Of course we just love Eartha Kitt! She is one of our role models so Shawn's getting to talk to her backstage was just fantastic! And then to talk about the Amityville haunting on MSNBC was cool too!

The Catwoman, the witch and the Reagan
By Ben Casselman
Salem News, Friday, April 22, 2005

SALEM — A witch, a president's son and Catwoman walk into a room ...

No, this isn't a bad joke — it was Shawn Poirier's Friday.

The local witch appeared on MSNBC last Friday, chatting about ghosts with Ron Reagan.

Reagan, the son of the late president, co-hosts "Connected: Coast to Coast." Inspired by the recently released movie "The Amityville Horror" (a remake of the 1979 cult classic), Reagan was doing a show on ghosts. Poirier filled the role of believer in the paranormal, with a scientist sitting in the skeptic's chair — although even Poirier says the Amityville story itself is "gravely exaggerated."

Poirier didn't get much warning for his television appearance — he got a call at 1 p.m. asking him to be in a Boston studio that evening. MSNBC sent a car for him.

Now this is where it gets really strange. Apparently, Eartha Kitt — the singer and actress who is best known for a brief stint playing Catwoman on the 1960s television series "Batman" — happened to be in Boston for a performance and just happened to be watching MSNBC in her hotel room.

Kitt must have been taken with Poirier's performance, because she sent her manager to the studio to fetch him. The two ended up spending an hour talking about, as Poirier describes it, "voodoo and Salem witchcraft and the witches' ball this year."

"My god does she radiate the star power she's earned," Poirier gushed.

The chance meeting may not be their last. Poirier hopes she might show up for next fall's "witches' ball," and he is hoping to raise money for Kitt's children's charity. As for the string of coincidences, Poirier chalks it up to "magic."