It’s the face-off you didn’t know you needed!
For those who haven’t read Selma Blair‘s book Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up, there’s a strange tale that links her with Drew Barrymore — one the latter was eager to get to the bottom of in their first conversation on her daytime talk show.
In the interview, released on Wednesday, Selma explained that as she wrote in her book, she had a very toxic relationship with her father Elliot Beitner — and it ended up oddly involving the Never Been Kissed star. She began:
“My father and I went in and out of having some friendships, we never really clicked. Because he did something so unthinkable to me, I would never call him Dad again, really.”
This goes all the way back to Selma’s start in the business, after she got her first job on a movie. The problem? The producers of the film started getting letters pushing the untrue claim that the aspiring actress “was a heroin addict.” It completely wrecked her budding career, as she explained:
“It was a real kind of poison pen letter about me, claiming to be an agent. They fired me before even shooting. They were lovely to me but explained, ‘We don’t know what’s going on, the liability.’ ‘We don’t believe this, but…’”
But suddenly she was more trouble than she was worth. Pfft. The joke’s on them, they threw away a chance to have Selma Blair in their movie!
Selma, still a teen at the time, assumed the letter writer was just a high school bully, just a mean girl prank gone too far. But it didn’t end there. Soon after more letters were going out — this time to Drew! The Cruel Intentions alum recalled being approached by police over death threats being sent to the child star:
“I hear from a detective who said, ‘We know this is not you’ — this was like maybe almost a year later — ‘but someone has been writing letters to Drew Barrymore, poison pen letters, signed by Selma Blair.’”
She was shocked — but not as much as when she found the source of the letters:
“I eventually, long story short, learned it was my father, someone involved with my father and he was letting this information get to her.”
Selma revealed in her book it was her father’s girlfriend at the time. She explained to Drew:
“When he found out it was her, he chose her and didn’t believe me. He said, ‘No she’s not doing this, you’re also ruining her life, you put a mickey in her drink at Starbucks.’ I mean, just ridiculous stuff. I’m like, ‘I’m in New York, I’ve never met her.’”
Oof. It sounds like this woman had some serious problems! She was gaslighting a man to drive a wedge into his relationship with his teenage daughter! And the sad thing is, it worked…
Selma told Drew she and her father “never had a real make-up” about it:
“My whole adult life after that, once I knew it was him, I had to cut him out.”
It was only “at the end” that her father — who passed in 2012 — finally admitted he had learned the truth. They lost out on that relationship for so long…
So what was Drew’s side of this whole death threat debacle? It was much easier for her — she didn’t get the letters! She was so protected, having been a child star, that she wasn’t even told about these death threats — something that was clearly a huge weight off Selma’s shoulders, who said even though she knew she didn’t do it, this had always been a fear of hers, what Drew must have thought of her.
Drew said she only learned about the letters when the book came out — and had been pursuing getting Selma for an interview just because she loved her documentary and had been “total fan” and “admirer for many years” of her fellow actress! Huh!
And the fandom was mutual! Selma surprised Drew by gushing:
“You were my childhood favorite, because you were the girl. That’s why the letters went to you, I assume, because he knew what you meant to me. It’s not random. You were the favorite.”
It’s so funny how surprised Drew is by that! She must know she was a LOT of people’s favorite star! So glad they got this moment to heal — and apparently become BFFs!
See the full emotional conversation (below)!
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