Drew Barrymore: ‘Life Is Like High School’

NEW YORK (January 5, 2007) — Drew Barrymore wants everybody to lighten up.

“You know, it’s all just humor,” the 31-year-old actress says in an interview in the February issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine, on newsstands Jan. 16. “Don’t take life so seriously. Don’t take fashion too seriously. Don’t take the movie industry too seriously. Don’t take love and your relationship so … heavy all the time.”

“Laugh, laugh, laugh,” she continues. “Life is like high school and it’s small and everybody talks about everybody, so just laugh …”

Barrymore, a once party-hearty girl who famously flashed her breasts at David Letterman, knows what it’s like to be talked about. So what’s her advice for Lindsay Lohan, whose wild child ways are tabloid fodder?

“I know Lindsay, and I like her very much,” Barrymore says. “You just have to try to be as graceful as you can. You know, you flub, you flub. And that’s life. … I think, do what you want, just be professional.”

Barrymore, whose screen credits include “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “The Wedding Singer,” “Fever Pitch” and “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” says times have changed since when she was younger.

“Now if you go out and get trashed at Bobby the footballer’s party on Saturday night and everyone at school knows, I think that’s pretty much the equivalent of Us Weekly (magazine),” she says.

Though she dislikes being followed by the paparazzi, Barrymore says the attention she gets is more friendly than unpleasant.

“I always feel like people approach me like I’m totally their sister’s friend or something,” she says. “It’s so cool. How lucky am I?”