This week, The Drew Barrymore Show presented an odd bit of obfuscation: a small black bar over the cleavage Jennifer Lopez rocked in the Versace dress she wore to the 2000 Grammys. So iconic is this dress it inspired the creation of the Google Image search. Censoring it, then, makes it seem more salacious than ever, like pointing out the inherent shamefulness of something we were all cool on as an essential piece of Americana. “You know you’re watching a daytime show when you’ve got that going on!” Barrymore reasoned. Indeed, the standards for what’s permissible on U.S. daytime network TV are oddly strict but still, do you think anyone was going to call complaining about a 21-year-old dress that’s practically cultural wallpaper at this point?
Whatever. Elsewhere, Barrymore talked with her mouth full, failed at hula-hooping, rolled on the floor when guest Eddie Murphy quoted (the original) Coming to America, and, in a Kelloggs-sponsored segment, told us, “Fiber is cool!,” without doing the heavy lifting required to support such a thesis. Propaganda!!! Finally, Barrymore signed off Friday’s episode by reporting her age and current weight, just in case you were curious.