Our date with Drew’s date

los angeles | There are plenty of guys with crushes on Drew Barrymore, the actress who began at age 6 as an ingénue in "E.T." and who now captivates audiences in sexier roles such as her turn as one of "Charlie's Angels."

There are also plenty of guys who are trying to make it in Hollywood, living hand-to-mouth, scrambling just to pay rent, taking any job in the industry just to get by until stardom hits.

But there are few guys indeed who can combine their passion for Drew with their showbiz struggle in one neat package. Actually, there's only one guy like that — Brian Herzlinger, an aspiring filmmaker who documented his attempts to get a date with America's sweetheart in "My Date with Drew."

The film's trailer explains the mission impossible: "30 days. $1,100. For an ordinary guy to get a date with Drew Barrymore."

Herzlinger is no Hollywood everyman. He's a Jewish 29-year-old from New Jersey, who did many of the usual Jewish things: attended JCC summer camps, went to Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah. Eventually, he ended up in Los Angeles and signed up for JDate (he's no longer an active member). While dark and handsome, he's of average height, not in the best shape, as he likes to point out, and quite hairy (he ponders a chest wax during the film).

So how does this "ordinary" Jewish guy — a combination of the endearing Steve Guttenberg and the smirking Jerry Seinfeld, with a dollop of Woody Allen-style self-deprecation — go about getting a date with a Hollywood aristocrat?

After winning $1,100 in a game show, he and friends buy a video camera at Circuit City, planning to return it for a refund within 30 days. (Is that ethical, rabbi?) They try to get to the actress using "six degrees of separation."

It's not easy for Herzlinger, who had been in Hollywood for five years after film school — making his own short films while working various entertainment biz jobs, such as PA on some TV shows. Using his friends in low places, Herzlinger and his three co-filmmakers ("The Drew Crew") manage to interview, among others, Drew's aesthetician; her ex-boyfriend, child celebrity Corey Feldman; a psychic who, for $75, predicts the endeavor will be a success but not within the projected time frame; and Herzlinger's parents in New Jersey.

By the way, his mother thinks Drew is "too slutty" for her son. And his mother wasn't the only one to give Herzlinger an earful: "During this process, I've never had so many Jewish grandmothers come up to me and say, 'Tateleh, you should go out and meet my granddaughter ... '"

The film took four months to shoot and edit — they had to whittle down 85 hours of footage — and another two years to sell after doing the film-fest circuit.

"I was worried that people out here would be so jaded that they wouldn't get the 'lifelong quest' aspect," Herzlinger said. "But the response across the board has been that people say they've been inspired to follow their own dreams."




"My Date with Drew" is playing at the AMC 1000 Van Ness, 1881 Post St., San Francisco, CA. (415) 922-4262 and also at the AMC Saratoga 14, 700 El Paseo De Saratoga, San Jose, CA. (408) 871-2262.