Drew Barrymore may not have hosted the MTV Movie and TV Awards, but she still had a presence Sunday night. The clip-heavy awards show featured several prerecorded skits starring Barrymore doing everything from dancing in “Wednesday” to reprising her role in “Never Been Kissed.”
Barrymore was originally slated to host the MTV Movie and TV Awards but dropped out of the event last Thursday, two days after the beginning of the WGA strike. At the time, the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show” said she pulled out of the event “in solidarity with the strike.” MTV likely planned to accompany Barrymore’s hosting duties with a batch of sketches that put the beloved stars into some of the biggest shows and movies of the past year. But watching the clips sans-Barrymore-as-host was still fun.
The awards show started with a throwback. Donning her iconic “Never Been Kissed” dress, Barrymore charmed her way through such recent hits as Parker Finn’s horror movie “Smile,” Jordan Peele’s sci-fi Western “Nope,” Netflix and Tim Burton’s “Wednesday,” Mike White and HBO’s “The White Lotus,” Gerard Johnstone’s horror comedy “M3GAN,” Joseph Kosinski blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” and Elizabeth Banks’ stranger-than-fiction “Cocaine Bear.” And before you ask, yes — of course Barrymore did the “Wednesday” and “M3GAN” dances.
She then appeared in the “Barbie” trailer, correcting a major casting oversight. Barrymore pretended to be an unofficial “Skipper.” If you’re unaware, Skipper was Barbie’s first sister, who appeared in 1964. Barrymore doesn’t just respect the WGA; she respects Barbie lore.
She then returned to “Wednesday” to dance some more. As Jenna Ortega stared on in shock, Barrymore twirled in the rain and was eventually struck by lightning.
That’s not all. Barrymore also won an award herself for Best Host of her talk show. During her speech, she made a point to thank her show’s writers.
It’s all part of the MTV Movie and TV Awards intentionally clip-heavy awards show. Originally, the network planned for Barrymore to host its live awards show, which would air after red carpet arrivals. But in the wake of the writers’ strike, MTV was forced to quickly change the format of the program that’s been around since 1992.
While more and more presenters and nominees dropped out of the awards show out of respect to the strike and the WGA protested the event, the red carpet was canceled. The live element of the show was canceled as the event pivoted to heavily feature clips from past ceremonies. The nominees from each category were called and the winner accepted their award via a prerecorded message.
Click here for all of TheWrap’s WGA Strike coverage.
