Drew Barrymore Crying About a Window Is the Energy We All Need

This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.

This week:

• An ode to everyone’s favorite reality series.

• An ode to TV’s kookiest talk-show host.

• An ode to a Céline Dion Titanic musical.

• An ode to Only Murders in the Building.

• An ode to Martha Stewart, forever and always.

Drew Barrymore Crying About a Window Is the Energy We All Need

I wish for all of us to feel, even if just for one fleeting moment, the way that Drew Barrymore does when she discovers a hidden window in her home.

What would it be like to have such capacity for joy and to have it so constantly bubbling so close to the surface ready to be expressed, to be experienced? Imagine what it would be like to live through everything that’s going on now if, like a spike in emotional seismic activity, even ephemeral elation managed to crack through. Hell, imagine doing home renovation and finding anything happy about it at all.

But that is the glory of Drew Barrymore. Everyone has their own spiritual journey. Me? In dark or confusing times in life, I ask myself WDBCAT: Would Drew Barrymore Cry About This?

The video in question was posted this week on the actress and talk show host’s TikTok.

Barrymore has been chronicling the renovation of her New York City apartment, which she seems to be very hands-on involved in. She gets the news that there could be a window behind some drywall. So she and the crew knock down the drywall and reveal the window. It appears to be one of the greatest moments of her life.

“It’s so hopeful,” she says. “It’s weird for something to be so covered up and dark. You can pry it open and create light.” Prior to this overwhelmed reaction, she talks about how excited she is to break down the drywall and access the window. To psych herself up, she barks and howls like a feral dog. The moment she’s able to push the window out and let the light in, she lets out a guttural, carnal cackle, as if she had, after a lifetime of exploring, just discovered the Lost City of Gold. She begins to weep.

It’s so ludicrous, and yet so lovely. On the one hand, who among us in New York City wouldn’t be moved to tears at the thought of more light in their shoebox apartments. On the other, that ain’t exactly a cramped space Barrymore is working with. Which is to say, this is all just so Drew Barrymore-y. If you’ve watched her talk show, you know that these jarring explosions of emotion over the seemingly mundane—not to mention the extreme, earnest, and utterly pure optimism—are who she is.

It can be silly. But, hey, look around. What a miracle to witness anything or anyone who just seems to be… nice. I don’t think it reflects an ignorance or delusion about the reality of the world, either. That’s what makes the video transcend cringe-inducing embarrassment and “what is wrong with this woman?” judgment to instead become something inspiring and, gauging by the reactions I’ve seen on the internet this week, celebrated.

Joel Meares said it best on Twitter: “Whenever people get on Drew about being too… much… I’m kinda like, yeah go through what she went through and come out the other end with a sliver of the joy and brightness she possesses and then get back to me.”

There Is a Céline Dion-themed Titanic Musical

There is a musical playing in New York City right now called Titanique, which imagines if Céline Dion had been aboard the Titanic with Jack and Rose, telling her version of events while she and the characters belt her music catalog. It is currently running at a performance space in the basement of a Gristedes grocery store. It is the greatest piece of theater I have ever seen.

Does it seem, as Dion would say, “cuckoo-crazy” that the singer would be old enough to have been around when the ship took its doomed voyage? Or that she would be, at this point, not…dead? Logic is immediately surrendered in Titanique. She sings, “I’m Alive,” you shrug your shoulders and go along with it, and next thing you know you’re watching an Iceberg styled as Tina Turner singing “River Deep - Mountain High” (which Dion famously covered at her Vegas residency).

No scene is not outrageous. At one point Jack, played by Constantine Rousouli, must lip-sync for his life, RuPaul’s Drag Race-style, against John Riddle’s Cal, Rose’s (Alex Ellis) evil fiancé. Ariana Grande’s brother, Frankie, plays two characters. It’s all so dumb, and yet brilliant. And all so Céline! Let no one undersell the pleasures of drinking margaritas—the bar encourages you to buy two at a time—while actors goof around and sing Céline Dion songs. Rousouli belting “To Love You More” as Jack Dawson mere inches from my face might be the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced.

Céline Dion, played by Marla Mindelle—at the performance I saw, understudy Courtney Barnett was on—has a phrase that has become an indelible part of her wacky mythology: “Shall we go for it?!” And, girl, Titanique does that.

This Season of Only Murders in the Building Is Great!

There’s been a lot of attention deservedly paid to the stacked guest-star list on the delightful new season of Only Murders in the Building. Shirley MacLaine! Cara Delevingne! Amy Schumer! How random! How fun! They’re all great.

But I hope after the episode that was released this week, “The Last Day of Bunny Folger,” fans of the show gush just as much about Jayne Houdyshell’s performance as the curmudgeonly, doomed building board president. The character actress, Tony-winner, and should-have-been-Oscar-nominated-this-year-for-The-Humans is pitch-perfect in an episode that gives her cantankerous—but, it turns out, misunderstood—scene-stealer the spotlight.

Just look at that photo! #HoudyshellHive, rise!

Martha Stewart’s New Dating Strategy

This week, Martha Stewart asserted in an interview with Chelsea Handler that she’s not a home-wrecker and doesn’t want to be the other woman in an affair. Instead, she joked, she wants her friends to die so she could date their husbands already. “Not painfully,” she clarified. “Just die.”

I absolutely support this energy, especially the humor with which it is intended. Do we know how lucky we are to have Martha Stewart?

What to watch this week:

Black Bird: Taron Egerton looking very, very hot, and acting very, very well. (Fri. on Apple TV+)

Conjuring Kesha: Kesha goes ghost hunting, an obvious delight. (Fri. on Paramount+)

Tuca & Bertie: One of the best animated series out there. (Sun. on Adult Swim)

Thor: Love & Thunder: I have a soft spot for a man with a hammer. (Fri. in theaters)

What to skip this week:

Resident Evil: A series that could not be less for me. But maybe it’s for you! (Thurs. on Netflix)

Flowers in the Attic: The Origin: The decades-long franchisization of this property truly baffles me! (Sat. on Lifetime)

Why Is ‘Below Deck’ So Damn Popular?

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