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Since the 1800's the Barrymore family have been amongst the biggest names in the theatre and Hollywood industries. Born into the dynasty of British - American actors, Drew Barrymore's future in the acting industry was inevitable.

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Inside John, Ethel, Lionel, Diana, and Drew Barrymore's memoirs, which chart the triumphs and tragedies of their legendary clan.

When actor Diana Barrymore was a little girl, she was fascinated with her mysterious father, John, whom she did not remember. Her parents had separated; her mother only spoke of him in cryptic whispers. According to her infamous 1957 autobiography, Too Much, Too Soon, she first saw his face when she stumbled upon a book:

It was Confessions of an Actor, by John Barrymore. I opened it to the front piece, a photograph of a handsome man cradling in his arms a wide-eyed baby dressed in flowing white. Under it I laboriously spelled out, "John Barrymore and Daughter."

I ran to Nanny with the book. "Nanny is this my daddy and me?"

The puzzle of the Barrymore clan, stars of the stage and screen since the 18th century, is one that has fascinated chroniclers for generations. "They are the most charming humans, the most talented, the wittiest, the most delightful people ever given the bum's rush out of heaven," artist James Montgomery Flagg once said. "At the same time probably the most self-centered, spoiled, irresponsible leprechauns ever to crawl out a hollow tree."

The Barrymores themselves appear equally enamored and confounded by their triumphant, tragic history. Incorrigible hams, deeply intellectual, and full of exaggerated self-loathing, their numerous autobiographies make two things clear: They have and had enormous pride in their family's history, but fully recognized that their genius came at a steep price. "I think my brothers and I were born under a dark star," Ethel Barrymore writes in her 1955 autobiography, Memories. "There was no such thing for us as enduring happiness."

A Monster Myth

"I've read books and stories about all of us," Ethel Barrymore writes, "and none of them sounds quite right."

Although the Drew and Barrymore families had been treading the boards for decades, it was Ethel (1879-1959) and her brothers, Lionel (1878-1954) and John (1882-1942), who would propel their fame into the stratosphere. The children of stage stars Georgie Drew and Maurice Barrymore (born Herbert Blythe), the three were raised in Philadelphia with their formidable grandmother, the actor and theater manager Louisa Lane Drew, who they called Mum Mum.

In his 1951 autobiography, We Barrymores, Lionel tells one of the family's favorite stories, also recounted by Ethel and John:

According to a tale which we now have to accept as fact because it has been sanctified in print so often, Maurice was returning home one Sunday morning after a week's good times. He was in high humor as he greeted his wife and children on the steps of their home.

"I perceive, madame, you are going out," he said with a bow. "Pray, may I inquire where?"

Georgie replied, "I am going to church, and you can go to hell."

As Margot Peters notes in the engrossing 1990 biography House of Barrymore -a sprawling portrait of the dynasty which suffers only from an off-putting, presumptuously catty tone-the tragic early death of their high-spirited, witty mother and the perpetual absence of their debonair, wastrel father led to the three siblings being scattered to different boarding schools and family touring companies while still children.

"We were separated very early in our lives...Consequently, when we met later in life, we were rather formal with each other and very, very polite. It appears that rather terrified observers," Ethel writes. "I remember Lionel telling me that a friend of his who was present when I dined with him once said to him, 'My God! Don't you know each other?'"

Similar claims of estrangement are repeated in many Barrymore autobiographies-yet they write of each other, and their legacy, nonstop. From Lionel to Drew Barrymore, the same family yarns are told and retold, essences of truth within the legends. "Some legends about Barrymores are too rich to dismiss," Lionel writes, "and had better stand without contradictions for the sake of gaiety."

The Ravaged Profile

The youngest of the "flying Barrymores," John's life was a cautionary tale well before his death in 1942. Devastatingly handsome, profane, and urbane, "the Great Profile" was a Broadway megastar in celebrated productions including Hamlet and Richard III before transitioning to films like Bill of Divorcement and Dinner at Eight.

But he was also a legendary womanizer and scoundrel, known for his self-destructive, alcoholic descent into squalid buffoonery. A mystery to his siblings and his children, he reveals nothing profound but his own self-loathing in Confessions of an Actor, ghostwritten by Karl Schmidt, and published in 1925 at the height of his lauded career.

In the slight tome, John coyly claims he will not repeat legends about himself-like the time he strolled around a ruined San Francisco in a full tuxedo after the 1906 earthquake-then proceeds to tell many of them in a vague, G-rated fashion.

John Barrymore does speak movingly of his beloved grandmother Mum Mum, his desire to be an artist instead of an actor, and his own flaws. "Perhaps I am selfish as well as lazy," he writes. "I like that word 'perhaps.' It is easier to play a noble character on stage and leave the nobility with the clothes and the make-up in the dressing room than to be a nice person off the stage."

In a perverse twist, he ends this bit of P.R. fluff with a letter from George Bernard Shaw eviscerating Barrymore's legendary production of Hamlet. It leaves the reader bemused yet befuddled, which might be the point. According to Peters, Barrymore was irreverent: As he told one reviewer of the book, "You mustn't take it too seriously."

The First Lady of American Theater

The wide-eyed ingenue of Gilded Age theater, Ethel was the first Barrymore to attain superstardom in plays like Alice Sit-by-the-Fire and Mid-Channel. Not surprisingly, her delightful autobiography, Memoirs, focuses primarily on her glory days as a Gibson Girl fashion plate, when it seemed everyone-including Winston Churchill-was madly in love with her.

In charming and lilting prose, she paints herself as a Broadway-bound Cinderella, pushed onto the stage by her eccentric, removed family after her mother's death. Endlessly charming and inquisitive, she toured the world, enchanting almost everyone she met (according to her own account).

"All of a sudden I just knew people and they were my friends," Ethel writes. "Perhaps one reason was that I was always interested in everything-in books, painting, politics, baseball and, above all, people." She includes a letter from her great friend Katharine Hepburn, extolling her social gifts. "She has more friends than anyone I know, but she's not a dear, gentle soul," Hepburn writes. "Barrymores don't come like that."

Much of the book reads like a Victorian gossip column. Ethel flees from a lumbering Oscar Wilde in fright, is locked in the White House elevator with Alice Roosevelt by Kermit and Quentin Roosevelt, and is told by Henry James that she reminds him of a gothic building. Her slavish adoration for her little brother John, and distant respect for Lionel, is evident, although she subtly chastises them both for fleeing the stage for the screen. (The perpetually broke Ethel would eventually join them in film, starring with her brothers in the 1932 Rasputin and the Empress and winning an Oscar for 1944's None but the Lonely Heart.)

Ethel presents herself as the most fully functioning of the Barrymores, ignoring her own personal demons. According to Peters, Ethel's book omitted her long battle with alcoholism, her abusive marriage, and her propensity for legendary cat fights with the likes of Tallulah Bankhead. "The nice thing about an autobiography," she once quipped, per Peters, "is that you can leave out certain things."

The Character

The eldest of the Barrymore brood, Lionel was also its dark horse: the most solitary and eccentric. A character actor who claimed to be a "fraud," he vocally preferred fighting, painting, and composing to acting. Ironically, he would be the most prolific Barrymore, appearing in over 200 films, including Key Largo, You Can't Take It With You, and It's a Wonderful Life.

The most outwardly gruff of the brood, Lionel's We Barrymores (a book that, according to Peters, he dictated to his ghostwriter while sitting in his Oldsmobile, chain smoking cigarettes) proves to be the most revealing and sensitive of the family's autobiographies. True, he skirts his own sorrows-including the death of his two daughters, his second wife's death from anorexia, and his own addiction to morphine and cocaine (chronicled by Peters). But he spends much of the book trying to unravel the tragedy of John, his frequent partner in drinking and onscreen one-upmanship.

Throughout the book he repeatedly revisits John's demise, linking it to everything from their grandmother's death to their father Maurice's alcoholism and insanity. "They seem to have possessed precisely the same talent, the same imbalance, the same ennui with achievement, the same integrity-and the same capacity for hurting themselves," he writes.

"He was one of those people who pretends he doesn't need anyone and doesn't care," Lionel's friend and co-star Lauren Bacall recalled, per Peters. "But is so thoughtful, so kind." Throughout his autobiography the widowed, elderly Lionel, confined to a wheelchair and distant from his imperious sister, attempts to sound tough and cynical but continuously fails, like when he describes giving his grandmother's brooch to the child actor Margaret O'Brien-after she brought him the first slice of an ice cream cake because she loved him. "I gave her Mum's pin there and then. She deserved it, with all the sentimental implications I attached to it."

The Barrymore Curse

The old-world sense of propriety evident in her family's earlier memoirs was smashed with the publication of Too Much, Too Soon, Diana Barrymore's legendary 1957 tell-all. Diana, daughter of John Barrymore and the blue-blooded writer Blanche Oelrichs (pen name Michael Strange), was a New York City debutante whose determination to follow in her family's footsteps would lead her to ruin. "I was supercharged," she writes. "Weren't all the Barrymores? It was expected of me."

Half Peyton Place, half Go Ask Alice, Too Much, Too Soon unfolds like a Douglas Sirk melodrama on steroids. Diana rarely saw her idolized father during her childhood, and when she did, he proved himself a terrible influence-getting her tipsy and making out with her teenage friend. After early success on Broadway, Diana headed to Hollywood just in time to see her father's torturous last days. "Treepee," he told her, using his pet nickname, "you are going on to great things. I am already dead."

Hollywood believed in Diana as well, and she was soon the star of B movies like Between Us Girls and Nightmare. She was also proving herself as madcap as her dad, getting kicked out of Alfred Hitchcock's home after insulting his filmmaking and causing a ruckus when she kicked Deanna Durbin off her set. Already a "has-been" by the mid-1940s, she sunk increasingly into alcoholism and the violence, chaos, and tabloid stardom that came with it. Forced to borrow money from old friends like Tyrone Power and her Aunt Ethel (who read Diana parts of her own autobiography), Diana toured in subpar stock productions, appearing drunk onstage so many times Actors' Equity threatened to expel her.

"I was drunk, I was staggered on stage, and everyone saw it," she writes of one appearance. "I felt like a chorus girl in a fifth-rate burlesque. How low could you sink, Diana, to sell the name of Barrymore so cheaply, making like a slapstick tart in a two-bit honky-tonk?"

This shame and self-loathing make Too Much, Too Soon a painful read. Though the autobiography was a tawdry success adapted into a movie with Errol Flynn playing his old buddy John, it brought no catharsis to its author. She died at 38 in 1960, still in the grips of addiction. "God damn us all!" she wrote of her storied lineage. "We deserve everything we get."

Sole Survivor

For a time, it seemed that Drew Barrymore, then known as the pixieish child star of E.T. and Firestarter, would follow in her Aunt Diana's footsteps. The daughter of actor Ildikó Jaid Makó and the actor John Drew Barrymore (son of John and the actor Dolores Costello), she writes that she had drank alcohol at 9, tried cocaine at 12, and put in rehab that same year. Little Girl Lost, a memoir written in collaboration with Todd Gold, was released in 1990 and devoured by the "Just Say No" generation.

Today, the book is infuriating and disturbing. It hardly seems to give voice to 14-year-old Drew; it can read instead like a promotional pamphlet for ASAP Family Treatment Center in Van Nuys, where she was placed for over a year. Instead of placing the blame on her parents, Drew parrots her mom's assertion from an intense argument that she is "a loser, an asshole, and a bitch," with, as Drew describes, "a dark and temperamental side I inherited from my Barrymore ancestors."

This Drew is worlds away from the wholesome, effervescent Drew of her most recent memoir, 2015's Wildflower. In easy, breezy, conversational prose that sounds much more natural, she admits to an obsession with her legendary family, recalling: "When my dad would talk about his own father, I would listen as if I was being let into this fairy-tale world, where dangers lurk but fantastical magical things can occur."

But while she admits to the Barrymores' penchant for make-believe and exaggeration, she displays none of her family's famous cynicism and ennui. The book-with its tales of skydiving with Cameron Diaz and making lethal lemon-ricotta pancakes-is so wholesome (one of Drew's favorite words) that one believes she has broken the curse her mostly absent family left behind. "I am lucky that I got dealt some cards that showed me what it's like to not have family," Drew writes, "and I am much luckier to now have the chance to create my own deck!"

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The Book of Barrymore: Acting's Royal Family, in Their Own Words

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Inside John, Ethel, Lionel, Diana, and Drew Barrymore's memoirs, which chart the triumphs and tragedies of their legendary clan.

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At aged 9 Barrymore spend a lot of time in Studio 54, a famous Hollywood Night club. She gained herself a reputation and referred to herself as the 'party girl'. The Guardian, 2015). This shifted her child innocence image and contributed to her changing star image as the 'child star gone bad'. (O'Conner, 2008)

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Drew Barrymore secured her first acting job at just 11 months old in a dog food commercial. Her rise to stardom was due to her part in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at the age of seven.

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ET was a hit in the box office, making it one of the highest grossing films of the 1980's. This consequently made Drew one of the most well-known child actors during that time. Thus being crucial for Drew Barrymores careers, cementing her identity in Hollywood.

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ET The Extra Terrestrial (1982) Official 20th Anniversary Trailer Movie HD

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Drinking problem aged 11

Started taking drugs aged 12

Rehab aged 13

Attempted Suicide aged 14

Emancipation from parents aged 15

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Imagine you were a Hollywood producer pitched the following idea: a baby girl born into an acting dynasty is put to work in a dog food commercial at the age of 11 months. At seven, she's a film star pouring Baileys over her ice-cream, at 11 she develops a drink problem, at 12 she's a drug addict, at 13 she cuts her wrists and is hospitalised, and at 14 she's legally divorced from her parents. Of course, you wouldn't make the movie. Too far-fetched. There's only so much disbelief that one can willingly suspend.

But you've not heard the half of Drew Barrymore 's story. Unemployable as an actor at 15, cleaning toilets at 16, she was twice married and twice divorced by her mid-20s. Now she has written a book called Wildflower, a not-quite memoir; low-key essays that travel back and forth in time, telling stories of her outlandish life. There's a lot of hippy-dippy philosophising and sugary existentialism, but it's also very moving. More than anything, it's a book about the lost, loveless girl who finally finds a family and love.

Barrymore is now a youthful 40 - diddy (5ft 3in), pretty, exuding good health. She is wearing jeans, a stripy top and flat sandals, and has a bottle of beer in her hand. "Cheers," she says. We clink bottles. She has just raced through a photoshoot in downtown Manhattan with turbo-charged efficiency. OK, you want happy, sad, stupid, funny? Her face changes by the second. In the book, she talks about the ways she has changed since having children. Before, she was no respecter of time, invariably late for appointments. Today, she's still half an hour late, but apologetic and keen to make amends.

Reading Wildflower, I thought of Never Been Kissed, the first movie Barrymore made with her production company, Flower Films, and one of her most successful. In it, she plays Josie Geller, an aspiring magazine writer given an undercover reporting job: to pretend to be a high school student to find out what modern schools are like. Josie returns to school and is quickly reminded of its horrors - as a girl she had been a cack-handed clever clogs, ostracised by the cool crowd, taunted by the boys, and known as Josie Grossie. When she returns undercover, little has changed. But, as is the way with romcoms, the underdog wins the day.

Never Been Kissed became the modern-day fairytale for a generation of teenage girls. An admission: it has been the soundtrack to my family life for the past 15 years. Virtually every time my elder daughter, Alix, invited friends round, they would watch the film. Now aged 23, and a teacher, she says she has watched it more than 50 times.

Barrymore smiles when I tell her this. "Wow! I love that. I am Josie Grossie. If you say that to your daughter, she'll understand." She talks about her feeling of not belonging, her clumsiness, her fixation with words, her overeagerness to correct others.

But the younger Barrymore was ridiculously cute. Although her peers might not have liked her (she says she could never relate to other children), movie-goers, young and old, adored her. She made her debut at five, in the Ken Russell sci-fi horror Altered States, but it was Steven Spielberg's ET, two years later - the fourth most successful film of all time - that made her famous. In a film of cuties (the little boy Elliott, ET himself), Barrymore's pigtailed, open-mouthed Gertie out-cuted them all, her initial terror evolving into something approaching sibling love.

In the years immediately after ET, she started getting into trouble. There's a famous clip of her being interviewed by Johnny Carson around this time. She is seven going on 27, wearing fake front teeth to cover up the milk teeth she has just lost, which she quickly discards and dumps on his desk. She is precocious, funny, and outrageously flirtatious with the middle-aged chatshow host.

What we didn't know at the time was that her father, the actor John Drew Barrymore, was a violent alcoholic, and her mother and manager, Jaid, who was born in a displaced people's camp in Germany to Hungarian second world war refugees, was herself a wild child with little concept of parental responsibility. After her parents divorced, when Drew was nine, Jaid took her to Studio 54, where she was introduced to drugs and encouraged to dance with famous young men.

From the age of eight, she called herself a "party girl", going out with her mother and her mother's friends up to five times a week. But she soon couldn't cope. By the age of 12, she had already been in rehab and was supporting Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign. She fell off the wagon again, and at 13 found herself beginning an 18-month stint in hospital, where she was treated for alcohol and drug addiction.

I ask Barrymore whether her 14-year-old self would have imagined being able to tell such a positive life story at 40. She takes a swig from her bottle of Corona. "Half no, in that I was so scared of not knowing where I was going. I really had a fear that I was going to die at 25. And half yes, because no matter how dark shit got, I always had a sense that there should be goodness. I never went all the way into darkness. There were so many things I could have done that would have pushed me over the edge and I just knew not to go there."

But Barrymore couldn't have come much closer. What was her nadir? "When I was 13, that was probably the lowest." What happened then? She looks away. "Just knowing that I really was alone. And it felt... terrible. It was a really rebellious time. I would run off. I was very, very angry."

What was she most angry about? Silence. "That's the thing. I don't know. And once I really asked myself, 'What are you angry with?' I dropped the anger. If you search deep down in me, it's like, why am I so angry, man? And it's like, OK, cos my parents weren't there, who gives a shit? Lots of people don't have parents. They were gone, they couldn't handle any of it, and I get it."

Yes, lots of parents are not there for their children, I say, but few are quite as "gone" as yours were. She grins. "They were pretty out there! But I realised, honestly, yeah, my mom locked me up in an institution. Boo hoo! But it did give an amazing discipline. It was like serious recruitment training and boot camp, and it was horrible and dark and very long-lived, a year and a half, but I needed it. I needed that whole insane discipline. My life was not normal. I was not a kid in school with normal circumstances. There was something very abnormal, and I needed some severe shift."

I have heard Barrymore refer to this institution before, but have never been sure what it was exactly. Was it an institution for the mentally ill?

"Yeah, absolutely."

Could you leave or did you have to stay?

"Oh yeah. No getting out for a year and a half."

Was there any warning from your mother that this was coming?

"No, no, no. I would have run away. I would never, never have let that happen to myself."

Did she come and visit?

"Yeah, occasionally. Occasionally."

It's a disturbing story. She talks about life in the dormitories, how she is still friends with one girl who "is kooky, but great", how they tried to drug her and she resisted. "I was like, no, thank you. I wanted to clean out. I didn't want to be a cliche."

Did you ask your mother why she sent you there?

"Of course, but I got it. Then we emancipated. We separated after that. I legally became an adult."

Did you ever think you were mentally ill? "No. No. I just knew that I was off course."

Did the doctors say what they thought was wrong? She giggles. "Oh, they definitely thought I was off course!"

In the end, it was the institution that suggested she legally separate from her mother and be declared an adult at 14. Barrymore says the experts there believed that if she were to go back out into the world, she'd be better off on her own. Today, she has no regrets about her time there. "It was a very important thing to experience for me. It was very humbling, very quieting. Maybe it was necessary, because I came out of there a more respecting person. And my parents didn't teach me that, and life wasn't teaching me that. I came out in a very different way... but I still was me."

I ask Barrymore if she enjoyed any of her child stardom. She says she's not sure. "I don't think I understood what was good, or pleasurable, or bad. I was probably chasing joy, but I don't think it was the real joy. I was just too young to know."

Did you feel exploited by your parents? "Nooooo." She starts again. "I mean, well, yeah, I think with my mother it was definitely too out there. But my dad, no, he was just unavailable."

The newly independent 14-year-old was a Hollywood pariah. A has-been. She'd attend auditions and casting directors would laugh at her nerve for even turning up. "To have such a big career at such a young age, then nothing for years - people going, you're an unemployable disaster - that's a tough trip to have by the time you're 14. To have access to so many things, then to nothing."

She stops, and says maybe that should have felt terribly unfair, but it didn't. She just accepted it, had no ego about it - she couldn't afford to have. One of the few useful lessons her father taught her, she says, was about how ruinous expectation can be. "My dad once said to me that expectations are the mother of deformity, and I do not expect anything. Expectations always got me in trouble. What do expectations really do? They make other people feel like shit, then let you down eventually." Far better, she says, to get on with things and fight back. So she worked in restaurants and cleaned toilets and told people that, yes, she used to be Drew Barrymore and still was.

As she talks, I look at two tattoos, one on each arm. On her left, the word BREATHE, vertically, in stencil-like capitals ("You're never worse after a deep breath," she says); on the right is a tiny bird. When she was a little girl, she asked her mother if Steven Spielberg, who directed her in ET, could be her godfather. Spielberg agreed. Did she call on him for advice in her toughest times? "I didn't want to show him certain things. He has always inspired me to be my best, so I didn't want him to see me at my worst. I could have easily gone to him, he was never closed doors or unwelcoming. But I was like, I'll figure this out over here, I will be back, excuse me for a minute!" (After she posed naked for Playboy, aged 19, Spielberg sent her a large quilt with a note attached that read, "Cover up".)

She finishes her beer, and for the first time looks slightly uneasy. "By the way, we are talking about all these things that aren't in the book." She says I am focusing on the unremittingly bleak, and the book talks about precious, private moments of hope. Such as? "Being on a boat and asking the universe not to give up on me. Or how I felt walking away from my mom at 14, and what that first year was like. It was weeeeeird. I had no idea how to run an apartment at 14. There was fungus growing everywhere, it was a disaster. It was in a dangerous neighbourhood and I was so scared to sleep. I had bars on the window and alley cats fucking 30 feet away. I was so terrified."

To be honest, her positive moments don't sound much less bleak than anything else we've talked about. But, she says, in the book she deliberately didn't go into explicit detail about past problems. "This was aimed at my kids reading it one day, so there's a demure quality to it." Her daughters, Olive and Frankie, with husband Will Kopelman, are three and one. Does she want to protect them from her past? She flinches. "No, it's not denying anything. I've been caught off guard when people go, 'What are you going to do when your kids Google you?' and I'm like, 'God, that is so accusatory.' I'm not going to pretend I am not who I am. I'm going to show them how it got me to where I am now."

We get a couple more beers. I ask how long she was a Hollywood untouchable for. Ages, she says, maybe eight years. I'm sure it wasn't that long. So she counts on her fingers, and is surprised to discover she was only persona non grata for around three years. By the age of 17, she was back with Poison Ivy, playing a character close to her own public image - sexy, trashy, dangerous. Over the next six years she made 16 more films, including Bad Girls, Woody Allen's musical Everyone Says I Love You, the blockbuster Batman Forever, the horror movie Scream and The Wedding Singer, the first in a series of romcom collaborations with Adam Sandler. At 20, she joined forces with Nancy Juvonen to start Flower Films, producing and starring in Never Been Kissed three years later.

She was tired of playing bad girls; had never really seen herself as one. It gave her the scope to choose her own parts - whether the misunderstood Cinderellas of the romcoms or the kick-ass heroine of Charlie's Angels.

She found her 20s liberating - working hard, partying hard, enjoying huge success and a belated adolescence. At one point, she went on David Letterman, jumped on the chatshow host's desk, gave him a table-dance, flashed her breasts and jumped back into her seat grinning like crazy, wondering what the hell she had just done. You couldn't tell whether it was with shame or pride, but it was noticeable that, at 20, she seemed younger than the seven-year-old who had appeared on the Johnny Carson show all those years ago.

She says her 20s and 30s more than made up for her teens. "Twenty to 35 was a blaaaaast. I thought, how am I getting away with this? I'm really being quite playful, yet still doing a lot at work."

During this time, she briefly married for a second time, to comedian Tom Green (she had previously been married, at 19, to Welsh bar owner Jeremy Thomas), and had a number of relationships, including a long-term one with the Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Is "playful" a euphemism for sex, drugs and rock'n'roll? "No," she says. "More like travel, really fun times with friends, relationships, sure. But I really lived, and did what I wanted to when I wanted to. If I felt like doing something, I just did it. And it was pretty liberating. I wasn't like a nun who went to sleep at 10pm every night. I had fun!"

It's interesting, I say, that despite your earlier excesses, you went on another blast. A different character might have become abstemious. She could never do that, she says. "I can't have more severity in my life. I think I've had a lot of severity, and it's not for me. I like moderation or balance."

In 2009, she directed her first full-length feature film, Whip It, a typical Barrymore romcom about a teenage misfit who finds herself by signing up to a roller derby team. The film received generally positive reviews (critic Roger Ebert wrote, "While it may not reflect the kind of female empowerment Gloria Steinem had in mind, it has guts, charm, and a black-and-blue sweetness"), but it wasn't a box-office success.

What has given her the most satisfaction professionally: acting, producing or directing? "Having a hand in it, being part of the process, has given me tremendous satisfaction. I don't like just showing up... I've never been good at, 'Hope it all goes well.' I want to be a part of why it goes well. I'm not blind when I walk into things. I've done my homework. I like to be part of something. I care. I care about the details."

She is extremely proud of her acting lineage - seven generations of actors, including her celebrated grandfather John Barrymore, who eventually drank himself to death (alcoholism is another family trait). But while she loves acting, she is dismissive of her own abilities. In Wildflower, Barrymore suggests she has pretty much always played herself - so when she was lovelorn and misunderstood she was perfect for the romcoms, but now she's a contented mother she's fit only for playing contented mothers, and they are pretty dull roles. She refers to most of the characters she has played in recent years as "panting labradors". She pants enthusiastically to show what she means. "Like a labrador, panting on the floor. It's eagerness." Eager to please, eager to be loved.

Barrymore insists she has neither the time nor inclination to play demanding roles these days. This year she starred in the comedy drama Miss You Already, with Toni Collette, about best buddies who have shared everything, including boyfriends; last year she played opposite Adam Sandler in the twee romcom Blended. She admits she has only ever truly stretched herself once as an actor, in the 2009 HBO film Grey Gardens, playing Edith Bouvier Beale, the reclusive cousin of Jackie Kennedy.

"Grey Gardens was a big buy for me. It was like, right, we're done for a while, because I went so cuckoo on that. I got to do the dream. I got to have 17 layers of chicken skin on my face. It took four hours a day for them to make me look like this woman. I didn't talk to anyone for four months, and only spoke like her. I wouldn't be able to do that now. What am I going to tell my kids? 'Sorry, I can't speak to you for four months, because I've got to be Edie Beale.'" She says it was hugely important for her, because she wanted to prove to herself and the film industry that she could do serious. "The director didn't even want me for that movie. He was like, 'Oh no, please not her, not the romcom girl.' And I was like, 'I can do it! I caaaaan do it.'" She has such a distinctive voice - those creamy California vowels stretched to breaking point, as if talking while chewing on treacle.

Barrymore says that since having children, her priorities have changed. "Without pissing on what I've done, I think I really did have a desperation - I felt that everything I did in film mattered. It was my whole world. Now it's kids, friends, marriage, work, health. I don't want my girls to grow up saying, 'Oh wow, yeah, she really worked hard, but I didn't see her.' I want them to be like, 'I don't know how the hell she was there for all those things, and she still worked!'"

Did she worry about what she would be like as a mother? "No. I knew I would not repeat the mistakes of my parents. I knew I would never do that to a kid. I wouldn't not be there, or put them in too-adult circumstances. I knew I'd be very traditional, or I would not do it. I would never have had children unless I was incredibly stable, and willing to put them first." As she explains the wonder of motherhood, the words tumble out so quickly, she trips over them. "It really is the most clever, smart, capable, patient, loving, creative, agile thing you will ever do when you're alive. It's amazing. So I just wanted to be present for that. I also waited. I knew I wouldn't do it till I was ready."

How would she feel if her girls wanted to become child film stars? "I would unfortunately have to risk them hating me." You wouldn't let them do it? "No, I wouldn't. That doesn't mean I would ever shit on the profession of acting. I think it's wonderful. I think films saved my life. I mean, I come from a family that has done acting for 400 years. But film sets are a bizarre world. For me, it was better than my circumstances. It was a saviour. For my children, it will not be better than their circumstances. They are going to be so safe and so loved that they won't need a film set to make their life better."

After Barrymore announced that she would rather stay at home with her children than work on movie sets (albeit still focusing on her successful beauty product business), she experienced a backlash. From whom? "Women! For saying, you can't have it all. But I didn't mean it like that. I think you most certainly can do anything you want, I just think... I can't do everything at once. It isn't going to warrant a good result and isn't actually possible. And that really pissed people off." Was she upset by the response? "No, but I felt it was misunderstood. I think women know how much I am for women and about women, but I do have an issue with, 'You can have it all.' It's an impossible expectation to put upon yourself. And what does having it all actually mean? It sounds very greedy, you know, 'I can have it all.' I can't have it all."

We talk about gender inequalities within the film industry - pay, the fact that women are frequently written off as love interests by their mid-30s. "Yes, I'm four years past my prime!" She grins. She says she knows there is still discrimination, but her experience has largely been positive. "I feel so lucky for the opportunities I did have. I mean, I was 23 when I made Never Been Kissed, that was our first movie as Flower Films, and it was for Fox and they took a risk on me. I literally went in in corduroy pants and a backpack, in the age of the power suit. We did not fit the part, and we wanted to do it our way, and they let us. Sony let Nancy Juvonen and me make Charlie's Angels, a giant fuckin' franchise movie, and they let us make a second one. And we got to make 50 First Dates, and someone gave us financing for Donnie Darko. I feel we've had the best run ever."

It's three years since she married art consultant Kopelman, when she was six months pregnant with Olive. One of the most touching parts of Wildflower is her realisation that she finally has the family she has always wanted. And not just one family. There's her work family at Flower Films, the family she has started with Kopelman, the extended family of her in-laws, her joy at taking part in their Jewish rituals.

It's 11 years since her father died, a destitute addict, and Barrymore rarely speaks to her mother. Her parents are largely absent from the latter stages of her book, and we are left wondering if there is any forgiveness, let alone love, for them. But in the final lines of the acknowledgments, she writes: "And to my mother Ildiko Jaid Barrymore. Thank you. I am ever so pleased to be on this planet! And to my father John Drew Barrymore. See you again some day."

She looks delighted when I say I found this the most poignant bit in the book. "I really didn't know how to feel about my mom for so many years. And it's painful to have conflicting feelings about the woman who gave birth to you. But it's like I've finally passed through something which has made me OK with everything, even if I don't understand it all and might never, never resolve it."

As we leave, she signs a DVD cover of Never Been Kissed for my daughter, and we talk about why the film had such a huge impact on so many girls. It's strange, she says, how you can strive to be profound, but in the end it's the simplest things that end up mattering. "You try so hard to do something important and meaningful. But when you strike the universal chord of goofiness, it's far more important. And, goddamnit, we all beat the fuck up on ourselves, going, we'd better do something important and meaningful in this world, and make an impact and a difference, and change something - and in the end it's like, did you make anyone feel like they weren't alone? That might be the coolest thing you ever do with your life." I close my eyes, and it's no longer Drew Barrymore in front of me, it's Josie Grossie, all grown up and confident and freakishly wise.

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Drew Barrymore: 'My mother locked me up in an institution at 13. Boo hoo! I needed it'

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ET made Drew Barrymore a star at seven, but addiction and rejection followed. She talks about rehab, divorcing her mother - and why goofiness is underrated

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‘I’ve been waiting all my life to meet you’

Barrymore's innocence is evident in her wholesome persona, presented in the Carson Tonight Show. The exaggeration reminds the audience of her age, highlighting her innocent star image.

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Drew Barrymore's Classic First Appearance | Carson Tonight Show

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Drew Barrymore's First Acting Job Baby & Puppy Commercial at 11 Months

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O’Connor, J. and Mercer, J. (2017) ‘Childhood and celebrity: Mapping the terrain’, in Childhood and Celebrity. 1st edn. United Kingdom: Routledge, pp. 5–16. 

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O’Connor, J. and Mercer, J. (2017) ‘Childhood and celebrity: Mapping the terrain’, in Childhood and Celebrity. 1st edn. United Kingdom: Routledge, pp. 5–16. 

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Child stars are favoured amongst directors and audiences due to their powerful image. According to O’Conner and Mercer, they represent beauty, perceived innocence, and future potential (2017).

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Meyers, E.A. (2020) Extraordinarily Ordinary: Us Weekly and the Rise of Reality Television Celebrity. 1st edn. United States: Rutgers University Press.  

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Meyers, E.A. (2020) Extraordinarily Ordinary: Us Weekly and the Rise of Reality Television Celebrity. 1st edn. United States: Rutgers University Press.  

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As stated by Myers (2020) behind the star is a private labour that is carried out to aid the captivating star facade. This is important to validate a star’s rightful fame and present them as an authentic and real person (2020). Thus, making celebrities more favourable and further enhancing a positive star image.

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'I got drunk and it was such a scary frightening feeling yet such an escape from everything else in the world' 

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'I got drunk and it was such a scary frightening feeling yet such an escape from everything else in the world' 

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Barrymore speaks about her drug and alcohol use, and the moment she understood the importance of being clean. This interview marks her road to redemption in the industry and amongst audiences.

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“It really is a recipe for disaster,” she said of becoming famous so young. “But you know what’s exciting? I got my s— over with at, like, 14. Like, midlife crisis, institutionalized, blacklisted, no family, like, got it done, and then got into the cycle of being my own parent, figuring it out.” (The Detox Centre, 2023)

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Actress Drew Barrymore is now 47 years old (2022), a mother, producer, and entrepreneur. However, at the age of 13, Barrymore found herself admitted into a mental health institution by her mother for a year and a half and legally emancipated from her parents at age 14. Her struggles with substance abuse at such a young aged traced back into troubled childhood stardom.

After becoming a superstar in 1982 at just seven years old after starring in 2018 on Steven Spielberg's classic "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial". She spoke about that time of her life on the Netflix series "Norm Macdonald Has a Show."

"It really is a recipe for disaster," she said of becoming famous so young. "But you know what's exciting? I got my s- over with at, like, 14. Like, midlife crisis, institutionalized, blacklisted, no family, like, got it done, and then got into the cycle of being my own parent, figuring it out."

Substance abuse ran in the family. Barrymore's father, actor John Drew Barrymore, was a violent alcoholic while her mother, Jaid, had little desire for parental responsibility. When she was nine years old, her parents divorced. Her father was no longer present in her life and her mother would take her to nightclubs where she was introduced to the world of partying, drinking and drugs. Barrymore had already been in rehab and survived a suicide attempt by aged 12.

At such a young and pivotal developmental age, children cannot fully comprehend the consequences of their actions. Specifically in Drew Barrymore's case, when addiction was normalized to such an extent. Substance abuse also has the potential to interrupt normal brain development in younger individuals, since the brain is still growing.

The Partying And Substance Abuse Took A Toll On Her Emotional And Mental Wellbeing

The partying and substance abuse took a toll on her emotional and mental wellbeing. At age 13, Barrymore's mother had her admitted into a mental health institution due to a drug and alcohol addiction as well as her suicide attempts. She ended up staying in the facility for a year and a half. She described her lowest point to The Guardian. "Just knowing that I really was alone... My mom locked me up in an institution. But it did give an amazing discipline. It was like serious recruitment training and boot camp, and it was horrible and dark and very long-lived, a year and a half, but I needed it."

Ultimately, it was the mental health treatment center that suggested Barrymore legally separate herself from her mother. As a result, she was emancipated from her parents and declared an adult at age 14. The experts believed that she would have a better chance on her own. Speaking about the experience, Barrymore says, "It was a very important thing to experience for me. It was very humbling, very quieting. Maybe it was necessary, because I came out of there a more respecting person. And my parents didn't teach me that, and life wasn't teaching me that. I came out in a very different way... but I still was me."

Being newly independent, the scarred reputation of the young Hollywood star prevented her from booking many jobs. She would attend auditions and casting directors would find it humorous that she even showed up. "To have such a big career at such a young age, then nothing for years - people going, you're an unemployable disaster - that's a tough trip to have by the time you're 14. To have access to so many things, then to nothing." Although it was difficult, she accepted it and had no ego about it. It was one of the few lessons her father taught her, about how ruinous expectation can be. From there, she worked in restaurants cleaning toilets until she was back on the acting scene at 17 starring in Poison Ivy. At age 20, she started her own production company Flower Films alongside Nancy Juvonen in which she produced and starred in Never Been Kissed three years later.

In her 20s and 30s, Barrymore seemed to have made up for lost time in her teens. "Twenty to 35 was a blaaaaast. I thought, how am I getting away with this? I'm really being quite playful, yet still doing a lot at work." When asked if "playful" was a euphemism for something more taboo, she replied, "No. "More like travel, really fun times with friends, relationships, sure. But I really lived, and did what I wanted to when I wanted to. If I felt like doing something, I just did it. And it was pretty liberating."

Despite the challenges of addiction and co-occurring mental struggles, Barrymore was able to overcome the setbacks and accomplish many more films and another important accomplishment- motherhood. She has two young daughters with ex-husband Will Kopelman. When asked if she was worried about what she would be like as a mother, she replied, "No. I knew I would not repeat the mistakes of my parents. I knew I would never do that to a kid. I wouldn't not be there or put them in too-adult circumstances. I knew I'd be very traditional, or I would not do it. I would never have had children unless I was incredibly stable and willing to put them first."

Although her father passed away in 2004 (she was able to reconnect with him shortly before he died) and she has little contact with her mother, she did mention them in the acknowledgments of her book Wildflower, where she writes, "And to my mother Ildiko Jaid Barrymore. Thank you. I am ever so pleased to be on this planet! And to my father John Drew Barrymore. See you again someday." In The Guardian interview, she stated, "I really didn't know how to feel about my mom for so many years. And it's painful to have conflicting feelings about the woman who gave birth to you. But it's like I've finally passed through something which has made me OK with everything, even if I don't understand it all and might never, never resolve it."

Like so many other individuals who have gone through the traumatic experiences of addiction, Barrymore encountered a feeling of acceptance crucial to recovery. The dark times have been replaced with the joy of motherhood and positive life experiences. "They've made me such a calmer, better person," she told Sunday TODAY in March about her daughters. "I'll never take the tone with them of work is bad, my past is bad, life is bad. This is the adventure and journey we're on, but you have to be nice, and safe."

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction or co-occurring mental health disorders, contact us today. We are here to help!

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Drew Barrymore talks about Close Experience with Addiction

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Barrymore found herself admitted into a mental health institution by her mother for a year and a half and legally emancipated from her parents

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As discussed on the Wogan Show (1990), Barrymore's family have had many issues with substance abuse. Her Grandfather, His daughter and son (Drews Father) all had serious drug and alcohol addictions.

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Great dynasties of the world: The Barrymores

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'Child star gone bad'. O'Conner J (2008) The Cultural Significance of the child star. London. Routlegde. 

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'Child star gone bad'. O'Conner J (2008) The Cultural Significance of the child star. London. Routlegde. 

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The 'Child star gone bad' and 'Too much too soon' narratives can be applied to Barrymore. Within the media these stock portrayals were incredibly popular when reporting on child celebrities. (O'Conner, 2008,P14).

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'I would not have changed a thing about growing up in these halls and fields'

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Drew Barrymore on Instagram: "#sundaybuffet  in honor of this musical weekend… I have always loved MUSIC, dancing and enjoying life! You can take the kid out of the club, but you can’t take the club out of the kid! I’m so different about my kids and how they grow up, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing about growing up in these halls and fields."

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472K likes, 3,408 comments - drewbarrymore on November 21, 2021: "#sundaybuffet  in honor of this musical weekend… I have always loved MUSIC, dancing and enjoyin..."

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Drew Barrymore (@drewbarrymore)

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After rehab and during the 1990s Drew star persona shifted to the stereotypical 'Bad Girl'. She starred in Poison Ivy (1992), GunCrazy (1992), No place to Hide (1993) and Bad Girls (1994) (IMBD, 2023). Her characters constructed her star image as a rebellious and bad teenager.

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Drew Barrymore | Producer, Actress, Director

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Known for: Charlie’s Angels, Never Been Kissed, 50 First Dates

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The rebellious character traits converged to her public persona/ appearances.

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Launched by Nancy Juvonen and Drew Barrymore in 1955, Flower Film is an American Production company that produces television shows and films (LinkedIn, 2023).

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Celebrity Commodification. Featherstone, M. (2007) Consumer culture and postmodernism Mike Featherstone. 2nd ed. Los Angeles, Calif. ;: SAGE

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Celebrity Commodification. Featherstone, M. (2007) Consumer culture and postmodernism Mike Featherstone. 2nd ed. Los Angeles, Calif. ;: SAGE

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Celebrities take part in the promotion of consumer culture, ‘the expansion of capitalist commodity promotion which has increased the vast accumulation of material culture in the form of consumer goods and sites for purchase and consumption’ (Featherstone, 2007,P2).

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"she emulates the iconic image of CoverGirl with her fresh, natural beauty and energetic yet authentic spirit," (CBN News, 2010)

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Drew Barrymore grew up with tear sheets of models such as Cheryl Tiegs, Rachel Hunter and Christie Brinkley plastered in her bedroom like wallpaper. Come January, another young girl can do the same with Barrymore's photo.

Barrymore is CoverGirl's newest model and spokeswoman, joining a stable of famous faces that includes her former idols and, more recently, Queen Latifah, Molly Sims and Rihanna.

Her selection by the Procter & Gamble Co. beauty brand was to be announced this week at a news conference in Los Angeles.

The 32-year-old "Charlie's Angels" actress is also a co-creator of the ads, and before any wardrobe or beauty decisions were made at Monday's print shoot, Barrymore said she was consulting on the concept, graphics, lighting and how the photo would be cropped.

"I leave the makeup and product up to them, that's their expertise," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the set. "What I want to do is honor the tradition of CoverGirl but hopefully bring myself and my personality into it, as well as some edgy fashion-forward thinking and positivity to it."

Look for her in a nude-colored dress, which, Barrymore explained, is a contrast to the bright colors often used in cosmetics ads.

"I like to be involved in every aspect. I'm a control freak but I keep those issues at bay when I work with other people," she said with a laugh.

It's Barrymore's strength that led the company to seek her out. "We partnered with Drew because she emulates the iconic image of CoverGirl with her fresh, natural beauty and energetic yet authentic spirit," said Esi Eggleston Bracey, vice president and general manager of CoverGirl Cosmetics North America.

Barrymore said she loved the chance to play with makeup and try modeling. "What girl doesn't fantasize about it?" she said. At the same time, she's more of a jeans and T-shirt girl; literally what she was wearing on this day along with Vans sneakers.

It is Barrymore's first foray into commercials.

She even surprised herself, but the thought of being a CoverGirl kept popping into her mind months after she was approached, Barrymore said. She took that at as a good sign.

First published on April 11, 2007 / 3:21 PM EDT

© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Actress Was More Involved In Her First Commercial Shoot Than Most Models

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The company was founded in 2010 when Barrymore Wines joined Carmel Road of Jackson Family Wines in Italy. The wines grown local to Barrymore so she can 'be as hands on as possible' (Vogue, 2017). This contributes to her star image as a hardworking and dedicated individual. Her hands on involvement in the process makes it more appealing for her audience to purchase the wine.

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Drew Barrymore is passionate about wine. It's apparent from the moment she starts to tell you about her latest rosé, an easy-drinking, medium hue pinot noir with a pale pink Shepard Fairey-designed label. "Rosé is when you peel the skin off the grape earlier. It's a cold fermentation," she explains.

The actress, producer, and beauty guru started Barrymore Wines with Carmel Road of Jackson Family Wines back in Italy in 2010, and in addition to rosé, the label offers a pinot noir and a pinot grigio-all of which are grown in Monterey, California, where Barrymore can be as hands-on as possible. "I really am trying to educate myself rather than just drinking. I really want to know the exact notes that each glass or label or vineyard or varietal has. I get inspired by that."

It's precisely this curiosity that makes chatting (and drinking) wine with Barrymore so enjoyable. One gets a sense that she truly loves the history, industry, and the process of discovery. "The more you drink wine, the more of a pseudo-oenophile you will become," she says with her signature warmth. "Wine is exploration; it's travel; it's education; it's transportation bringing you to another time and place. It also makes the best gift: You get a bottle of wine, you're happy."

She's also quick to share her trick for looking like an expert: "As a winemaker now, people tend to look to me to taste for the table, which used to be an incredibly intimidating process. But one way that you can always look professional is SST: swirl, smell, taste."

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Drew Barrymore Shares Her Trick for Ordering Wine Like a Pro

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The actress, producer, and now winemaker talks her latest rosé and how to enjoy wine like an expert.

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Barrymore created the affordable and high quality makeup line in 2013 . The line is targeted at consumers who can't afford products priced at $100 +. (Diversity Woman, 2023). This care for the consumers presents Drew as a thoughtful and caring individual, she wants the best for the customers.

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Diversity Woman | Leadership Empowerment for Women Who Mean Business

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Drew Barrymore: Flower Power

Oftentimes, when celebrities decide to launch a business line, they target the luxury audience. After all, that is the world and market they know best.

Actress Drew Barrymore, who launched her Flower Beauty Cosmetics makeup line in 2013, went in the other direction. She decided she wanted to develop a quality product line sold at affordable prices, targeted to the vast majority of consumers who can't afford $100 lipsticks. Barrymore signed an exclusive deal with Walmart to carry more than 180 of Flower Beauty Cosmetics eye, face, lip, and nail products. The products sell for less than $20.

Barrymore, who currently stars with Timothy Olyphant in the Netflix sitcom Santa Clarita Diet, says she decided to develop a makeup line because she wanted to help women improve their self-image. She told Business Insider, "I think there's such a crucial necessity for positive messaging so that women feel empowered and are not making themselves up to be something else. It's always about being the best you. Who you are inside and your joy levels and a smile are better than any lipstick. It's sort of antimakeup messaging, but I think it's more human messaging and the rest will fall into place."
Barrymore also chose makeup as her business line because as a former model and a prolific actress (E.T., Donnie Darko, Grey Gardens), she has spent a good chunk of her life being made up by professionals. "I've been in a makeup chair since I was six years old and had the fortune of working with the icons of the beauty industry-learning, being in love with products, pigments, brands, companies, and just being a constant student of makeup."

In 2017 Barrymore expanded Flower Beauty Cosmetics to Mexico, its first foreign market. It also began an ecommerce platform.

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Oftentimes, when celebrities decide to launch a business line, they target the luxury audience. After all, that is the world and market they know best. Actress Drew Barrymore, who launched her Flower Beauty Cosmetics makeup line in 2013, went in the other direction.

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"We're delighted to be teaming up with Drew Barrymore to debut her new brand on Amazon Fashion," Amazon Fashion Director Kate Dimmock told People. "Drew's impressive career and creative energy is an inspiration, and we're thrilled to be able to offer our customers a collection that embodies her."

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Drew Barrymore has launched her own fashion and lifestyle label on Amazon Fashion.

Named 'Dear Drew by Drew Barrymore', the Hollywood star's collection is described as "a love letter to women around the world." It covers hair styling tools with inspirational names, ready-to-wear separates such as smart trousers and blouses, cashmere loungewear and trench coats. Accessories include scarves, bags with motivational slogans and contemporary jewelry, and there is even a suitcase in the lineup. 'Dear Drew' is now available to purchase on Amazon, with prices ranging from $28 to $248.

"We're delighted to be teaming up with Drew Barrymore to debut her new brand on Amazon Fashion," Amazon Fashion Director Kate Dimmock told People. "Drew's impressive career and creative energy is an inspiration, and we're thrilled to be able to offer our customers a collection that embodies her."

This isn't Barrymore's first entrepreneurial project -- the actress also has a successful cosmetics line, 'Flower Beauty', which she set up in 2013, covering makeup, fragrance and beauty tools and accessories. However, her latest project sees her join a growing club of actresses and models making their own foray into the world of fashion design. Other stars who have become known for their clothing lines include Eva Mendes, whose long-term collaboration with 'New York & Company' has seen huge success, and Kate Hudson, whose athleisure brand 'Fabletics' is also taking the industry by storm. This fall has also seen actress Tracee Ellis Ross, model Chrissy Teigen and singer Demi Lovato design their own capsule fashion collections for various brands.

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Drew Barrymore debuts new fashion line on Amazon Fashion

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News collection : Drew Barrymore has launched her own fashion and lifestyle label on Amazon Fashion.Named 'Dear Drew by Drew Barrymore', the Hollywood star's collection is described as "a love letter to women around the world." (#883525)

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Rojek (2001) Celebrity. 1st edn. London: Reaktion Books Ltd.

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Rojek (2001) Celebrity. 1st edn. London: Reaktion Books Ltd.

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Barrymore falls into two categories in Rojeks distinction of celebrity types. She is an ascribed celebrity, her 'status follows from bloodline'. However, she is additionally an achieved celebrity who has many self made accomplishments, separately to her acting career. (Rokej, 2001).

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Gies, L. (2011) ‘Stars Behaving Badly: Inequality and transgression in celebrity culture’, Feminist media studies, 11(3), pp. 347–361. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2010.535319.

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Gies, L. (2011) ‘Stars Behaving Badly: Inequality and transgression in celebrity culture’, Feminist media studies, 11(3), pp. 347–361. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2010.535319.

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Celebrities have the ability to 'jump through social conventions'. (Dyer, 2004, P14.). They are sensitive to setbacks in their careers, this is one of the factors that contribute to their rise to fame (Gies,L, 2011). Barrymore's career was redeemed as part of the celebrity culture narrative, it makes her who she is today.

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Musa, Murshamshul & Udin, Nurzihan & Ariff, Zuhairah & Abd Ghadas, Zuhairah. (2019). Child Performers in the Entertainment Industry: An Analysis from the Employment Regulations Perspective. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences.

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Musa, Murshamshul & Udin, Nurzihan & Ariff, Zuhairah & Abd Ghadas, Zuhairah. (2019). Child Performers in the Entertainment Industry: An Analysis from the Employment Regulations Perspective. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences.

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Barrymore was 'robbed of [her] childhood and transformed into a money making and [entertainment] machine' (Murshamshul, Udin, Ghadas, & Mohd Shahril Nizam, 2018).

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Morgenroth, T., Ryan, M. K., & Peters, K. (2015). The Motivational Theory of Role Modeling: How Role Models Influence Role Aspirants’ Goals. Review of General Psychology, 19(4), 465-483. 

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Morgenroth, T., Ryan, M. K., & Peters, K. (2015). The Motivational Theory of Role Modeling: How Role Models Influence Role Aspirants’ Goals. Review of General Psychology, 19(4), 465-483. 

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'Boohoo I needed it'

Barrymore acknowledges and is proud of her past, this makes her an admirable individual or a role model. Role models motivate individuals to perform novel behaviours and inspire them to set ambitious goals, especially for members of stigmatized groups (Morgenroth, Ryan and Peters, 2015). Her active discussions about her childhood adds to a positive and resilient star image.

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'I love how real Drew Barrymore looks in her CoverGirl commercials' (Glamour, 2010)

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'I love how real Drew Barrymore looks in her CoverGirl commercials' (Glamour, 2010)

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Barrymore was idolised by fans for her authentic persona. This made her the perfect candidate for the Cover Girl in 2007.

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We're bombarded by images of impossibly thin women, so when a real-looking woman in an ad comes along, we take notice. Vitamin G reader Melanie wrote me recently to applause Drew Barrymore in a new CoverGirl campaign ...

"I have seen the new covergirl commercial with Drew Barrymore and ... I love it because Drew isn't traditionally skinny and model-y, and they don't try to make it look like she is either," writes Vitamin G reader Melanie, who lives in Pleasanton, California. "Seeing someone so beautiful and confident strutting around with curves has made me feel better about my own, go CoverGirl!"

Agreed! Drew looks terrific, not bony and airbrushed to death.
Have you noticed other ads following suit?
More reading:
Guy mannequins are getting scary skinny ... Skinny model photos: Should they come with a health warning label? 3 swimsuit models show us that every body is a hot body ...
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You Said It: "I Love How Real Drew Barrymore Looks in Her CoverGirl Commercials"

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We're bombarded by images of impossibly thin women, so when a real-looking woman in an ad comes along, we take notice. Vitamin G reader Melanie wrote me recently to applause Drew Barrymore in a new CoverGirl campaign ...

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Barrymore is a guest on Letterman's show. She dances on his table and flashes him, for his birthday. (This was on Live TV).

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Drew Barrymore Flashes Dave for His Birthday | Letterman

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Barrymore moved away from her past to become a well-known and prosperous actor. This enhanced her celebrity persona as a resilient, vivacious person.

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Kitchen range designed by Drew. A buyable commodity 'that combines high performance with premium design' (BeautifulTM, 2023)

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Tietjen, A. 2021, "Beauty: Drew Barrymore On Leadership And Celebrity Entrepreneurship", Wwd, , pp. 18. 

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Tietjen, A. 2021, "Beauty: Drew Barrymore On Leadership And Celebrity Entrepreneurship", Wwd, , pp. 18. 

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Drew recognised the shift in celebrity culture; It had moved away from collaborations under licence and towards entrepreneurship. She shifted her star persona from a successful actress to a pioneer in many industries. ‘I don’t want to be [known for] one thing anymore’. (Tietkjen, 2021)

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Barrymore's 1991 autobiography tells the stories of her awry childhood. This book provides excellent insight into the experiences of those who struggle with addiction. The book concluded her identity as a 'bad girl'.

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!995 Barrymore posed for PlayBoy nude. Known as a child actor, there was 'added weight' when audiences view the transition from a 'cute child' to an adult (O'Conner, 2017).

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PLAYBOY MAGAZINE January1995 Drew Barrymore Issue

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PLAYBOY MAGAZINE January1995 Drew Barrymore Issue : Amazon.co.uk: Everything Else

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 Chappell, J and Young,M. (2018). Bad Girls and Transgressive Women in Popular Television, Fiction, and Film. Palgrave Macmillan Cham 

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 Chappell, J and Young,M. (2018). Bad Girls and Transgressive Women in Popular Television, Fiction, and Film. Palgrave Macmillan Cham 

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Those who oppose the status quo are more likely to remain relevant in popular culture. The 'bad girl appearance' is not resistance but a way to successfully gain the limelight (Chappell & Young, 2018). In order to make a comeback Barrymores star image was constructed as insubordinate.

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Amazon exclusive clothing brand.

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Some of her popular films from this era were Charlies Angels (2000), 50 First Dates (2004), Fever Pitch (2005) and He's just not that into you (2009).

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Barrymore's innocence is also highlighted when she wins her first award: best young actress. She takes the stage crying and says ' thank you for this award, I appreciate it very much. This is my first award'. The laughs and awe from the crowd is heard as she says her speech.

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See 6-Year-Old Drew Barrymore in Her Adorable First ET Interview

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After newfound success in her acting career, Drews image became associated with authenticity. Her star image became stabilised and was reliable.

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Today, Barrymore combines her popular onscreen persona and her knowledge on entrepreneurship and film producing to create a talk show. She speaks openly about her past and invites important people from her life onto the show. This continues to contribute to her authentic and dedicated star image as audience members are able to feel closer to her with the insight into her personal life.

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Barrymore going back to the institution she lived at reaffirms that she is proud of her past. Her honesty about her past problems and her intimate, down-to-earth demeanour are widely recognised and isolated.

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Drew Gets Emotional During Intimate Tour of LA Including Institution Where She Stayed

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Spielberg was asked to appear on the show because Barrymore values him.

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Steven Spielberg Reveals His Reaction to Drew's Playboy Spread Years After E.T. Made Her Famous

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Cunningham, H., 2006. The Invention of Childhood. London: Random House. 

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Cunningham, H., 2006. The Invention of Childhood. London: Random House. 

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Child actors embody characteristics of specialness, beauty and childhood innocence in their performances. They present the notion of the ideal child and the 'happy garden' of childhood (Cunningham, 2006)