working-mom issues into the story line?
Julianna Margulies: The kids on the show are much older than mine. Alicia had them very young and her kids are on their way out of the house. I mean I'm just getting my kid into kindergarten. But what I would say is similar is that you feel stretched, and you always feel like you can't waste a minute. There's no room for error, and so when bumps in the road happen, you have to just take a breath and say OK, this is where it's at right now, and I can't do anything about it. If my kid is up all night because he's sick, I still have to show up at work the next day, and that's no one's fault. I just am a wreck when I get to work, and that's something I have to deal with all the time. That's OK. You wouldn't want either the child or the job to go away so you just keep marching forward. And every now and then, you fall asleep standing up or have a horrific moment, hopefully alone in your bathroom, and sob your eyes out and say "I can't do it all!"

PS: I had one of those last night, so I understand.
JM: Yeah, every working mother feels the pain of not putting enough into your work and not putting enough into your kid. That's how it is.

PS: Do you and Kieran have any bedtime reading rituals?
JM: Since he was in utero, I've been reading and my husband has been reading to that little boy. And, you know, if I'm lucky enough, this past week, even though we've been working long hours, for some reason, I've gotten home every night at 7:45, and he's usually asleep by 8. But our ritual no matter what, and no matter how tired he is, even last night, I was reading to him, and he fell asleep on my shoulder, and I just kept reading because I always feel like those words somehow will get in there. I feel like if you can spend an hour a day with your kid, if you can't have all day with your kid, but you could have one hour of quality time, it should be spent reading and interacting with them verbally because it gives them such confidence. And I've noticed at 5 — he just turned 5 and we're not pushing reading on him — but he's reading because that's all we've ever been doing.

Keep reading to see what Julianna had to say about kids and Valentine's Day and the best tip her mama taught her about parenting.