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Drew Barrymore,
center, holds the Hasty Pudding Pot on top of
her head as she stands between Michael Roiff,
(left), Vice President of the Cast and Chris
Hans, (right), President of the Theatricals
during the fifty-first anniversary Woman of
the Year Presentation at the Hasty Pudding Theatre,
Thursday, February 8, 2001. In Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Staff Photographer/Gail Oskin
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Flashing an infectious grin
and displaying a gracious humility, 25-year-old actress
Drew Barrymore charmed her Harvard hosts on Thursday,
Feb. 8, during festivities honoring her as Hasty Pudding's
51st Woman of the Year.
The charismatic performer,
who first rose to stardom as a young girl in Steven
Spielberg's "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial" and later
appeared in a string of box office hits, including
the recently released "Charlie's Angels," accepted
the troupe's traditional pudding pot during a lively
afternoon roast at the Pudding Theatre.
"When I was 13 and dropping
out of school and really at a very scary place in
my life, I never thought that Harvard would call and
say 'Come on down. We want to celebrate your life,'"
she told the overflow audience. "It's pretty crazy.
I can't believe I'm here. It's really wild and I'm
really honored that it's me."
The roast capped off a busy
day for Barrymore, beginning with a guided tour of
the Yard led by student actors Stefan Atkinson '03
and Clay Petre '01, and culminating with a raucous
parade down Massachusetts Avenue. Hundreds of people
‹ students, staff members, and local residents - lined
the streets to catch a glimpse of the celebrity, who
rode aboard a silver BMW convertible surrounded by
mock security guards in dark glasses and a dozen flamboyant
Pudding members dressed in colorful drag outfits.
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Actress Drew Barrymore
reacts after finding posters of herself on the
Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Mass.,
where she will later receive the Hasty Pudding
Club's Woman of the Year award following a parade
through the streets around Harvard Square. 2/8/01
photo by
Jon Chase/Harvard News Office
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"I'd never been to a parade
before, let alone been in a parade," she told reporters
later. "I would really like to do it all over again,
and I think I would be better the second time. I felt
so shy and excited that I was a little more introverted
than I usually am - just in awe of the whole thing.
The next time I think I'd like to just dance on top
of the car the entire time!"
As it was, Barrymore seemed
to revel in the attention, laughing and waving at
the crowds, and even signing autographs for several
excited fans. At one point, the playful actress grabbed
a placard of herself off the walls outside the Yard
for a souvenir before ducking inside a limousine for
the ride to lunch.
"Is this what college is like?"
she asked facetiously following an impressive song-and-dance
routine performed in front of University Hall by the
Harvard Krokodiloes a cappella group. "This is so cool!"
she exclaimed.
Barrymore's enthusiasm never
seemed to wane even when she was called to the Pudding
Theatre stage for the traditional Woman of the Year
roast co-hosted by the company's president Christopher
Hans '01 and vice president Michael Roiff '01.
"We've actually had a crush
on you for quite some time," Hans told the actress.
"Yes, it's true - it started when you were seven and
we were four," Roiff added.
Playing off the "Charlie's
Angels" theme, Hans and Roiff led Barrymore on a fictitious
search for the missing pudding pot. At one point,
the former child star was coaxed into singing "Happy
Birthday" to herself and goaded into reading a list
of rather embarrassing one-liners. ("This is much
harder than taking off my top," she joked, making
reference to her controversial desk-top birthday dance
on "The Late Show with David Letterman.")
"I feel so comfortable here
because my whole life has been sort of out there,
so there wasn't anything they could do that was going
to really embarrass me, so I actually felt totally
liberated coming here," she said later during a news
conference. "I was just excited to see what the people
find funny. They told me at lunch that it was a celebration
of me, and I said 'I think it's also a good excuse
for you guys to celebrate.'"
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Here Barrymore
is kissed by Theatricals President and Vice
President Christopher Hans (left) and Michael
Roiff. Staff Photo Justin Ide, Harvard News
Office
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When the pudding pot finally
appeared, Barrymore held it high and proud, posing
for photographers at both ends of the Pudding Theatre
stage.
"This [award] is just a really
important thing to let me know that I'm heading in
the right direction," she told reporters. "I think
we can all doubt ourselves and question what it's
all about Š so this beautiful little thing will always
be very important for me."
Barrymore, who succeeds Jamie
Lee Curtis, Goldie Hawn, and Sigourney Weaver as previous
Hasty Pudding Women of the Year, promised to display
the pudding pot on a prominent shelf at the California
home she shares with her fiancé, comedian Tom Greene.
"I wish he was here to see this," she explained, "but
he's at home working on a new film that's coming out
soon."
Barrymore is also working
on several new films, including "Riding in Cars with
Boys," with director Penny Marshall and producer James
Brooks, and "Donnie Darko," which her production company
Flower Films plans to release later this year. "After
that I'd like to take a break and take a vacation,"
she said.
Doug
Gavel writes for the Harvard University Gazette. This
article is reprinted with The Gazette's permission.
You can contact Doug Gavel at doug_gavel@harvard.edu.
