Always have, always will.

I loved her in E.T. as Gertie, the OG “scream into the camera at the top of your lungs” kid. (Macauley Culkin, who?)

One of my first vivid memories is from 1982 when I SOBBED at the end of E.T. My mortified parents ushered me quickly through the side door of the theater as I wailed, “But why did he have to leave???”

I loved Drew as we got older and I’d see her in magazines, all dolled up at Hollywood parties. Little did I know, her mother wasn’t protecting her and she was drinking and doing drugs before she was even a teen.

I loved her when she was the crazy wild-child who stood on David Letterman’s desk and flashed him, then turned around and smiled to the audience like she just crossed something off her bucket list.

Side note: This was around the time I plucked my eyebrows into thin lines so I could look more like her. I did not look like her. I looked insane.

I loved her in the opening scene of “Mad Love” as she whipped around on a jet ski and the Nirvana cover of “Love Buzz” blasted in the background. The rest of the movie was not so great, but that scene permanently occupies the section of my brain that keeps my favorite things.

I loved her when she was dating Hole bassist, Eric Erlandson. We went to their concert at Roseland Ballroom and from the audience I could see her backstage. It might have been the biggest thrill of my life up until that point.

I’ll fast forward through all the other things or this post would be way too long. (Think Charlie’s Angels, Adam Sandler, Jimmy Fallon… etc.)

But yesterday, I realized what I’ve really always loved so much about her.

It was a clip from her talk show where she recently sat down with Corey Feldman. Poor Corey Feldman has been the butt of jokes since he started emulating Michael Jackson back in the day. My kids troll us by singing and playing his song (it’s really bad).

But that didn’t stop Drew from having him on her show and being his friend. She doesn’t care what the world has to say about him. She was not condescending to him at all – something I was expecting. She was just his friend.

There’s also video of her going out in the rain and enjoying herself like a wonderful loon. When the internet made fun of her, what did she do? She laughed along with them.

Why wouldn’t she? She’s the one who has it right: she stands up for her friends even if the world is against them. She doesn’t hide her true self or her feelings. She is honest. She is real. With all her life-experience, she’s never a know-it-all, she’s always a learner. She is a giver instead of a taker. She’s filled with gratitude.

And look what it’s gotten her? A life-time career, a production company, a makeup line, a talk show, loving friends and family. She’s the epitome of kindness in a world where people like to go around saying they’re kind and then do the exact opposite.

Or you can be like those who mock her: Envious. Bitter. Fake. Trying to stir shit up because their lives are so boring and unfulfilled. Know-it-alls who think they have nothing left to learn. Fair-weathered takers. People who only root for those they can help in order to look like benevolent heroes. They prefer to wallow with the same people who are as miserable as they are.

Be more like Drew 🌻♥️