Drew Barrymore recalls ‘scary' Marilyn Monroe shoot for JFK Jr.

Drew Barrymore has lifted the lid on how a late-night phone call with John F. Kennedy Jr. led to one of the most talked-about magazine covers of the 1990s, her Marilyn Monroe-inspired shoot for the cover of George.

The actress and chat show host, 51, revisited the story on the 5th March episode of The Drew Barrymore Show. 

When a photo of the iconic 1996 cover appeared on screen, Barrymore walked her co-hosts through exactly how it came together, starting with an unexpected phone call she received while at home in bed.

She recalled the moment vividly, describing just how enormous Kennedy and his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy were in the public eye at the time.

"I mean, we were at the pinnacle of this couple being, I guess, as big as Taylor [Swift] and Travis [Kelce]," she said. 

"I don't know how they lived their life. Their existence was not peaceful. It was paparazzi every single second, everywhere that they went. They couldn't walk out their own door without it being a red-carpet fashion runway. And they were Camelot. They were this sort-of royal couple."

When Kennedy got on the call, Barrymore admitted she wasn't quite sure how to react. 

He told her he wanted to do something controversial, he wanted her to pose as Marilyn Monroe, a reference loaded with history given Monroe's famous 1962 "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" performance for Kennedy's father, John F. Kennedy. 

Barrymore's instinct was to tread carefully. 

She asked him directly whether the concept had his genuine blessing, whether it was a knowing wink, or whether it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. "I said, 'Oh, okay... I'd really love some direction from you on what the tone is,'" she recalled, asking how she could "best represent this moment for you."

His answer was clear. 

"He just said, 'I want it to be straightforward. I don't want it to be bafoonery. I don't want it to be over congratulatory. I want it to be this sort of sensual, straightforward, confident moment,'" Barrymore recalled. 

The shoot, photographed by Mario Sorrenti, went ahead on those terms. 

"I heard they were really happy with the pictures and that was great. And then I saw the magazine and I was like, 'Oh my God, this is so crazy,'" she said.

George, the politics-meets-pop-culture magazine Kennedy co-founded with Michael J. Berman, ran from 1995 until 2001. 

Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy died in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard in July 1999. The magazine folded two years later.