Most of us love a good talk show. We get to hear the celebrity news of the day, while also getting a view of what our favorite famous people are like when they're not performing as they sit down to do illuminating interviews which allow them to promote all of their hard work. The baseline for these shows offers the possibility for laughs and maybe even some educational moments, but sometimes we get way more than expected. One such time was when Drew Barrymore flashed David Letterman, and with her now hosting her own talk show, she's recently reflected on the huge moment.
The Drew Barrymore Show began airing in daytime this week, and the host, actress, producer, makeup / lifestyle guru and former wild child Drew Barrymore, has been making the rounds to discuss her new show. Barrymore has, obviously, been a long time veteran of the talk show circuit, having made her debut in such a capacity on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson when she was but a wee babe at seven years old.
While this puts Barrymore in a pretty unique position among most first time talk show hosts, it has brought memories of her infamous Letterman appearance back to the forefront. When asked about it during a CBS interview recently, Barrymore said:
I think if there's one thing I've learned in a very long life in front of people is there is a line. There is TMI. And I kind of know what that line is, and it's a feeling.
I'm going to guess that, even though Drew Barrymore was 20 years old in 1995 when she made her major pop culture moment visit to CBS's Late Night with David Letterman, and had been doing talk shows for most of her life, she wasn't quite yet aware of where that "TMI" line was, because that "feeling" hadn't settled upon her just yet. During the segment, which, unsurprisingly, can still be found online, a giggly, bubbly Barrymore was asked about a recent birthday where she supposedly got up on stage at a club and took her clothes off.
After Barrymore confirms that the story is, indeed, true, she's trying to explain the hows and whys behind her decision when she asks Letterman if she can dance for him. He agrees, and she proceeds to ask band-leader Paul Shaffer for music, jumps onto Letterman's desk and does a quick, semi-sultry dance which ends with her flashing her breasts to Letterman. The crowd went wild, and a legendary and much-talked about late night talk show appearance was born.
Drew Barrymore has said in recent years that the move was completely unplanned, but that she was glad it happened, because it was "really fun." But, she seems to also feel that it was one of the times she went a bit too far in the past. Barrymore was (also infamously) addicted to drugs and alcohol by the time she was emancipated from her abusive and troubled parents when she was just 14. But, she managed to pull herself out of the tailspin, and now sees many of those times for what they were:
I pushed the limits a lot, many different times in my life. And I'm very lucky, I know that. I tested, I pushed, probably too far many a time.
Drew Barrymore might be done pushing those TMI limits, but that doesn't mean she's fading into the background. You can check your local listings for The Drew Barrymore Show, but to see what else is on the small screen soon, check out our fall premiere guide!
