Naomi Burns, Niece of Molly Ringwald

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers about Claim to Fame Season 3, Episode 4: “The Rat Pact.”]

As it turns out, some of the clues on that Clue Wall were doubly useful — offering hints for more than one contestant. On Wednesday’s (July 31) episode of Claim to Fame, another contestant’s celebrity relative identity was unveiled — this time, it was Naomi Burns, who was correctly identified as the cousin of actress Molly Ringwald. This means that those items that pointed to Pretty in Pink didn’t just relate to Gracie Lou’s Uncle Jon Cryer.

Naomi’s identity was rightly guessed by the unlikeliest of guessers: Adam, who was not only her former ally but was also repeatedly clueless about almost every celebrity name that came up. However, it wasn’t Adam who figured it out. After a very targeted interrogation room challenge — in which Naomi fielded questions about the Brat Pack, red hair, and Pretty in Pink — Hud had it figured out and decided to share with his buddy.

TV Insider caught up with Naomi Burns (@n.elizajane on TikTok and Instagram) to talk about her experience on the show and find out what kind of advice she got from her famous aunt about being in the spotlight.

Walking into that guess-off, did you have any clue that Adam knew your celebrity relative? 

Naomi Burns: No. Actually, he had me all anxious just because of the transfer of energy — he is such an anxious person… I knew walking into it that he was gonna guess me, but I’m gonna tell you, he doesn’t know who my relative is.  Even today, he doesn’t know who she is. So I didn’t think that he had it right? Unless somebody told him — I actually off-camera accused Shane of telling him because I thought that Shane was the closest to having my identity, but he never admitted it. I had no idea who actually told him.

So you don’t think it was an act that Adam never knew anything about anybody?

No, there were just certain people he’d never heard of. He told me later, once everything was all said and done, that in preparation for coming on the show that his wife had actually talked to him about the Brat Pack. And he’s like, “Who?!” And then she was telling him, “She’s like this person, this person,” and he’s like, “Okay,” and then he made a joke that like the next day, “She’s like the Brat Pack,” and he’s like, “Who?” He did not retain anything where she was like trying to him or something. But yeah, no. he literally wrote Molly’s name on his arm.  He didn’t know who she was and he still doesn’t.

When you found out that it was Hud who betrayed you, did you ever confront him afterward?

Semi-yes. When we hugged, I whispered in his ear that I whispered in his ear I was a little angry.  So we’re all past that now, we’re all friends. There is no residual feelings. We all let it go.   But I did whisper in his ear that I was gonna make sure that everybody knew who he was and he was like, “I’m so sorry.” And I’m like, “I don’t wanna talk to you,” and I left. So I was angry for about one night and then the next day I was like, “Whatever, I’m gone. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the experience.”

Going back to the beginning during your talent show, you did singing and, obviously, that was part of your truth and a lie answer too. Did you kind of craft that to try and throw people off?

I definitely did. Actually, when I was in the process, I was actually discussing everything with Molly. Privacy is huge in our family, so I wanted her to be a part of every decision that I was making so that I knew that I wasn’t overstepping in any way on something — maybe she didn’t want me to say or anything — and so she was huge with helping me prep.  And at first she didn’t want me to say that because she actually is a singer. She’s an amazing singer. She actually released a jazz album, but I was like, “A lot of people do know that you sing Molly, but it’s supposed to be what your best known for. And you’re best known for being an amazing actress, and so I still think that it would throw people off.” And then the fact that we share that love of singing, I think that it would definitely, definitely help until the clues start trickling in. And so we decided that that was what we wanted to do.

How did she — and you — react when you found out that Jon Cryer was part of that, given the shared background?

Well, I think that I made it very obvious how I reacted. My mouth kind of went to the moon in that scene. That was real life. I was just incredibly shocked and excited — well, not excited because Gracie left but .. and Molly, Molly just was tickled when I told her. She thought that that was hilarious.

During the interrogation, when you started hearing those questions, did you start to realize, “Oh no, they’re really on to me”? Was that the first time you felt like they knew? 

No, actually the part that I hated about that was that I couldn’t see who was asking the questions, and I had a sneaking suspicion just based off of little comments that Shane was on to me, and that was a very strategic move on my part. Moving over from my alliance with Adam, trying to couple up with like Danny and Shane, because I knew that the only person who was letting me know that they might have me was Shane. So I was like, it’s better — keep your enemies close, sort of thing. And so I just assumed that it was Shane, asking those questions and I still — I haven’t seen the episode yet so I don’t know who was asking what questions. I was nervous because I’m just a naturally anxious person. I love it. But, but yeah, no, I had no idea who was asking what because honestly, I was pretty sure that like at least half of us had no idea who I was. Maybe one or two people had an idea, but I knew nobody knew it yet.

During the water challenge, you were the team captain. Was it your strategy or did the boys just kind of run away with that concept of just going to grab the letters without knowing what the clue was? 

Yeah, we didn’t really have a strategy when we first started. We just… I’m super loud naturally.  So we were just like, “You know what? Just run, just get out there, and I will start screaming the clue, and we’ll figure it out. And that way you’ll be closer to the letters that we need instead of sitting there and listening and then having to run to them.” And I mean, it worked. We won.

You already mentioned a little bit of this, but what kind of advice did Molly give you about coming on the show and being like a young person in the spotlight? And what was her reaction to seeing it all unfold? 

She didn’t have a ton of advice in that aspect. She’s not really into reality TV. So she didn’t really know what to expect for me. The biggest piece of advice, the thing that she just repeated over and over was, “I just want you to have a good experience. There’s no point in going and doing this if you’re not gonna walk away happy that you did it. So whatever happens, just have a good time.”

Claim to Fame, Wednesdays, 9/8c, ABC