Former wild child, now Hollywood power babe Drew Barrymore is renowned for her quickfire love life.

And in her latest screen role in 50 First Dates, opening on Friday, April 9, she gets to fall in love every day.

Playing Lucy, she has a rare neurological disorder which wipes her memory every night. Thus her co-star Adam Sandler, who plays the hapless Henry, has to come up with new and clever ways to get her to fall in love with him, every day.

Drew admits her own chequered love life gave her plenty of background material for repeatedly falling in love.

With two brief marriages already - her first lasting just 19 days to Jeremy Thomas, and a second to Tom Green, who she split from after around five months, before their divorce in October 2002 - she's also been engaged to Jamie Walters and Luke Wilson.

Currently engaged to Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, Drew admits: "I think I'm slightly impulsive."

But she has high hopes this time. "I just think he's the most wonderful human being and this is such a wonderful thing in my life."

There's plenty of onscreen chemistry between herself and Adam, her love interest in previous rom-com hit The Wedding Singer who also co-produced 50 First Dates, and the pair are being touted as Hollywood's new romantic screen team.

"I love hearing that," she smiles. "Adam's such a wonderful person. There isn't a mean bone in his body. I love getting to work with someone who is so inherently kind to everybody. He brings a lot of joy to people by being funny."

Their screen chemistry is based on real friendship and affection, not passion, adds Drew. "We've only ever been friends so it's not those feelings, but my love for him is genuine.

"We've known each other for a long time and we've remained friends throughout that and it has helped us do these characters who are different people," says the 29-year-old actress and producer.

"We wanted to make a film that stays true to some of the themes and tones we love, like love and romance and comedy, but make it different enough."

Originally titled 50 First Kisses, it was filmed in Hawaii and the Charlie's Angels actress believes the film has a lot of heart, as well as comedy.

It certainly doesn't make fun of people who clinically forget, she maintains: "It's actually incredibly sensitive. This man goes out of his way to make this woman fall in love with him every day. He helps her family cope with this illness by saying, 'Don't just have her live the same day over and over, make her life better'."

But if Adam's gooey, romantic role is proving a hit, Drew's appearance alongside another high-profile comedian, Ben Stiller, hasn't fared so well, with their new movie Duplex proving something of a dud.

The pair co-produced the comedy about a young couple trying to get rid of an annoying elderly tenant.

Despite this, there are plans for another romantic comedy with Stiller titled Date School. This time, instead of reliving a first date, Drew plays a woman who is a terrible date.

"I'm sure some people are going to assume it's autobiographical," she jokes.

This accent on romantic comedies is really about making the kinds of films she'd like to see rather than trying to prove a point as an actor, she says. "I want to have movies full of romance and hope and empowerment, something people can escape into and feel good about."

With plans to co-produce and star in Will Ferrell's acclaimed A Confederacy of Dunces and the fantasy adventure The Silence of Sleep, Drew has a very busy slate. There's still talk of remaking Jane Fonda's classic Barbarella.

And the actress is rankled by suggestions that last summer's sequel Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle didn't live up to expectations.

"It's really bitchy and mean when people try to make you feel like a failure. I refuse to feel bad and wouldn't even if the film had only made back its costs," she maintains.

Ever since she made her debut at age six in ET, Drew's own struggle has been well documented. The daughter of John Drew Barrymore, she's the granddaughter of early screen legend John Barrymore.

She's survived a well-documented upbringing, described in her own autobiography Little Girl Lost, which saw her in rehab following alcohol and drugs addictions and a suicide attempt all by the time she was 13. Since then, Drew has managed to carve out an adult acting career with a series of box-office hits, and establish herself as a film producer.

However, she takes a lot of pride in her acting lineage, which stretches back to the stars of the silent screen.

"There were these two families of actors, the Drews and the Barrymores, and they married into each other," says the California-born grandniece of Lionel and Ethel Barrymore.

By Robin Walker

want to really understand that legacy because when I have children, their father will have to share that history with me."