Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore, spring 2005

All about Drew
Drew was born into a Hollywood acting dynasty on 22nd February 1975 and plunged into the spotlight before her first birthday, starring in TV ads and films. Her big-screen career took off when she played in Altered States at the tender age of four, and she hit the big-time at seven as the girl in E.T. back in 1982 (Drew is Steven Spielberg's goddaughter).   

Pre-pubescent rebel 
Drew was the darling of American cinema before she was even a child, and sure enough she struggled to cope with the pressure of growing up in the glare of the cameras. She sought refuge in drugs and alcohol: she started smoking and drinking at nine and then got into hard drugs and started living a lifestyle to rival out-of-control teen stars twice her age. Hooked on cannabis and cocaine by the age of 13, Drew's career looked all but over, and she could only get minor roles in B films. She checked into rehab at 13 to sort her problems out, but still couldn't get a break. Drew wrote a moving memoir of her battles with drink and drugs in her 1990 autobiography Little Girl Lost. Drew's problems with substance abuse were over by the time she reached adulthood, but she was tranished by her bad girl image, which wasn't helped by posing nude for Playboy in 1995, playing a series of vampy, risqué roles such as Ivy in Poison Ivy, and notoriously flashing TV host David Letterman on his show, "as a birthday present..."  

Reformed
Drew was rarely out of the spotlight during her troubled adolescence, and when she finally started to turn her image around the offers started to come back. Slowly but surely, Drew started to establish herself as a respected actress with roles in Batman Forever, Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You and Scream in the late Nineties.

Drew's now older and wiser and is better known for her acting talent rather than her shocking past these days. She's produced several films, including box-office smashes Charlie's Angels and sequel. She's enjoyed success in many rom-coms but also in more dramatic films such as Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, for which she also acted as executive producer.