It’s been two weeks since SniffGate — the episode of The Drew Barrymore Show where host Drew branched out from giving us the ick over invading her guests’ personal space through an abundance of petting, to giving us the ick by forcing her cohosts to smell her bare feet. Growth comes in all forms, sometimes backwards. Some debated whether she really “forced” Ross Matthews and Sunny Anderson to do the impromptu sniff test, but really, what were they supposed to do once Drew was holding up her leg on offer over the console table?! Actually, strike that question from the record; I would have delighted in watching an extended awkward moment of no one taking the bait while the lonely foot hovered aloft. In any event, Drew heard the public’s outrage, or at least squickiness, and decided to make the situation right in the only mature, logical way forward: by insisting on smelling Ross and Sunny’s feet.
“I started getting alerts that this went viral — every publication, every magazine, every website… We were smelling your feet. People are into some stuff,” Matthews said, trying to get his footing.
Anderson added that her friends were quick to call her out: “My DMs flooded with my friends like, ‘So you just gonna smell her feet like that? You gonna smell her feet?’ I was like, ‘They don’t smell like anything!’ They really don’t!”
Barrymore, mortified by the attention, asked if people were “upset” about the segment. Matthews reassured her, explaining that it was just unexpected content for people casually flipping through channels, not knowing what they’re stepping into.
Then things took a hard left — Matthews suggested that Barrymore return the favor by smelling both hosts’ feet.
Barrymore swiftly responded, “Yes.”
“Thank God I got a pedicure yesterday, are you serious?” Anderson said. “I’m not even wearing socks, Drew! I’m so nervous!”
After smelling Anderson’s feet, Barrymore declared them “scentless.”
“There’s no scent!” she said, before pretending to eat Anderson’s toes, calling them “beautiful.”
The table then turned, and it was time for Matthews to bring his feet into the spotlight.
“In my defense, these are hot out of the oven!” he said.
While both Barrymore and Anderson agreed that there was “nothing” to smell, Matthews admitted that the whole experience left him “terrified,” even calling it “invasive.”
You know what, this one’s on me. I’m the fool for thinking we wouldn’t end up here. For thinking that after one unexpected moment of live television that got away from them, the team of producers would reel Drew in from addressing it by putting the shoe on the other foot. Or shoe off the other foot, as it were. And speaking of producers, someone from that staff let it be known that the original incident was just as uncomfortable for them to witness from off camera:
Drew Barrymore’s latest on-air moment — sniffing her bare feet and urging co-hosts to do the same — may have gone viral, but it also raised eyebrows behind the scenes.
Sources tell us that while audiences saw playful daytime chaos, crew members felt uneasy. “People were uncomfortable,” says one staffer. “It might play as quirky on TV, but in person it felt awkward. Nobody knew how to react.”
Insiders describe Barrymore as “spontaneous and high-energy,” but admit her enthusiasm sometimes blurs workplace lines. “Drew means well,” says a veteran producer, “but if anyone else behaved like that on camera, HR would probably step in.”
Multiple sources say producers have quietly suggested she tone it down. “Her charm is unpredictability,” says one insider. “She just has to remember there’s a firm line between playful and uncomfortable — and lately, she’s been toeing it.”
[From Rob Shuter’s Naughty But Nice Substack]
Well first I must congratulate whoever provided that last soundbite that Drew has been “toeing” the line of playful and uncomfortable. Superb execution of punnery. But the quote that “if anyone behaved like that on camera, HR would probably step in,” really says it all. You guys have brought up that point many times in the comments. Also, the language being used here is like they’re talking about a child who must be approached as cautiously as a lion. “She’s quirky! She’s unpredictable! We quietly suggest she tone it down!” No, Drew is a 50-year-old woman, and a professional actor at that; she’s perfectly capable of taking a note. The question is why she isn’t, or why no one behind the scenes is adequately pressing her to.
Screenshots from The Drew Barrymore Show, one photo credit: Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Avalon
I’m a fan of a lot of Drew’s work, but I am so glad that I’ve never watched her talk show.
NOPE!
She needs to be stopped. This is so gross.
That’s disgusting. My first thought was, oh brother. But this is too much. She says that she raised herself practically, but she skipped public etiquette in her self-raising. I find this behavior beyond eccentric and alarming. I’ve always liked Drew, and had sympathy for her, but I haven’t watched her in some time, and don’t plan on hurrying to do so now. They just shouldn’t have aired this. People in Hollywood cross the line all the time, and producers are cutting all the time, why didn’t they cut this? She’s going to lose people, and this is a good way to do it. That’s just not entertaining, anymore than her petting people was. That was and this is self-indulgent.
Imagine if Drew Barrymore was a man.
That’s all.
She’s almost making me miss Ellen
Total joke, Ellen sucks, but I hate being touched by strangers, as do MILLIONS of people. this whole thing is just so fking rude of her.