Drew Barrymore avoids mentioning writers strike in season premiere
The Drew Barrymore Show returned for its fourth season premiere with no mention of the host's strike controversy
Aux News Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore is back, though whether the fourth season premiere of her eponymous talk show is “better than ever” would be a matter of opinion. The actor accumulated a fair amount of goodwill over the last three seasons of her loose, quirky, intimate daytime television series—goodwill that, in some circles, evaporated during the writers strike. Barrymore ultimately walked back her decision to premiere the show without her writers, yet that’s what happened anyway, as her three WGA employees declined to return to the program even after the strike was resolved.
The fact that Barrymore shot herself in the foot did not come up in the premiere. Barrymore—apparently with new writers—chose not to address her recent controversy, instead choosing to start the season with a chipper, “Alright everybody, welcome to season four. Let’s go girls.” She then spent a day with Shania Twain on the country singer’s Las Vegas farm. The pair discussed a number of non-inflammatory subjects, including Twain’s health journey, the women’s approach to romantic relationships, and (what else?) Taylor Swift.
Per Variety, the closest Barrymore came to touching upon the strike backlash was asking Twain if she enjoyed taking a 15-year hiatus from public life. “I’m asking for personal reasons,” she said with a laugh. But Barrymore has a lot of good reasons to contemplate retreating from the public eye, including the fact that she’s been in it since she was a child. Rather than duck the constant scrutiny, though, it seems Barrymore has resolved to soldier on and keep living her life out in the open.
Indeed, that was something of the mission statement behind her decision to go forward with her show during the strike. “Since launching live in a pandemic, I just wanted to make a show that was there for people in sensitive times, and I weighed the scales and I thought if we could go on during a global pandemic, and everything that the world experienced through 2020, why would this sideline us?” She said in her second of three statements on the subject. “So I want to just put one foot in front of the other and make a show that’s there for people regardless of anything else that’s happening in the world because that’s when I think we all need something that wants to be there being very realistic in very realistic times.”
In her conversation with Twain, Barrymore said that rather than refusing to trust she’d “rather be an open vessel that feels so embarrassed and raw.” The talk show host has certainly proved that in her willingness to let her missteps play out for the world to see. In this case, maybe she feels (not unreasonably) that her multiple previous statements on the subject were enough. Does that openness really have to apply to every situation?
Correction: The initial story said that The Drew Barrymore Show premiered without writers. While the former three writers have left the show, a source from the show tells us that they have hired new ones.
10 Comments
Why would this show need writers, all they do is talk. And the crew needs to make money. Or will the writers pay all the crew’s expenses during the strike?
Meh, the Writers’ Strike is old new anyway. Why thump a healing bruise when it can be left behind? The SAG strike, however, isn’t old. But even for Firestarter, some heat might be avoided.
As I’m sure many can attest, one cool thing about having friends and/or family in “the industry” is you get a lot of first-hand gossip. I can say that in the past 35 years, I have never heard a single negative thing about Drew. Everyone I know who has worked with her over the years said she is delightful, super funny and cool. She is lucky she has a lot of residual goodwill in the industry. It looks like that is changing, but I could never find myself rooting against Drew Barrymore.
That’s kinda where I am, too. I mean, I don’t work in the industry and while I know people who do, I don’t think any of them have ever worked with Drew. But I’ve never read anything remotely bad about her as a person, so while what she attempted to do was pretty fucked up, she does have enough stored up goodwill that I do believe she thought she was doing something to help her employees/crew, more than anything. Again: it was still wildly misguided, but yeah, I also just believe her when she says she had good intentions.
I do believe it was an honest fuck-up. I also don’t discount that she probably got a lot of pressure from her syndicator or the network to produce a show.
Exactly. I think she honestly, with good intentions, totally made a mistake. And she should address it and own up to it. I will never believe it came from any nefarious place. It is important to look at a person’s entire history. She is 48 years old, she has been famous since she was 7 years old. I hope she gets through this, because I truly enjoy her. And decades of positive goodwill should count for something in this era of so much negativity.
I think it’s incredibly hard to maintain a “good person” persona in the public spotlight. Dolly Parton has done it by keeping a well-camouflaged arm’s length distance from the public. She’s VERY careful about what she shares and how much people see. (She is also genuinely kind, but is good at ensuring any foibles stay out of view.) Barrymore stumbled publicly. I think people are generally just much less ready to forgive these days. And I see a lot of mistrust in the wake of Ellen’s public outing as a total jerk. (Which was long-rumored.) Honestly, Barrymore should address what happened with her writers — in a non-self-centered way. Even if it’s just a rehash of what she’s already said. That’s enough. After that, if people want to hate her, that will just have to be OK.
I think she really just didn’t get how this would make people mad, and now wants to try and avoid the subject entirely
People should be allowed to make mistakes, even big ones. And if your reputation is generally very positive, then the criticism shouldn’t be that indignant.
I wonder how much of her writers quitting was due to her mistake, because unless there’s something else going on it sounds to me like an overreaction.