The Vanguard Award goes to “media professionals who have increased the visibility and understanding of the LGBT community.” GLAAD notes that Drew has done so by starring in Boys on the Side, from openly gay filmmaker Don Roos, producing He’s Just Not That Into You “in which she played a straight reporter at a LGBT newspaper who desperately seeks dating advice from her gay best friends” and playing the lesbian daughter of Robert de Niro in 2009’s Everybody’s Fine.

Said Barrymore:
I am who I am because of the people who influenced me growing up, and many of them were gay. No one has the right to tell anyone what makes a family…this is something that means everything to me.I have to admit that I was scratching my head a bit about Drew being giving this award. Firstly, she didn’t play gay in Boys on the Side — that was Whoopi Goldberg, who also played gay in The Color Purple. And the film He’s Just Not That Into You played into several stereotypes including the gay ones that came out of her BFFship with her co-workers at the aforementioned gay newspaper. (In a huge ensemble cast, the gay men were completely desexualized and not part of the very straight sex and romance storylines.) And in Everybody’s Fine, Drew played a closeted woman who referred to her partner as her friend.

These things aside, I’ve often wondered about Drew Barrymore, who once referred to herself as bisexual — quite often, in fact.

From a 1996 interview in Harper’s Bazaar:
Considers herself bisexual, though she has never met a woman who could hold her attention for long.

Drew once dated Jane Pratt, who is famous for publishing the magazine Jane.

Last year, Pratt went on Sirius Radio and confirmed the relationship:

One of my dreams is to return to Howard [Stern]’s show and tell him the truth about Drew Barrymore and me. … I did have sex with Drew Barrymore.

OK, not exactly the most positive statement on bisexuality, but Drew herself used to openly speak about her love for women.

More recently, she’s been 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.

I’m not here to doubt Drew Barrymore’s bisexuality — I’m asking if it disappeared, or if that notion is even a possibility. I know plenty of women who identify as bisexual that end up dating or marrying a man, but still identify themselves as queer or bisexual or, even in some cases, a lesbian. So when Drew Barrymore said she’s grown up around a lot of gay people and doesn’t include herself among them when being awarded an honor from GLAAD, it just gives me pause to wonder how your feelings about women can evaporate into thin air.

Perhaps what adds a little more insult to injury for me is her directorial debut, Whip It, last year. The film was about roller derby, starring Ellen Page, Eve, Juliette Lewis and Drew herself, among several others. The movie was all about women and a sport that empowers women, and a sport that also happens to have many lesbian participants. But where were they in the movie? Non-existent. One of the movie’s stars Ari Graynor, who played Eva Destruction, said she wanted her character to be gay, but the innuendos ended up on the cutting room floor.

I do not doubt that Drew Barrymore ever had feelings for women, or that she is now exclusively dating men. I am not criticizing bisexual women, nor am I calling into question Barrymore’s ability to identify however she’d like. I am concerned, however, with the effects her visibility (or lack thereof) might have when it comes to the perception of bisexual women in the media. I find that she’s been somewhat disarming in her advocacy and, possibly, her own identity.

Maybe I’m alone in this, but I’d love to hear your thoughts. Is Drew Barrymore giving bisexuality a bad name?

Source: Bitch Magazine

Why was it so important for you to show strong female characters in Whip It?

I do fundamentally believe that you can be true to who you want to be in this world and find a great group of friends, and it is so much more fun to do it alongside a group of people who keep you honest and inspire you to do better and who you can laugh with. And that’s what I’ve done with my own life, so that theme is so true to me. I also know what it’s like to be a young girl with a mother and to try to navigate that relationship. Though my own life was quite different than it is in the movie, there were similar themes and emotions I could really make personal. I love to rock out with my friends and have a good time. I like laughing and comedy and I like women who are physically capable, because I’m not really in real life: I just pretend at work sometimes that I am and it’s so fun. I have such admiration for women like that so I celebrate people who are doing it on their own terms and empowering themselves and empowering each other and having a good time and inspiring each other along the way. How much girl bonding were you able to do with the cast off screen?

Oh, we did a lot. Ellen (Page) trained for three months and Zoe (Bell) trained for a long time. If anybody could start early they did, but we had a one-month long derby camp six days a week. It was so bonding because we would all be in pain. Or when we’d actually learn something we’d be cheering each other on and everybody really got to know each other. We weren’t just showing up and pretending to be this team. It was real. You can’t really buy that. It’s something that has to come over time. And I’d play with them on Saturday nights because that’s really the only time I’d allow myself to do anything social. I’d watch all them go out to dinner afterward and I’d be like, “Yay, I have to go back to work but I love that you’re all hanging out. It’s just fantastic.”

Was it hard to separate being an actress and director in this film when you were presumably behind the camera in the crazy makeup and hair?

I put myself in the movie on purpose. I’ve done some action films and I know how physically demanding it is and how kind of psychologically scary it is to throw yourself into these situations, and how important the training process is because you need to be able to get those sorts of skills in order to do it well on camera. But then there are also the friendships that develop out of going through that together. The chemistry is so important. And so I really wanted to be in it with everybody so I wasn’t on the sidelines going, “I know it’s hard but just go and do it.” So that was great for me.

What is the main lesson that you want moms and daughters to take away from the movie?

That I believe in mothers who want the best for their daughters and I understand what it’s like to be a daughter who may have a different vision for my future than my mother. To try and see both sides and to try and share a common belief that everyone is trying to look out for each other and want the best for each other might take some of the sting out of it. It’s just not easy. It’s a really complex relationship, but I have a fantasy of what it can be and a few ideas of how to make that work. [Laughs] And so I tried them out in this film. It’s not everything I believe or know, but it was just a slice of it.

Was Bliss’s (Ellen Page) complicated relationship with musician Oliver (Landon Pigg) in the movie any kind of statement on guys in bands?

No, because I have so many friends in bands. Not at all. What I do think though is that when you’re younger there are guys who are a rite of passage and Oliver to me was just that awesome little rite of passage. And the message is really what makes me feel the best about myself and about life, and it is not shaky ground.

Bliss’s first pair of skates have Barbie on them. Do you remember what your first pair was?

You know they kind of weirdly looked like derby skates. They were like sneakers on skates. They looked like ’70s wedding shoes on four wheels.

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?

A lot of carbs. [Laughs] I don’t know, it’s just an odd day. I’m not really that comfortable with conventional romance and I also know that if you’re not with somebody it can really make you feel bad and it’s kind of a weird day [laughs]. I’m not cynical at all but I just think it’s one of those funny, odd days that can kind of turn itself around on you. But I’m okay to do whatever you can to have the best time ever on it. Whatever makes you happy.

Source: iVillage

According to reports, the 34-year-old actress has produced and starred in two film adaptations of the 1970s show and now she’s breathing new life into the franchise, which launched Farrah Fawcett’s career, by reviving it for TV.

The actress is currently looking for a new trio of sexy crime fighters and insists that they must be, “incredibly capable, but not take themselves too seriously. That’s a tough combination to find.”

Meanwhile filmmaker Joseph McGinty Nichol, better known as McG, who directed Barrymore in her Angels films, will serve as consultant on the project and is aiming to diversify the team of secret agents.

“This is a more progressive, 2010 take on the idea. We want to be even more progressive in terms of racial background,” McG said.

The filmmaker has named R&B singer Rihanna as his dream Angel.

Source: NDTV

Congrats Drew for winning the Outstanding Performance By An Actor In A TV Movie Or Mini Series!

Congrats to Drew for winning the ‘Best Mini-Series Actress category for Grey Gardens‘.