Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film producer and film director. She was born in Culver City, California, in 1975, the daughter of American actor John Drew Barrymore and Ildikó Jaid Barrymore an aspiring actress born in a Displaced Persons camp in Brannenburg, West Germany to Hungarian World War II refugees. Drew is of Irish descent on her father's side through an ancestor, actor Maurice Costello. Her parents divorced after she was born. She has a half-brother John Blyth Barrymore, also an actor, and two half-sisters, Blyth Dolores Barrymore and Brahma (Jessica) Blyth Barrymore.
Drew was born into acting: her great-grandparents Maurice Barrymore and Georgie Drew Barrymore, Maurice Costello and Mae Costello and her grandparents John Barrymore and Dolores Costello were all actors; John Barrymore was arguably the most acclaimed actor of his generation. She is the grandniece of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore and Helene Costello, the great-great-granddaughter of John Drew and actress Louisa Lane Drew, and the great grandniece of silent film actor/writer/director Sidney Drew. She is also the god-daughter of director Steven Spielberg, and Sophia Loren.
Her first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother, Georgie Drew Barrymore; her middle name, Blyth, was the original surname of the dynasty founded by her great-grandfather, Maurice Barrymore.
Drew's career began when she auditioned for a dog food commercial at eleven months old. When she was bitten by her canine co-star, the producers were afraid she would cry, but she merely laughed, and was hired for the job. She made her film debut in Altered States (1980), in which she got a small part. A year later, she landed the role of Gertie, the younger sister of Elliott, in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which made her famous.
She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1984 for her role in Irreconcilable Differences, in which she starred as a young girl divorcing her parents. In a review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert states: "Barrymore is the right actress for this role precisely because she approaches it with such grave calm."
In the wake of this sudden stardom, Drew endured a notoriously troubled childhood. She was already a regular at the famed Studio 54 when she was a little girl, smoking cigarettes at age nine, drinking alcohol by the time she was 11, smoking marijuana at 12, and snorting cocaine at 13. Her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media. She was in rehab at age 13. A suicide attempt at age 14 put her back in rehab, followed by a three-month stay with singer David Crosby and his wife. The stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she "needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety." Drew later described this period of her life in her 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. The next year, following a successful juvenile court petition for emancipation, she moved into her own apartment and has never relapsed.
In 1991, at the age of 16, Drew became engaged to Leland Hayward, grandson of Hollywood producer Leland Hayward. However after a few months, this engagement was called off.. Soon afterward, she became engaged to and lived with musician/actor Jamie Walters in 1992-93.
At the age of 17, she posed nude for the cover of the July issue of Interview magazine with her then-fiancé, actor Jamie Walters, as well as appearing nude in pictures inside the issue. In 1993, she earned a second Golden Globe nomination for the film Guncrazy. Drew went on to pose nude for the January 1995 issue of Playboy. Steven Spielberg, (her god-father) who directed her in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial when she was a child, gave her a quilt for her twentieth birthday with a note that read, "Cover yourself up". Enclosed were copies of her Playboy pictures, with the pictures altered by his art department so that she appeared fully clothed. She would appear nude in five of her films during this period. During a 1995 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, Drew climbed onto Dave Letterman's desk and bared her breasts to him, her back to the camera, in celebration of his birthday.
She was married to Welsh bartender-turned-bar-owner Jeremy Thomas from March 20 to April 28, 1994 (just over 1 month!). Her second marriage was to comedian Tom Green from July 7, 2001 to October 15, 2002 (just over 1 year!). Green filed for divorce in December 2001 (after 5 months of marriage). In 2002, Drew began dating drummer Fabrizio Moretti, soon after they met at a concert. Their five year relationship, however, ended on January 10, 2007. She most recently dated Justin Long, however, they confirmed their split in July 2008. The couple reunited in 2009 and Us Weekly reported that they signed on to co-star in the upcoming film Going the Distance.
In the 1990s Drew was frequently described as bisexual, although she said in a 1997 interview that she had not "been with a woman in about two years". In 2004, she was quoted as saying "A woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful. Being with a woman is like exploring your own body, but through someone else. When I was younger I used to go with lots of women. Totally. I love it". In March 2007, former magazine editor Jane Pratt claimed on her Sirius Satellite Radio show that she had a romance with Drew in the mid-nineties.
I couldn't find any information on what Drew may believe about God. However, her life speaks volumes. Please pray this week that our Heavenly Father will make clear to Drew the extent to which He loves her -- enough to send His Son to die in her place. And from that revelation may she come into a saving, personal relationship with Jesus Christ!