Drew Barrymore’s Profession Got here Full Circle With A Sure Stephen King Cameo

Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s 2005 romantic comedy “Fever Pitch,” primarily based on the Nick Hornby novel, was concerning the relationship travails of a level-headed businesswoman named Lindsey (Drew Barrymore) as she tried to this point a humorous and charming schoolteacher named Ben (Jimmy Fallon). Ben admits early of their courtship that he’s a fan of the Boston Pink Sox. Nay, not only a fan, however an embarrassingly devoted superfan who attends all their video games. Lindsey would not know a lot about baseball, and he or she has to just accept that, if she desires to maintain seeing Ben, she’ll should attend many, many baseball video games with him. She’ll additionally should observe his emotional ups and downs as his favourite workforce wins or loses.

Curiously, Hornby’s authentic guide wasn’t a couple of baseball workforce, however Arsenal, an English soccer membership. The title “Fever Pitch” makes extra sense with baseball.

“Fever Pitch” was nice, and nothing extra. It is affable and heat and never terribly deep. Fallon is serviceably humorous, whereas Barrymore is 5’4″ column of sunshine that would have on-screen chemistry with a tree stump. The movie has a 66% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes (primarily based on 194 critiques), and made simply over $50 million on the field workplace.

“Fever Pitch” did, nonetheless, orchestrate a curious reunion of kinds. Because it so occurs, creator Stephen King is a gigantic Boston Pink Sox fan, so the Farrelly Brothers recruited him for a cameo look. In a single fast scene, King, enjoying himself, could be seen carrying his Pink Sox jersey and throwing out the primary pitch for a notable sport. 

King and Barrymore do not straight work together, however followers of horror motion pictures could recall that the actor received her begin in two notable Stephen King diversifications: “Firestarter” in 1984 and “Cat’s Eye” in 1985.

Barrymore was born into an appearing dynasty. She first appeared on-screen when she was nonetheless a child, serving as a mannequin in a pet food industrial. She would later cameo in Ken Russell’s sci-fi freakout “Altered States” earlier than actually coming to the general public’s consideration due to her position in Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Further-Terrestrial” on the age of six. That efficiency rocketed her to stardom, main her to host “Saturday Night time Dwell” (sure, when she was nonetheless a baby) and into increasingly profitable roles.

Then, in 1984, Barrymore was forged as Charlie McGee, a lady with pyrokinetic powers, in Mark L. Lester’s thriller “Firestarter,” itself primarily based on the 1980 novel by Stephen King. The movie was a couple of mysterious authorities lab referred to as the Store that had been conducting experiments on individuals, hoping to provide them psychic powers. Two psychic individuals (David Keith and Heather Locklear) escape the Store, get married, and have Charlie, all whereas residing on the lam, hoping Store brokers by no means discover them. Naturally, they’re found and a conflagration ensues, with Charlie killing dozens of individuals utilizing her fiery powers alongside the best way.

The next yr, Barrymore continued her affiliation with King by starring in Lewis Teague’s anthology movie “Cat’s Eye.” Within the movie, she performs a younger lady who’s visited at evening by a malevolent homunculus that crawls out of a gap in her bed room wall. The creature sits on her chest and threatens to smother her, till the household cat, Basic, chases it away. “Cat’s Eye” wasn’t as large a ht as “Firestarter,” however it made its rounds on cable TV all through the Nineteen Eighties, so many impressionable youngsters noticed it.

Barrymore hasn’t been in any King diversifications since, however they do kind the idea for her appearing profession.

Again in 2007, King made specific that he was no mere passing fan of the Boston Pink Sox, however a longtime obsessive. He needed to be part of “Fever Pitch” as a result of he primarily was Jimmy Fallon’s character in actual life. King even penned an article for Leisure Weekly explaining the depth of his baseball fandom, and the way he got here to put in writing the baseball memoir “Devoted” with fellow obsessive Stewart O’Nan. He revealed his Pink Sox cred, writing:

“Fallon’s character has Pink Sox sheets on his mattress. I’ve a Pink Sox comforter. Ben Wrightman has a Pink Sox bathe curtain. I’ve a Pink Sox tub mat. We each have framed images of Carl Yastrzemski (though I even have — ahem — a signed Yaz ball). Judging from Ben Wrightman’s closet, we now have roughly the identical variety of Pink Sox shirts: say, two thousand apiece. (I draw the road at Yankee bathroom paper, although.) And the most effective factor in my workplace? A mural on the ceiling that exhibits all of Fenway Park on a sunny summer time day.” 

King is from Maine, after all, however he loves what he loves.

The Farrelly brothers are additionally from New England, and one may word that New England sports activities play a big position in most of their motion pictures. As such, they knew how deeply the fandom for the Boston Pink Sox runs and certain simply gave King a name, asking if he needed to indicate up and throw in a pitch for his or her film. It is fully attainable that King may need proven up anyway. 

And so, the worlds of Drew Barrymore’s early horror profession and Stephen King’s baseball obsession overlapped. The whole lot got here full circle.