As Lainey scooped last week, Drew Barrymore has indeed sold family photos to PEOPLE for the cover.
Eyes closed, big smile, baby Olive looking … like babies do. Nine weeks is quite young, they aren’t super animated at that age.
But I always wonder about celebrities married to civilians. How does the “they only want me and the baby for the cover” conversation go down? Or is it more of a “I don’t want to be on the cover with you” talk instead? Drew’s husband is an art consultant, so I think the latter is more likely. But in the push for “family friendly” Drew, I’m surprised the entire unit isn’t represented on the front page.
Still, the real question here is, why sell? I think with Drew, there’re a few reasons (besides the obvious product push for Barrymore Pinot Grigio and upcoming Walmart makeup line):
She comes from a famous lineage, she’s from a proper acting family (both stage and screen), and I’d imagine that there’s a certain feeling of obligation towards the public one must feel when they have been famous since childhood. Drew is savvy; she knows part of her life is in the public domain and this is the price for that – like a tax. It’s a Kennedy-esque feeling of duty to the people. Or in this case, PEOPLE.
And parents (not just moms, I sometimes think dads are worse for this) LOVE to show off pictures of their kids. Love, love, love, love. With social media and digital cameras, it’s not one shot, it’s dozens of albums dedicated to little Aiden going potty. (Stop putting photos of your kid on the toilet, parents.) People use pictures of their kids in their Facebook and Twitter profiles, create endless Instagram shots, screen savers and websites dedicated to their families… I’ve seen photos of kids in people’s email signatures (!!!!). And this is not to mention the more traditional uses: framed photos, digital photo frames (that allow you to flip through multiple shots), mugs, calendars, and key chains. For the truly dedicated, T-shirts.
To further my point that it’s not just women: Eminem has his daughter’s face tattooed on his arm.
It’s an epidemic of showing people sh-t they don’t care to see. I can assure you, besides grandparents (who want to see everything), aunts, uncles and friends (who want to see a couple of photos), no one cares. But, but, but… look he’s sticking his tongue out in this one! Yeah, no, no one cares. But, but, but… he’s wearing reindeer ears! Still no, sorry. The second you hear an “awwww” you’ve lost them.
Yes, in person, my iPhone is always at the ready to show off some pics, and celebrity moms are just like us, except instead of a couple of hundred social media friends, they have hundreds of thousands of people who will gush over their baby. They get professional photo shoots and the best, most precious outfits that they can spend whatever they want on because they don’t need to worry about the baby outgrowing it in a week. Not many could resist that.
But here’s the difference between celebrities and normals: people do want to see their photos. And whatever need fame feeds is magnified by the attention they get from parenthood, and the ability to show off their baby to the world. “People love my baby, which means they still love me.”
The urge is strong. I have a baby, I get it. I want to show people photos of my kid, of course I do. But I have a pretty strict social media policy in that I’m CONSTANTLY telling people at birthday parties, family gatherings etc. not to put his photo online and I can be a bit maniacal about it. For the most part, people are stumped or think I’m a crusty b-tch. I’ve been asked many times to explain my position, and I can’t really verbalize it. It’s just…there’s something icky about putting photos of your kid up for strangers to see. Maybe it’s paranoia, but my first instinct is, “Why the hell would a stranger want to look at other people’s kid photos?” It seems… unnatural. And the only other reason I can think of is that in this day and age, social media will permeate their lives. Why not hold off as long as possible, give them a little more time to grow and be free?
But would Olive ever really be free? Drew’s LA-based. Whether staged, stalked or sold, someone would get a shot of that baby. And this way, Drew decides the details and gets to fulfill the insatiable urge to gush. Perhaps it’s less about pimping and more about showing her daughter the ropes, because there’s little chance Olive will grew up to be an accountant, so why pretend otherwise.
Attached - Drew out for lunch with a friend earlier this week.
