This season on my podcast, Baring It All with Call Me Adam, I am spotlighting My Entertainment Idols.

Today I am catching up with Actress Michelle Clunie, who you know for portraying Melanie Marcus on Showtime's hit Television Series Queer As Folk.

The last time Michelle Clunie was on the New York Stage was in 2012 when she starred in her Off Broadway play US.

In this NEW interview, Michelle is Baring It All with Call Me Adam about:

• How Pen Pals made her want to return to the New York Stage
• What she hopes audiences come away with after seeing Pen Pals
• What she would tell Melanie from Queer As Folk today
• Something she's never shared before
• So much more

Pen Pals is the extraordinary story of two friends that unfolds over decades. With a rotating cast of renowned actors, no two performances will ever be the same.

Bernie and Mags live in two different countries, they’ve never met, and yet they’re best friends. Because they’ve been pen pals for over fifty years. Since they were teenagers, they’ve shared every aspect of their lives with each other. The trivial bits, the most intimate details, all the happiness, all the heartache. They’ve told each other things they wouldn’t dare tell another soul. Even though Bernie lives in New Jersey and Mags is from England, the women are closer to each other than anyone else in the world.

Come witness the journey of their lifetime. In their own words.

Pen Pals will run at the Daryl Roth DR2 Theater, with a rotating cast of stars, from August 15, 2025-December 21, 2025.

Michelle Clunie will be playing Bernie from September 3-14, 2025.

Click here to watch this interview in video format!

• Joe Trentacosta, JT Public Relations
• Theme Song by Bobby Cronin
• Podcast Logo by Liam O'Donnell
• Edited by Adam Rothenberg
• Underscore Music by Cutique

Website: www.callmeadam.com

Facebook: @CallMeAdamNYC

Instagram: @CallMeAdamNYC

Michelle Clunie is an award-winning veteran actress, born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Michelle stepped foot on stage at seven years old, first appearing in plays, operas and ballets.

She made her stage debut in Los Angeles at 23, in A Comedy of Eros, earning her a Drama-Logue award. She went on to star in numerous television, film and theatre productions earning awards in all three mediums, including a Backstage Readers’ Choice Award for her performance in The West Coast premiere of Neil LaBute’s The Mercy Seat.

In 2012 she wrote, produced, and starred in the Off-Broadway play US earning rave reviews, as an actress as well as writer, with critics comparing her style to Aaron Sorkin and Thornton Wilder.

Michelle is most often recognized as ‘Melanie Marcus’ in the groundbreaking series QUEER AS FOLK. The popular series was based on the original British series, but the American remake for Showtime, remains incredibly popular to this day, with a passionate, continually building fan-base.

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This season on my podcast, Baring It All with Call Me Adam, I am spotlighting My Entertainment Idols.

Today I am catching up with Actress Nancy McKeon, who you know as Jo Polniaczek, from the beloved & long running 1980s series The Facts of Life.

Nancy is kicking off the return of Michael Griffo's play Pen Pals, when she steps back into the role of Bernie, beginning August 15, 2025.

In this NEW interview, Nancy is Baring It All with Call Me Adam about:

• Why she wanted to come back to Pen Pals
• Who she would write a Pen Pal letter to
• How she met her husband of 25 years
• Some behind the scenes info from The Facts of Life
• So much more

Pen Pals is the extraordinary story of two friends that unfolds over decades. With a rotating cast of renowned actors, no two performances will ever be the same.

Bernie and Mags live in two different countries, they’ve never met, and yet they’re best friends. Because they’ve been pen pals for over fifty years. Since they were teenagers, they’ve shared every aspect of their lives with each other. The trivial bits, the most intimate details, all the happiness, all the heartache. They’ve told each other things they wouldn’t dare tell another soul. Even though Bernie lives in New Jersey and Mags is from England, the women are closer to each other than anyone else in the world.

Come witness the journey of their lifetime. In their own words.

Pen Pals will run at the Daryl Roth DR2 Theater, with a rotating cast of stars, from August 15, 2025-December 21, 2025.

Nancy McKeon will be playing Bernie from August 15-31, 2025.

Click here to watch this interview in video format!

• Joe Trentacosta, JT Public Relations
• Theme Song by Bobby Cronin
• Podcast Logo by Liam O'Donnell
• Edited by Adam Rothenberg
• Underscore Music by Cutique

Website: www.callmeadam.com

Facebook: @CallMeAdamNYC

Instagram: @CallMeAdamNYC

An actress, director, and producer best known for playing the role of Jo Polniaczek on the beloved long-running 1980s sitcom, The Facts of Life. She starred in and produced the sitcom Can’t Hurry Love and starred with Jean Smart in the sitcom Style & Substance. She portrayed Inspector Jinny Exstead on the Lifetime police drama The Division from 2001 to 2004. She also directed two episodes.

Nancy starred in numerous made-for-TV movies in the 1980s and 1990s, some including A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story, in which she portrayed the title role of Tracey Thurman, and Firefighter portraying the first female firefighter in Los Angeles County. Strange Voices, she portrayed a woman with schizophrenia. Love, Honor and Obey; The Last Mafia Marriage, mini series with Eric Roberts.

She produced many of these movies through her film company, Forest Hills Entertainment. In 1999, she wrote and directed her own short film, A Wakening. The film won two film festival awards.

This season on my podcast, Baring It All with Call Me Adam, I am spotlighting My Entertainment Idols.

Today I am catching up with Motown Singer & Songwriter Charlene Oliver, who you know as the songstress behind the #1 song, "I've Never Been To Me," written by Ron Miller & featured in one of my favorite movies, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Charlene & I last spoke in 2020 and now I am thrilled to be speaking with Charlene once again!

In this NEW interview, Charlene is Baring It All with Call Me Adam about:

• How she came to record the global hit song, I've Never Been To Me
• Getting out of her abusive marriage
• Finding tranquility amongst the chaos of the world
• The sweetness of candy
• So much more

"I've Never Been To Me" is available to stream on all music platforms!

• Adam White & Jeff Oliver
• Theme Song by Bobby Cronin
• Podcast Logo by Liam O'Donnell
• Edited by Adam Rothenberg
• Underscore Music by Cutique

Website: www.callmeadam.com

Facebook: @CallMeAdamNYC

Instagram: @CallMeAdamNYC

Charlene Oliver always knew she wanted to be a singer, from her childhood in Hollywood in the late 1950s, one of two sisters in a loving family of Italian/American origin.

Charlene's first break came with the offer to join Petula Clark's backing singers at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Before long, she was auditioning in front of legendary Motown boss Berry Gordy and to her joy, being signed, the first ever white female singer to be signed to the label.

Her first song, "All That Love Went To Waste," came out in 1974, followed by two albums on the Motown label. Then writer Ron Miller persuaded Charlene to record his song, "I've Never Been To Me," in 1977, but the single only just scraped into the Top 100.

By the early 1980s, Charlene's career seemed to be stalling and she had left the US to move to her second husband Jeff's home in Essex, England, where she found work in the local sweetshop.

It was there that she heard, in 1982, that a Florida DJ had been pushing her song so much that it had been re-released, and was finally hitting the charts. Within a few weeks, the singer found herself back at the top, as the song hit #1 in country after country all over the world, and she left her Essex sweetshop to fly on the Concorde to perform internationally.

The growing international success of the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert has confirmed her as a hugely popular singer amongst the gay community, and recently she released a new club version of her iconic song in association with Eye Witness.

Charlene's story has it all: the stars, the fame, the struggle, the pain.