Drew Barrymore

WHY IS SHE FAMOUS

Drew Barrymore is Hollywood's reigning Queen of Cute. After giving moviegoers many reasons to smile through her work in E.T., she became the drug-addled poster girl for everything that was wrong with Young Hollywood. Having experienced a career rebound through sex appeal (a now-legendary Playboy spread shot by Ellen von Unwerth), screen horror (Scream), lovably awkward 1980s-style romance (The Wedding Singer), and girl power (the Charlie's Angels movies), Drew Barrymore now wears three creative hats -- actor, writer and director. Nevertheless, she still delivers that unique brand of Drew appeal (think: lisp, short hair and goofy smile) that her many male and female fans have come to love over the years. 

Drew Barrymore Quote

"I know certain actors are totally screwed up on drugs, yet it gets covered up. Why wasn't I excused for 'exhaustion' or 'the flu'?"

82 SEX APPEAL

Drew Barrymore put a stop to her drug-fueled odysseys inside Studio 54 more than 20 years ago, but her free-spirited cuteness has lived on well into adulthood. Not shy about showing it all off on TV for David Letterman, or in magazines (Playboy) or movies (Boys on the Side) for the rest of us, Drew Barrymore exudes that kind of playful sexiness that we would expect from a slightly loopy, but forever cute, girl next door. An admitted fan of old fashioned "smacking kissing," which she enjoys more than sex, Drew Barrymore is the kind of woman that would rather search for relationship chemistry through a spontaneous make-out session on top of a Ferris wheel than through a prolonged "getting to know you" conversation.

Where her love life is concerned, Drew Barrymore has been known to go in different directions, openly stating that she's a sexual fan of both men and women. Where the former are concerned, she was once engaged at 16 to Leland Hayward, before finding herself in the same situation a year later with actor-musician Jamie Walters. Drew Barrymore finally tied the knot in 1994 to bar mogul Jeremy Thomas, only to realize a month later that being married in Hollywood before 20 was just too offbeat, even for her. In 2001, she tried again by marrying Canadian funnyman Tom Green, but since their divorce a year later, she's remained free of wedding vows, and enjoyed a series of long-term relationships with musician Fabrizio Moretti and comedian Justin Long.

83 SUCCESS

Drew Barrymore's early road to success in films like E.T.,Irreconcilable Differences and Firestarter proved that she could convincingly handle friendly aliens, difficult parents and pyrokinetic abilities, but her off-screen addictions to drugs and alcohol nearly sent her to an early grave. Ironically, it took a legendary death scene in Scream to establish that Drew Barrymore's childhood demons had been exorcised and in their place was a talented but amiably quirky grown-up actress. That grown-up actress is also a successful producer who has made romance (Never Been Kissed), strong women (Charlie's Angels) and giant rabbits (Donnie Darko) part of her cinematic repertoire.

Standing proud as one of Hollywood's most expensive actresses, what Drew Barrymore lacks in Oscar statuettes, she makes up for in box office hits with a filmography that has earned well over $2 billion worldwide. Drew Barrymore's lasting popularity comes from her knack for quirky characters and the strength that she gives to each of them. While she continues to act in films like Everybody's Fine and Going the Distance, Drew Barrymore is constantly seeking other forms of satisfaction through new creative and life-fulfilling areas. She has now directed her first feature film, Whip It, and has also stepped outside of the Hollywood arena to join the United Nations World Food Programme as an Ambassador Against Hunger.

DREW BARRYMOREBIOGRAPHY

Drew Barrymore had her first acting experience less than a year into her life when she appeared in a commercial for dog food. Blessed with an overactive imagination and a love of dressing up, Barrymore further pursued the acting craft by playing a toddler in the 1978 TV movie,Suddenly, Love and gaining her film credit in the 1980 sci-fi flick, Altered States. During an audition for the lead role in Poltergeist, her godfather Steven Spielberg didn't feel she was a good match for the part. Instead, he chose her for his next film, 1982's E.T.:  The Extra-Terrestrial, where she played Gertie, the girl who teaches English to a visiting alien using the wonders of Sesame Street.

The incredible success of E.T. made Drew Barrymore an instant star. At first she handled it well, as the youngest person to hostSaturday Night Live and the Golden Globe-nominated star of the family emancipation drama, Irreconcilable Differences. Off-screen, however, Drew Barrymore was growing up too much and too soon. By 12 years of age, she was a Studio 54 regular, an alcoholic and a cocaine user. After two rehab stints and an attempt to take her own life, she finally found sobriety by living in the household of musician David Crosby and, ironically, going through a legal separation from her mother.

Drew Barrymore Stars In Scream And Charlie's Angels

In 1992, Drew Barrymore reinvented herself as a sober but sexually charged screen presence in the dark indie Guncrazy, which earned her another Golden Globe nomination, and Poison Ivy, a Sundance Film Festival selection and guilty pleasure that featured her as a trashy teen seductress having her way with an entire family. The latter film was also notable for an early screen appearance by Leonardo DiCaprio, and it would spawn a series of sexed-up, straight-to-DVD sequels starring Alyssa Milano andJamie Pressley. While a famous 1995 Playboy pictorial by super-photographer Ellen Von Unwerth and an impromptu striptease for David Letterman only added to her sexy new image, Drew Barrymore put a lid on her sexy persona by turning down the lead role in Showgirls in favor of a role in the 1996 genre-bending horror favorite, Scream. Originally hired for Neve Campbell's lead role of Sidney Prescott, Drew Barrymore opted for the much smaller role of the doomed Casey Becker instead, and gave a convincingly terrified performance.

Having garnered significant fanfare for playing an innocent horror victim, Drew Barrymore added some sweetness to go with the innocence for a series of "sweetheart" roles in romantic movies likeThe Wedding Singer, Ever After and Never Been Kissed. For the last film, Drew Barrymore also served as executive producer through her new production company, Flower Films. Through this venture, she teamed up with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu to adapt the classic TV series, Charlie's Angels for the big screen. The resulting 2000 effort was a box office smash and made the concept of "girl power" a hot commodity again. Drew Barrymore would reprise her role as Dylan in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttleand also produced the 2001 cult hit, Donnie Darko, which proved to be the breakout movie of Jake Gyllenhaal's career.

Drew Barrymore Directs Whip It And Stars In Everybody's Fine

After reuniting with Adam Sandler to play an amnesiac love interest in 2004's 50 First Dates, she produced 2005's Fever Pitch, which cast her as a woman competing with the Boston Red Sox for the full-time affections of one Jimmy Fallon. From there, she went the animated route to play the recurring role of Jillian Russell on Family Guy, as well as the role of Sophie Fisher, the free spirit who inspires a has-been music star (Hugh Grant) to re-discover romance and melodies in 2007's Music and Lyrics. 

Through her various projects, Drew Barrymore covered all of her creative bases (acting and producing) in 2009 and also added the title of "feature film director" to her resume. First, she joined the romantic misadventures of Baltimore singles with Jennifer Aniston, Bradley Cooper, Scarlett Johansson, and Jennifer Connelly in He's Just Not That Into You, and then produced VH1's new reality series, Tough Love, which offered truthful (and sometimes painful) dating advice to single women. Finally, she directed Oscar nominee Ellen Page in Whip It, a dramedy set primarily in the world of a Texas roller derby. The budding director would also take on acting duties in the film as the humorously named Smashley Simpson. Drew Barrymore will next be seen inEverybody's Fine, opposite Robert De Niro and Kate Beckinsale, and the 2010 romantic comedy, Going the Distance, with her old flame Justin Long.  

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