I have a confession to make. I used to have a girl crush on Drew Barrymore when I was a teenager. I collected magazine pictures of her and pasted them up all over my bedroom. I saw every movie in which she starred. I worshipped E.T., Mad Love, and Never Been Kissed. She was the celebrity I most wanted to meet, if ever given the chance. I admit that I was mildly obsessed.
This type of celebrity worship wasn’t unusual among my peer group, as my best friend at the time had a similar crush on Kate Moss. Her bedroom was plastered with Kate’s waifish figure. And this was during the mid- to late-90s when these two faces could be seen everywhere, in all the magazines. We weren’t into girls like that. It was more about attaining that level of beauty. Or something profound like that.
At any rate, I have since grown out of my Drew crush. I still get excited about upcoming Drew movies. In fact, I loved both 50 First Dates and Fever Pitch more than the average person. Imagine my excitement when I first heard about the premise for the documentary My Date with Drew. An average guy with no job and little money enlists two of his friends to help him over the course of 30 days get one date with his boyhood crush, Drew Barrymore, all the while documenting the entire experience. Man, I wish I would’ve thought of this concept.
Adopting Drew’s philosophy of “If you don’t take risks, you’ll have a wasted soul,” Brian Herzlinger decides he has nothing to lose by taking on the challenge of getting a date with Drew. At the beginning of the documentary, we see Brian somewhat as a likeable loser. He’s living in Los Angeles, trying to break into the entertainment business, and he goes on a pilot episode of a game show. He wins a whopping $1,100 from the game show’s final question’s answer – Drew Barrymore! He sees this as a sign to fulfill his destiny, which began when he became an official member of the Drew Barrymore Fan Club at age 10, and henceforth begins his exodus.
Because he and his friends have no money, they purchase a video camera at Circuit City on credit with the intention of taking it back before the final day of the store’s 30-day return policy (which is where the 30 days comes into play). For the first few days of the challenge, we learn more about Brian’s meager existence. He visits his family back home on the East Coast, where his mom calls Drew a “slut.” Basically, his family thinks Brian has no chance of getting a date with Drew and that he should try to meet Jennifer Love Hewitt (with whom he once had an encounter at Taco Bell) or just get a real job. His family’s indifference to the project doesn’t deter Brian, but rather adds more fuel to the fire.
Article comments