Hollywood Stars Find an Audience For Social Causes

Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore traipsed purposefully up the Capitol steps last month in a simple black dress, red-soled black pumps and russet mane, not for a film shoot but to lobby for child feeding programs in Africa as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. World Food Program.
Barrymore, 32, then took her extracurricular celebrity campaign to the airwaves at CNN with anchor Wolf Blitzer. She described children in Kenya telling her all they needed was one meal a day, pencils and paper. "It is life-altering, and it has humbled me to the core," she confided in a slow undertone.
"It struck a chord with me," said Michael Adams, 57, a guidance counselor at J. Albert Adams Academy, a middle school in Annapolis. He went online to research the World Food Program and called its Washington office to pledge $100.
"When I feel something is authentic, I respond," he said. "I could see the passion in her expression. Next, I am planning school-based lessons on world hunger and altruism and maybe a fundraiser."
Within a week, $10 donations snowballed into $25,000, according to Jennifer Parmelee, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program.
Barrymore is just one of many in a growing army of entertainment figures joining humanitarian crusades. Actors Meg Ryan and Salma Hayek and musician Sheryl Crow are among those who are using their star power to turn the spotlight on neglected global issues and to raise badly needed cash even at a time of donor fatigue.
Though celebrities have long attached their names to various causes -- the late Audrey Hepburn represented UNICEF, and Brigitte Bardot advocates for animal rights -- the links between Hollywood and philanthropy are stronger than ever. Stars now generate hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, sensitize the public and engage people attracted by popular culture with the serious foreign policy issues of the day.

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Drew Barrymore Named People Magazine's 'Most Beautiful' Person

She was born with her acting family's classic beauty, but Drew Barrymore credits her fun-loving approach to life for her No. 1 spot on People magazine's annual "100 Most Beautiful People" list.
"I just think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period," she tells the magazine. "Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness."
Barrymore, 32, graces the cover of the issue that hits newsstands Friday. It's her fourth time on the list, but first as cover girl.
Making the cover "made my peacock feathers shine in the golden-hour light and extend to the heavens," says Barrymore, who stars in the upcoming Warner Bros. film "Lucky You," opposite Eric Bana.
Inside, she weighs in on a host of beauty-related topics. Her beauty rules for dating? "The only fundamental rule for me is to just be yourself," she says. "Let your freak-flag fly, and if someone doesn't get you, move on."
Barrymore is one of 11 celebrities — including Eva Longoria and the three Jessicas (Simpson, Alba and Biel) — photographed for the issue without makeup.
"I find that men, in my past, have preferred me without it," Biel, 25, says of makeup.

DREW Barrymore has a new love

DREW Barrymore has a new love. On Val entine's Day, the cutie was spotted at the band Arcade Fire's show at Judson Church, cuddling and looking very "lovey-dovey" with director Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola's ex-husband. And Ivanka Trump was spotted Valentine's night at the romantic River Café in Brooklyn with Diego Garcia, the handsome Argentine lead singer of the band Elefant, near the table where Mary- Kate Olsen was billing and cooing with oil heir Maxwell Snow.

Drew Barrymore Biography

Barrymore was born Drew Blyth Barrymore in Culver City, California to John Drew Barrymore and German-born Ildiko Jaid Barrymore (née Makó), both former actors. Her parents divorced after she was born. She has a half-brother John Blyth Barrymore, also an actor, and two half-sisters Blyth Dolores Barrymore and Brahma (Jessica) Blyth Barrymore.
Barrymore was born into the acting profession, coming from a long line of acting talent stretching back nearly 200 years; her great-great grandparents John Drew, Louisa Lane Drew, her great-grandparents Maurice Barrymore, Georgiana Drew and Maurice Costello, and her grandparents John Barrymore and Dolores Costello were all highly successful actors; John Barrymore was arguably the most acclaimed actor of his generation. She is the grand-niece of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and Helene Costello, and the great grandniece of John Drew, Jr., actress Louisa Drew, and silent film actor/writer/director Sidney Drew. Her father and half-brother are also actors. She is also the goddaughter of director Steven Spielberg.
Her first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother, Georgiana Drew; her middle name, Blyth, was the original surname of the dynasty founded by her great-grandfather, Maurice Barrymore.

Early work
Barrymore's career began when she was 11 months old, when she auditioned for a dog food commercial. When she was bitten by her canine co-star, the producers feared she'd cry, but she merely laughed, and was hired for the job. She made her film debut in Altered States (1980). A year later, she landed the role of Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which made her famous.
She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1984 for her role in Irreconcilable Differences. In the wake of this sudden stardom, she endured a notoriously troubled childhood, already a regular at the famed Studio 54 when she was a little girl, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol by the time she was 9, smoking marijuana at 10, and snorting cocaine at 12. Barrymore later described this period of her life in her 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. Her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media.
Though she overcame her substance abuse problems by the time she entered adulthood, she maintained her "bad girl" image, and used her new-found role as a sex symbol to stage a career comeback playing a manipulative, evil teenage seductress in Poison Ivy (1992). The film found enormous success on VHS when it was first released.
She posed nude for the January, 1995 issue of Playboy. Spielberg gave her a quilt for her 20th birthday with a note that read "Cover yourself up". Enclosed were copies of her Playboy pictures, with the pictures altered by his art department so that she appeared fully clothed. At that time she had also appeared nude in her last five movies. During a 1995 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, Barrymore climbed onto Dave Letterman's desk and bared her breasts to him, her back to the camera. The flash was intended to celebrate his birthday. She also modeled in a series of Guess? jeans ads during this time.
She made a comeback in the successful 1996 horror film Scream