TOUCHY-FEELY

Drew Barrymore Gets Panned for Her Handsy Oprah Interview

“The hand hold and the arm being caressed is past my boundary,” one viewer wrote.

Hollywood star and syrupy talk show host Drew Barrymore has a reputation for lavishing her celebrity guests with excessive praise and flattery, as well as a tendency to touch and sit unusually close to them. And that behavior was on full, unbridled display in Barrymore’s new interview with Oprah Winfrey.

While sitting down with Winfrey on The Drew Barrymore Show on Tuesday, viewers noted that the host repeatedly touched and clasped her guest’s hands. For instance, while asking about her iconic run as the host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Barrymore clasped one of Winfrey’s hands in her own, while using her other hand to stroke Winfrey’s arm slowly. At one point, Winfrey shifts on the sofa and appears to try to pull her arm away, only for Barrymore to switch her grip.

As the two continued discussing the importance of interacting with a studio audience, Winfrey began talking with her hands while praising Barrymore for hosting her talk show without an audience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That’s why this is so hard to do without an audience, and I was complimenting you on the fact that you got through it without an audience because it’s almost—because you’re not getting their energy,” Winfrey said.

While the media mogul didn’t appear to be too troubled by the talk show host’s handsy approach during the interview, The Drew Barrymore Show’s Instagram account is getting flooded with criticism.

“Drew, everyone doesn’t want their hands held boo,” one of many upvoted commenters wrote on the above clip from the interview. Another viewer wrote, “Oprahs body language was so clear she wanted her hand back,” while another chimed in, “The hand hold and the arm being caressed is past my boundary.”

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Helen Holmes

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