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OCTOBER 2004

Drew Barrymore Draws Crowd at Barnard
for Her Film on Voting

by Dorothy Davis

Youth voting has been a hot issue this campaign season.  Since only 37 percent of 18--24 year olds voted in 2000, groups to register them have sprung up around the nation. But most of those we spoke to in the capacity crowd at Barnard College one recent Sunday evening to preview Drew Barrymore’s film on the importance of voting said they came to see Drew Barrymore.

Lucy Danziger, the energetic Editor-in-Chief of Self Magazine, celebrating its 25th Anniversary issue and sponsoring the event with MTV and Barnard, told the crowd, “When I was in college and someone invited me to go somewhere on Sunday night it never involved a movie star!” She introduced Drew, who had been chosen by readers as one of “25 Most Inspiring Women” and as “box office royalty.”

The star breezed in to enthusiastic applause and responded to it with a brilliant smile. She wore a clingy beige dress and was beautiful, poised, charismatic, and articulate. Everything you’d expect in a movie star, or in a political candidate.

Despite her connection to Self Magazine, Barrymore was sometimes refreshingly self-effacing. “I didn’t go to college,” she admitted, “so it is very exciting to be presented at a college!” (In her film she revealed she’d never graduated from high school.) “I was the person at the dinner table,” she continued, “who went introverted when politics was discussed.”

“I got invited to a rally to speak about encouraging young people to vote. I fell on my face. I felt so irresponsible going out in front of people to speak about something I didn’t know about.”

Her gutsy response to that humiliation was to spend a year traveling around the country with a video camera and a film crew, all of them working for free, trying to learn about politics firsthand.

The result, “The Best Place to Start: on the Importance of Voting,” a 45-minute film culled  from 80 hours of footage, is funny, intelligent, moving and ultimately profound.

In it, Barrymore talks to high school kids cutting classes; to Wesley Clark, who gives her a kiss-off interview on his campaign bus during the Democratic primaries. She gets candid and often hilarious comments from such political personalities as Hillary Clinton, Henry Waxman, James Carville, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Ralph Reed, Michael Moore and others. She visits the site of the bloody Selma Alabama Freedom March.

The film, which will be shown on MTV, doesn’t take sides and steers clear of divisive issues. The election it focuses on is for student body president. As a result it will be relevant for a long time.  Barrymore is working on making it available to schools. Let’s hope she succeeds, because this entertaining, educational film is a must-see for all young people. (Older ones will enjoy it too.) The Barnard audience gave it a rousing response and peppered Drew with questions. She answered them with intelligence, humor and passion.

Judith Shapiro, Barnard’s President, said in her welcoming remarks that the college “has an interest in seeing that women participate as voters, as candidates, and one day as President of the United States. We have already had a movie called ‘The American President’ starring Michael Douglas. Isn’t it time to have a movie called ‘The American President’ starring Drew Barrymore?”

Drew Barrymore gave a solid performance at Barnard. In time, instead of being the star of such a movie, she may be the real life candidate.#

For further information about Self Magazine and to access its online voter registration go to www.self.com; for MTV’s Choose or Lose Campaign and its online registration go to www.mtv.com; for Barnard College and further information about the Barrymore event, Barnard’s Civic Engagement Program, and to register to vote go to www.barnard.edu.

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