The Bottom Line: Can Fallon Make Barrymore Forget Sandler?

Drew Barrymore laughs all the way bank whenever she gets all lovey-dovey with Adam Sandler.

Now she’s hoping sparks fly with another Saturday Night Live alumnus, Jimmy Fallon.

In Fever Pitch, business consultant Barrymore falls for teacher Fallon. Only Barrymore faces stiff competition for Fallon‘s affections. Know how Jack Nicholson loves the L.A. Lakers? Fallon feels the same about the Boston Red Sox.
The prospect of Barrymore and Fallon-an unproven commodity-getting hot and heavy doesn’t exactly have the sizzle of a Red Sox-Yankees showdown.

Then again, neither did 1998’s The Wedding Singer. Pairing Barrymore with Sandler seemed as ridiculous as her future nuptials to MTV madman Tom Green.

Prior to The Wedding Singer, Barrymore‘s couldn’t shake off her reputation as a wild child with a taste for drugs and alcohol. Even after sobering up, she continued to make headlines with a marriage that lasted less than two months, a Playboy spread, and by flashing birthday boy David Letterman.

	Barrymore’s Greatest Hits
		1. Charlie’s Angels   $125.3M
		2. 50 First Dates     $120.9M
		3. Scream   $100.3M
		4. Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle    $100.3M
		5. The Wedding Singer   $80.2M

Her transformation from cute-as-button E.T. tyke to buxom teen sex kitten failed to arouse audiences, except when she portrayed “the Long Island Lolita” in the 1993 TV quickie The Amy Fisher Story.

But her swift and shocking exit in Scream favorably recalled Janet Leigh‘s early demise in Psycho. Perhaps wary of becoming the next scream queen, Barrymore instead took her experiences working in Woody Allen‘s Everyone Says I Love You and cannily turned her attention to comedy.

Now playful rather than sultry, Barrymore found harmony with Sandler, and The Wedding Singer legitimized her foray into farce by finally making her bankable. Ever After, with Barrymore as Cinderella, cushioned the blow of the unappetizing Home Fries and the direct-to-video disasters Best Men and Wishful Thinking.

Never Been Kissed showed an adorably goofy Barrymore could elicit laughs without Sandler by her side, and Charlie’s Angels kicked butt by parodying the adventures of TV’s most seductive sleuths.

But Fever Pitch arrives at a time when Barrymore badly needs a hit that doesn’t star Sandler.

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle got lost in the furor surrounding Demi Moore‘s dalliance with toy boy Ashton Kutcher. Duplex, with Barrymore and former SNL featured player Ben Stiller plotting to kill their elderly neighbor, was just too dark and inaccessible than director Danny DeVito‘s previous black comedies, Throw Momma from the Train and The War of the Roses.

Smooching Sandler again in 50 First Dates did tickle the fancy of lovebirds on Valentine’s Day last year.

But can Fallon about us forget Barrymore‘s past liaisons with Sandler?

That’s doubtful. Like Sandler, Fallon comes across as a singing fool with a severe case of arrested development. But Fallon‘s yet to demonstrate he made the right decision to leave Saturday Night Live in 2004. OK, so Allen had enough confident to cast Fallon in Anything Else. But in the screeching Taxi, which marked his first leading role, the annoying Fallon was about as amusing as a five-car pileup in rush-hour traffic.

	Barrymore’s Greatest Misses
		1. Duplex   $9.6M
		2. Home Fries     $10.4M
		3. Bad Girls   $15.2M
		4. Mad Love    $15.4M
		5. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind  $16M

At least Sandler‘s manchildish misadventures in Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore had earned him a small but loyal following before he wooed Barrymore in The Wedding Singer. Fallon‘s most significant achievement to date is flubbing his lines as SNL‘s Weekend Update co-anchor.

Fever Pitch could score with audiences thanks to the free publicity it received last year when the Boston Red Sox finally overcame the Curse of the Bambino. After the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, Barrymore and Fallon took to the baseball field to film Fever Pitch‘s new ending. This Americanization of English author Nick Hornby’s autobiographical tale also should capitalize on the nation’s continuing infatuation-at least outside of New York-with the self-described idiots who clinched the team’s first World Series victory since 1918.

Even if Fever Pitch ends up playing more like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays than the Boston Red Sox, lucky Drew‘s already landed a plum role in Lucky You, a gambling drama directed by 8 Mile‘s Curtis Hanson. This is a great move: Barrymore needs to take on more serious roles, especially after she failed to impress in the syrupy Riding in Cars with Boys. If Hanson can elicit strong performances from the likes of Eminem and Kim Basinger, he could work wonders with Barrymore. Come to think of it, imagine what Hanson could do if he ever got his hands on Fallon.

The Bottom Line