Leave Drew Alone!

I’ve never really been a big fan of Drew Barrymore, but I’ve always felt she got a raw deal from the Court of Public Opinion. As part of the Barrymore acting family, she was a “Nepo Baby” before that phrase was even thought of. She had a roller-coaster childhood that made Lindsay Lohan’s look like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

She was six when she was cast in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and by age nine, she was headlining mainstream movies like Firestarter with Martin Sheen and George C. Scott and Irreconcible Differences alongside Ryan O’Neal, Shelley Long and a young Sharon Stone. And by the time she was a teenager, she was already notorious for her off-screen behavior, some of it wildly exagerrated by the tabloid media. Even though she was at rehab at the age of 13 and had attempted suicide in her teens, a photograph of her as a child at a restaurant with a wine glass has been questioned with many saying it was being drunk by another person at the table.

There was also the criticism of her weight as when she was cast in movies like See You in the Morning, her babyfat was showing. Then in the thriller, Far From Home, released when she was 14, it was accused of sexualizing her. Still, she became a punchline for comics as a critique of how they screw up and then appear on People magazine for a comeback. But as she grew into adulthood, she seemed to grow up and appear in more respectable movies winning rave reviews for her role in Guncrazy and Boys on the Side as well as surprising us for her Janet Leigh-style role in Scream. Hollywood and the world seemed to take her more seriously by the end of the 1990s.

Even a month ago, when she was speaking on a panel in Manhattan, Chad Busto, tried to rush the stage. He’s been charged with stalking which is a misdemeanor and recently tried to allegedly stalk Emma Watson at an event in New York City this past week. But all that hasn’t made news, because Barrymore pissed off the Writers Guild of America by saying she had to restart production on her syndicated talk show The Drew Barrymore Show. She has since said that she will continue to halt production until the strike is over.

The way Barrymore has been treated you think she cut off the heads of puppies while screaming the N-word and rubbing the blood on the American flag and gay-pride flag. I mean, God forbid, we don’t focus on how someone like Busto can get in and out of jail so easily with misdemeanors. I’m more worried about this. But I guess we’re so used to psyschos and creeps bothering people. It’s not every day we can criticize a person for thinking of their livelihood and those of the people she employs.

Variety has reported that Barrymore pretty much doesn’t have much of a choice. She has a contractural obligation to film new episodes or she risks loses her show entirely. That means, the writers and everyone else from the person who gets organic milk for the green room to the producers could be out of the job. No one said anything when Johnny Carson returned to the Tonight Show in 1988 or when Jon Stewart and Comedy Central restarted The Daily Show. Yes, they had different contracts. But the networks owned the shows.

And while people are defending John Oliver for doing stand-up to pay for his staff, HBO isn’t going to shit-can Last Week Tonight. No, I don’t think David Zaslav is that crazy. Ironically, Oliver had to continue working through the 2007-2008 strike while he was on The Daily Show because at the time, he was on a work visa that could’ve been revoked. Other talk shows such as The Jennifer Hudson Show, Sherri with Sherri Shepherd and The Talk have all announced they will resume filming. Yet, officials with The Talk say they’re waiting until the strike ends.

Even the negativity toward Barrymore after she posted an apology video after she was booted from hosting the National Book Awards may be proving that the WGA is going too far. And it shows the cult-like mentality that seems to happen whenever there is a labor strike. Part of the reason people despise labor unions in this country is the bullying tactics and intimidation they use whenever people who won’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out if they keep striking, go back to work. Bills need to be paid and food needs to be put on tables.

Also, I’m wondering why the WGA hasn’t done more repeatedly over the years to help writers. No offense (well, maybe some) but if you were to look at the resumes of many writers, they often seem to attend Ivy League schools or private liberal arts colleges. It seems almost a lot of preferred writers have a “respectable” background education. This used to be a joke about the National Lampoon/Saturday Night Live crowd that most of the writers were from the cream of the crop. Yet, they wrote movies and shows about “stupid people.”

Yet some of the best and most successful writers have gone to regular colleges. Stephen King went to the University of Maine. John Hughes went to the University of Arizona. Yet, he was criticized over the years for focusing too much on upper-class families. One of the criticism of Pretty in Pink was how the “poor house” for Molly Ringwald’s character is actually a typical house in which many people were raised. Robert Rodriguez, a graduate of the University of Texas-Austin, quit both the WGA and Directors Guild of America, said he left both because they were more or less interested in just getting dues and nothing more.

And you’ve heard horror stories. Penn Jillette, a magician/actor, said on Politically Incorrect, he couldn’t get any breaks because the Screen Actors Guild (now, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists) ignored him until he started to do his own thing and they demanded he join. Jillette is a Libertarian and is very vocal in his views. David Hyde Pierce infamously had to borrow money to join the Guild for his first speaking role in Bright Lights, Big City because it cost more than what he was paid. In an interview with Alec Baldwin shortly before his death, Gene Wilder said part of the reason he moved away from Hollywood was everyone was a member of the SAG-AFTRA, WGA and/or DGA.

Even the merger of the SAG and AFTRA didn’t run smoothly with some members of both opposed to it but more were in favor. Everyone’s not always going to be on board with something. Sometimes we have to find common ground. I think that’s why Barrymore was trying to do. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I’m in favor of labor unions. I’m not in favor of bullying and the cult-mentality that sometimes develops.

And yes, I agree writers need to be paid more and need a better cut of the returns. But going after one person like Barrymore is wrong. Bill Maher has said he is going to return to Real Time as well. And while I gave up on Maher many years ago, I feel he has been treated more kindly than Barrymore. Is it because she’s a woman? Is it because she’s spoken out at 48 about how happy she is without a man in her life? Or is it because we never did look past all the things she did by a system that vicitmizes young children?

Why can’t it all be on the same page? If network talk shows can be safe than so should syndicated. Hollywood bigwigs are using loopholes to force some people to go back to work. Don’t blame Barrymore. Blame the system she was born into. And fix the problem not the blame.

What do you think? Please comment.