Selma Blair Reveals That Someone Sent Drew Barrymore “Poison Pen Letters” Under Her Name Back In The ’90s

Selma Blair is having a busy 2022. She went public with her MS diagnosis in 2018, will appear on Season 31 of Dancing with the Stars, and recently released her memoir, entitled Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up. Selma stopped by The Drew Barrymore Show for a backstage chat about the book and all those “poison pen” letters sent to Drew Barrymore under Selma’s name in the nineties. Wait, huh? Yeah, sooo, apparently, somebody was writing Drew scary letters pretending to be Selma. That same person also wrote letters to productions that had hired Selma claiming she was a violent heroin addict. Sweet, innocent Drew never had a clue about any of this, but the letters tarnished Selma’s reputation and she lost multiple jobs. Eventually, the letter-writer was revealed to be (drumroll please)… Selma’s dad’s girlfriend?? Twists, turns, this story’s got it all! And just wait for the part about Selma being accused of drugging this woman’s drink at Starbucks…

Selma says all this fuckery started when she called her dad up one day and let him know she got a small role in a film. She says her dad was understandably curious, and she gave him a bunch of information about the movie:

And, next thing I knew, they informed me that FedEx letters were going. Claiming I was a heroin addict. I never was a heroin addict. Never tried it. But it was a real kind of poison pen letter about me, claiming to be an agent, and this went on. They got like eleven in one day, sixteen in another, they told me.

Even though the filmmakers didn’t believe the claims in the letters, they were worried about Selma being a liability, and they fired her from the shoot. Selma had no clue who was behind them and guessed that it was someone who hated her from high school. But she was confused about how the person would know details about her jobs.

About a year later, a private detective informed Selma that someone had been sending “many” poison pen letters to Drew Barrymore under her name. In her memoir, Selma says one of the letters sent to Universal Studios described her as a “violent and dangerous person” who held a grudge against Drew. Selma said she was heartbroken and afraid. Then, she discovered the truth:

And, eventually, long story short, [I] found out that it was someone involved with my father. And he was letting this information get to her, and then, when he found it was her… he chose her. And didn’t believe me. Said, “No, she’s not doing this. You also ruined her life. You put a mickey in her drink at Starbucks.” I mean, just ridiculous stuff. I’m like, I’m in New York! I never met her!

Selma said she cut her father out of her life after this went down. He died in 2012, and, at the end of his life, he admitted that he’d made the wrong choice and believed his daughter. But, sadly, the two never properly reconciled.

Drew claims that she’d never even heard about the letters. This news is a big relief to present-day Selma, who was haunted by the incident for years. Drew says she wanted to interview Selma about her documentary about MS, Introducing, Selma Blair, but then she found out about the letters:

…and then I was like, “Fuck this, I’m going after her. I have to talk to her. I want to heal this moment.” Because it wasn’t real for me on my side, nor would I ever doubt you, and I’ve actually been a total fan of yours on the side, an admirer for many, many years.

Selma said she thinks her father’s girlfriend picked Drew as a target because Drew was her favorite actress, via Entertainment Weekly:

 “What I have to say to the audience that might not know, you were my childhood favorite because you were the girl!” she shared, catching Barrymore by surprise. “That’s why the letters went to you, I assume, because he knew what you meant to me. It’s not random!”

“I totally thought it was random!” Barrymore exclaimed. “I was like, ‘Oh, lucky me, I guess?'”

Fuck Dancing with the Stars, we need Selma to adapt this saga into a limited series, stat! Hopefully, she still has Ryan Murphy’s number from when she played Kris Jenner in American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson.

Pic: YouTube