Drew Barrymore: Her Mom, Tom and New Film

Oct. 25 -- Sometimes it seems like controversy follows Drew Barrymore like a shadow.

In the past few weeks, it was first her on-again-off-again decision whether it was safe to go to New York after the Sept. 11 attacks to promote her new film Riding in Cars With Boys.

Then it was her reaction to news that anthrax had been discovered at NBC, where she had been rehearsing to host Saturday Night Live.

Her brief moments of doubt and fear brought headlines in the gossip columns — and a very public denouncement by radio talk show host Howard Stern.

"I just want to say one thing to all the celebrities who have stayed away from New York," he said on national television last week. "I say shame on you. Come back to New York. Don't run. Don't hide. People like Drew Barrymore. Don't be afraid, honey. It ain't scary here. I mean, it can't be any worse than spending the night with Tom Green alone."

Responding to Stern

Barrymore — who did end up coming to New York and hosted Saturday Night Live — said the criticism by Stern, who "makes his whole life about being mean to other people" was unfounded. "I just don't even go to the mean kids' area in that playground," she told ABCNEWS' Elizabeth Vargas.

"If I'm honest about my feelings, I was still brave in the end, so I don't know what's wrong with that," said the 26-year-old. "I just didn't understand the foundation for it, because I did go … I just stayed and did it and then when it was time to go home and it was done I went home."

Asked about Stern's implication that being a celebrity left her with a responsibility to set an example for others, Barrymore said her New York trip presented "the weirdest moral dilemma" for her. "What's more important? My family should be first — my husband and my health and my safety — because if we don't have the capability of breathing, then everything is really second to that," she said. "Is it true the show must go on? Well that doesn't really hold true right now. It seems like a show and it seems trivial."