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Q: I just talked to a couple of your biggest fans (former Jefferson High School drama teacher) Tom Prill and (Tecumseh Middle School music teacher) Marcy Miller. They say they knew you were going places. What was there about acting? 

Michaels: You know, it's funny. I think it began just by telling stories in my baby sitter's back yard. There was a group of us kids who would re-enact what we had seen on television the night before, to fill up a boring summer day, just another activity in the back yard. In seventh and eighth grade I had some really great teachers. 

Q: Was there a moment when you knew that acting was what you had to do? Michaels: It came when Peggy Morgan, in seventh grade English, offered extra credit if we performed a scene from The Hobbit. I wrote up a scene with a friend ... and Mrs. Morgan said, 'You are so talented. Do you take acting classes?' She insisted that I go to acting camp. I was 13 and a little girl from Lafayette and an educated woman said, 'You have a gift.' That was really a first for me. I took her seriously because she took me seriously. I got so much positive feedback, and I had some amazing teachers. A teacher can make an extra remark and brighten a life, or make a remark and really slice a student in half. They need to acknowledge the power they have. 

Q: You have said there were times when there wasn't much food to eat at home, and no money to pay the light bill. Did that background feed your imagination and creativity?  

Michaels: I absolutely believe that. When a child is born into a home that can offer only the basic tools of play, the child is left to build his own toys. Maybe in a home where children have fancy, light-up, noisy toys, they might learn to press buttons, but not turn the box and a pipe cleaner into a space ship. There are not enough empty boxes to play with nowadays. We couldn't watch television in the afternoon. We had to go outside and play. We didn't just sit and vegetate. (The baby sitter) had a box of  rollerskates, and hats, and toys, and it gave this group of kids some imagination. ... There was just my sister and me, but my mother worked, so we saw our baby sitter more than we saw Mom. It was like running around with 10 brothers and sisters. 

Q: At Jeff, you played Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac, the Wicked Witch of the West, the March Hare in Alice in Wonderland. Did you act outside of school, too? 

Michaels (laughing): I delivered the Journal and Courier for 2 1/2 years, getting up at 4:30 in the morning to rubber-band those papers. I was 'Carrier of the Week.' The plaque is in the office now. I tried to audition at Civic (Theater), but they never cast me. I think I did sound for one production. That was a big disappointment. I was very frustrated. I could work for school but not for Civic. That was a sign that I sucked, but Marcy (Miller) said, 'You go on, keep trying.' She was my mentor. She is like a sister, my confidante. She has been quite a guiding light, and a teacher in so many ways. I really benefited from the special (teachers) who reached out beyond the expected boundaries. 

Q: You always wanted to leave Lafayette for New York. Did it help that you had little to lose?  

Michaels: I love Lafayette (but) I had a lot of friends and we all had stars in our eyes and we wanted to see what might be at the end of the road for us. A lot of kids have something to come home to, so when the going gets tough they go home. My mother raised me to be very strong and very self-sufficient. I think, also, that because of the alternative home I was raised in, it wasn't an option for me to come back. When I turned  18, that was it; I knew I could probably provide better for myself in a different town. I just sort of said, 'I have to do better than this. I want to have children and I want a creative lifestyle.' I kind of blindly left Indiana against the wishes of many people who wanted me to stay and be in Civic Theater. Michaels left acting school, but stayed in New York, working as a bartender and a nanny. Times were hard. At times, she ate Cheerios with water, because she couldn't afford milk. She found work doing commercials for everything from tampons to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Her career changed when she earned a role in the Warner Brothers' TV series Popular, portraying a viciously witty cheerleader, Nichole Julian. It ran from 1999 to 2001. Michaels, who had moved to Los Angeles, also appeared on That 80's Show and The L Word. She met Etheridge, now 43, in a gay bar in 2001 and "came out" when the relationship was reported in PEOPLE Magazine. The couple announcedtheir engagement in April 2003 and wed in Malibu on Sept. 20, 2003. The ceremony was featured on ABC's InStyle Celebrity Weddings. Etheridge has two children from an earlier, 12-year gay relationship .Nine of the 13 songs on Etheridge's latest album, Lucky, are about being "madly, deeply, and hopelessly in love," according to her Web site. She calls Michaels "the most amazing woman ever."  

Q: Melissa's latest album is a hit, and you were the muse. How does that feel? 

Michaels: I heard her album before; she wrote those songs and was singing them to me. It didn't occur to me that so many millions of other people would be hearing them, too. Now I go to a concert, and they sing them. I am honored, but it feels a little bizarre. In 2004, 13 episodes of Committed were taped. Michaels plays a sardonic, comical, somewhat irresponsible nanny. Veteran TV actor Tom Poston also has a supporting role.  

Q: How did your role in Committed come about?  

Michaels: I had told my agent that I wasn't going to audition for a year, because my wife's tour was going to start and I had to be a mommy at home and I wasn't interested. I was getting yukky scripts and decided to take a year off. My agent tends to respect my boundaries, but she said, 'Look at this script, you can't pass this up.' I laughed out loud through the entire script and was jumping up and down and saying 'Get me an audition!' It's smart, clever, edgy writing, and I was blown away ... I hit it off right away with the producer. ... It was really bizarre. They just kept saying, 'Come back.' The part started as a British nanny, 21 or 22 years old, but it ended up a part for a late-20s-something girl from New York. 

Q: Did it help that you once worked as a real nanny in New York? Michaels: I think it helped, absolutely. When I was doing the show, taping in the hallway of the set, I remembered my drama teacher, Mr. Prill, saying 'You have to believe in your environment. Know your environment.' 

Q: Is it fun playing the bad girl?  

Michaels: The bad girl has so much more fun, and her clothes are much more exciting. 

Q: What is it like working with an old hand like Tom Poston?  

Michaels: He cracks me up. You have to listen, because he will ad-lib lines and often they are more funny than the ones on the show. He will bust us up on taping night. He's a kick in the pants. 

Q: Will the series continue? 

Michaels: The president of NBC says we'll be back for a second season, and when the president of NBC says something, you listen. But I also have learned my lesson; I have heard many promises in this town. I will believe it when I see it. 

Q: The last episode was taped in November 2004. At about the same time, you were dealing with Melissa's cancer diagnosis. How is she doing?  

Michaels: Melissa is doing so much better. She has finished her chemotherapy and is now in the middle of radiation. All I can say is, 'Watch the Grammys.' 

Q: How did you come to grips with such a scary disease?  

Michaels: When cancer hits a family, if you can, you look at it as one of God's golden blessings. It really clarifies unconditional love. It really clarifies what marriage is about. I know there are so many people uncomfortable with gay marriage, but marriage is not just gay sex. It is also holding your wife's bald head over the toilet when she is going through chemotherapy and vomiting 40 times a day. That is what true love is. My marriage is stronger now than it ever was. I feel much more confident as a partner. It really makes you prioritize the things in your life and know who is important. You learn to really cut out the BS. Life is short, so you don't mess around with the BS. 

Q: When Melissa was ill, were you caring for the children?  

Michaels: I was able to gain two delightful little souls through my marriage. Two little, growing kids need a lot of love, and when one of the caregivers is away, they need extra nourishment. The universe doesn't give me any more than I can handle. 

Q: Someone asked you recently what you would be doing in five years. You said you wanted to have a baby. Is that still the plan?  

Michaels: It will probably be sooner than five years. I have always wanted to have a baby. I think I told Marcy that I wanted to adopt children, and interestingly enough, I now have two stepchildren. I have adopted them into my heart, and I am ready to have a baby. 

Q: What is ahead for you? Are you interested in production, writing? Michaels: I tell you, I have sat and watched the acting industry, the entertainment industry, and I have seen how women age and handlethemselves. Looking at all the plastic surgery and super-skinny people out there, I don't have any real long-term goals to stay in front of the camera if that is how you play the game -- with injections and dieting. Because of that, I would like to have some sort of creative future, even if it is not in front of the camera. It might be behind the camera, telling stories. 

Q: Some people, in your position, would grow complacent.  

Michaels: I think our society has a lot of potential, but I don't think we are in a spiritual, healthy, loving age right now. So until humanity learns to love one another, there is no reason to get complacent. 

Q: You know, if Daddy had been a bank president, and if you had grown up in Highland Park, you wouldn't be who you are today.  

Michaels: Thank God I went through all the things I did, and learned the lessons I did. It's funny, the kids always ask me to tell them stories ... I have had so many colorful people in my life, and that is why I am so colorful. The kids think I can do anything, but they have pretty colorful lives themselves. Q: You recently said that you feel like a kid in a bakery shop, with everything you want. Are you happy now?  

Michaels: Growing up in a broken home in a small town, in a small town where broken homes are maybe not the most enviable thing, I found myself often looking to others for approval, often asking others for advice on how I should dress, what I should do to look pretty, what I should do. As I went on, and went from place to place, I saw that the only person who was coming with me to all these places was myself. The only person I speak with every night and wake up with every morning, other than my wife, is myself. I stopped looking outward to feel good about myself. I started looking inward, and asking myself if it felt good. I have learned how to live my life on my own two feet. If I can be a decent person, and be good to my wife and kids, I have lived a good day. ... We have to trust that we are exactly where we need to be.