NEW YORK -- According to her autobiography, she was the Little Girl Lost.

David Letterman knows her as Barrymore With Bare Breasts. And paparazzi photos present Drew of a Different Hair Color Every Week.

But now the indomitable Drew Barrymore wants you to meet an entirely new persona: Actress For Hire.

"I'm not evil, I'm not a bad girl," she insists.

"I wouldn't kill anyone, I wouldn't sleep with my best friend's father -- but I get to in the movies. I guess I cathartically get out my own demons playing these characters."

For whatever reason, Barrymore isn't usually duking it out with Meryl Streep for the same roles.

"I do have a lot of range, and I do want to show that. If I chose a couple of bad characters in the past along the way, because they intrigued me as an actor, I hope I didn't pigeonhole myself," an unrepentant Barrymore comments.

"I saw playing Amy Fisher (in a TV movie) as a challenge. Poison Ivy, I thought was a great character, Gun Crazy was one of my favorite movies to do. If those were `bad girls,' that's OK with me."

Fitting then that her most recent screen release, Scream, is a sendup of the direct-to-video films Barrymore, now 21, is leaving behind.

"People go through stages, I don't do the same material anymore. I'm at a different place in my life."

"I find pure, wholesome girls more interesting now."

And on this day Drew of the Different Hair Color is a brunette and the wholesome girl is Skylar, in Woody Allen's new musical Everyone Says I Love You.

As the angelic on-screen daughter of Alan Alda and Goldie Hawn, she is intended to wed Edward Norton.

However, she soon turns her attention to recently released convict Tim Roth.

"She's been so good her whole life she had to test the waters. She's so sweet though, she goes back to her family," Barrymore points out.

"I'd want her family, I want Goldie and Alan to be my parents. I want Lukas Haas, Gabby Hoffman and Natalie Portman to be my siblings, and Edward to be my fianc ... and I'd definitely run off with Tim in a heartbeat."

As for real life loves, Barrymore has ended her relationship with Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson.

Ironically, her on-screen fianc, Norton, is rumored to be dating Hole frontwoman Courtney Love.

Barrymore is keeping the name of her new boyfriend, an actor, secret for as long as possible. Suffice it say though, it isn't David Letterman.

And she also has a secret love for the outrageous clothes her character wore.

"Skylar had such a great wardrobe, not that I'd ever be caught dead in any of the outfits outside of work. Felt paisley sweaters and pleated skirts? I mean come on!"

Not than Barrymore, 21, can claim to be an entirely normal.

"I'm not normal in any sense actually," she admits. "I'm just a sort of geeky, goofy, barefoot trottin', philanthropic geek. I'm so not Hollywood."

And so a brunette. For this week anyway.


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