Film: Fan Facts: Drew Barrymore star of 'The Wedding Singer'

Mike Higgins
Thursday 04 June 1998 23:02 BST
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Cutey pie: The 23-year-old has worked hard to earn her reputation as Hollywood's No 1 reprobate tearaway. She got off to a bad start, starring placidly in a dog food ad at the age of three and cutely in ET at the age of seven (director Steven Spielberg must have been very proud of his god-daughter).

Like grandfather, like granddaughter: By the time she had hit nine, hell-raising forebear John would have been proud of little Drew: she got drunk at Rob Lowe's birthday party. The next 11 years revealed a spotless miscreant CV. Drew had her first spliff at 10, was dabbling in cocaine by 12 and had ended up in rehab within a year following a suicide attempt. She had managed to pack into three years what it took most Hollywood party- animals a career to achieve. Time, at 14, for an autobiography then. When she reached 15, she managed to formalise what had been obvious for years and legally "emancipated" herself from parental control. Within two years, she had posed nude on a magazine cover, and managed to get a marriage over and done with before she hit 20 ... when she stripped off for Playboy.

Drew back: Not exactly backward in coming forward, she nevertheless protests a sensitive side: "I've been through way too much to be insecure. I've got huge balls. But I've been humbled. That makes you grateful for every day you have." She has managed to avoid complete child-star burn-out, though. The year 1995 proved auspicious not only for her notorious on- air flash before David Letterman (her back to the audience, the chat-show host was the only one to catch the Barrymore mammaries), but also for the resurrection of her film career. She popped up in a series of flicks (Bad Girls, Boys on the Side, Mad Love and Batman Forever) distinguishing herself in otherwise mediocre fare. Barrymore was rewarded with roles in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You and Wes Craven's tongue-in-cheek slasher Scream.

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