BY most accounts, Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore would've been her generation's Lindsay Lohan.

Picked up smoking at 9.

Checked into rehab at 13.

Attempted suicide at 14.

Posed nude for Playboy at 20.

Divorced twice before her 28th birthday.

Despite her tumultuous past, it is a bit of a surprise to see that the 33-year-old actress is bright, sunny and optimistic in person.

And a romantic at heart.

'Yes, I still believe in marriage, why wouldn't I?' the voluptuous blonde asked.

It's easy to get cynical.

After all, her 1994 marriage to Welsh bar owner Jerry Thomas ended in just about a month.

Her second one to actor Tom Green in 2001 didn't make it past the six-month mark.

She's also been engaged to The Heights singer Jamie Walters and The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti.

Perhaps she's just not the marrying type.

To which, she said: 'I don't know! I'm going to pass the question because my life has yet to reveal itself.'

Yet, she acknowledges that she hasn't always been wise in the ways of love.

'There is a lot I have to learn about men, but there's also a lot that I have learnt,' she said.

'Like their behaviour. If they're not making you feel good, and you're trying to decipher them like they're the Da Vinci code, no honey.'

She added: 'I think relationships do take a tremendous amount of work, but I think a different type of work. A work that's exhausting on your heart...'

She was speaking to The New Paper at the Beverly Hills Hilton during the promotion for her latest movie, He's Just Not That Into You. It opens here tomorrow.

The movie follows the lives of nine Baltimore 20 and 30-somethings who try to navigate the murky and grey waters of love and marriage.

Adapted from the best-selling self-help book of the same name by Greg Behrendt, it features a star-studded ensemble that includes Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck and Scarlett Johansson.

The movie also stars Die Hard With A Vengeance actor Justin Long, who Barrymore used to date. Their one-year relationship ended in July last year.

The pair had met on the movie's set and were reunited for its promotional tour.

Although Barrymore has said in previous reports that she and are Long are still friends, the two were conveniently kept apart in different interview groups.

The actress also declined to answer any questions about her former beau.

In the movie, Barrymore plays Mary, an ad sales executive who has been rejected on every possible modern medium - whether it's e-mail, Facebook, SMS or fax.

In reality, she says she finds technology 'just hard'.

Here's a tip: If you ever want to chat her up, she'd rather you be bold and do it face-to-face.

Said the self-confessed tech idiot: 'I don't know how to gauge technology and love... I mean, you can misunderstand, or it's not enough, and you're always expected to respond on the spot.

'I prefer that if someone has something to say, that they do it to my face. I am a little dismayed by technology.'

Ironically, the movie's main protagonist, played by Ginnifer Goodwin, was in some part, based on Barrymore's personal love life.

Gigi is sincere about finding 'the one', such that she obsesses over every single detail to orchestrate and rationalise into deluding herself that a beau likes her.

As a result, she makes every possible mistake in the dating ritual.

'I'm not embarrassed at all. I'm like, 'Oh my God, I feel so freakin' validated by Ginnifer's character',' said Barrymore.

In real life, Barrymore seems to have had a never ending quest for 'the one'.

She said: 'I think we women like to dissect and analyse and obsess over our relationships. I think we care a lot about how to make love work, how to find it and how to maintain it. And I don't find any crime in that.

'But some women can go overboard. As far as men, they seem different, but I can't help but believe in my heart, that they have to talk to their friends and figure stuff out too.'

But, surely, this Hollywood babe has no problems looking for men.

At the interview, the 1.63m-tall actress looked stunning in a Lida Baday satin blue dress and a sexy Marilyn Monroe-esque bouffant hairdo that dropped jaws when she debuted it at last month's Golden Globes.

Barrymore confessed she's giving her love life a break.

'You put so much stock into other people and then, you're like, 'I'm going to spend some time falling in love with myself and be me for a while',' she said.

Unless you happen to be Batman star Christian Bale.

'He's so cute. If he walked into the room now, I might go overboard and embarrass myself,' she gushed.

She recalled how they first met when they were 12 years old and she has been nursing a crush on him ever since.

But while Barrymore's love life has been bumpy, her career has been plain sailing.

In 2005, she started her own production company, Flower Films, which has seen several box-office hits, such as Charlie's Angels, Never Been Kissed, 50 First Dates and Music And Lyrics.

Her fee per movie averages US$15 million ($22 million), making her one of the most bankable female movie stars in Hollywood.

She will soon make her directorial debut in upcoming comedy Whip It!, about a Texas roller derby league.

With so much on her plate, you forget that this was the six-year-old girl with the Goldilocks curls, who charmed the world as Gertie in Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, more than 20 years ago.

But this former child star is only just beginning.

She said: 'I enjoy producing, and I just directed a film. So I'm really obviously loving the behind the scenes aspects.'

As for her wild child ways, Gertie's all grown up.

'I'm in my 30s now, I'm in a different place,' she said.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

This article was first published in The New Paper.