NEW YORK: Drew Barrymore got pinned for the first time but not by a boyfriend. The actress received a Dove of Peace pin as a new member of ‘Artists for the UN’, an initiative of Global Vision for Peace founded at the start of the Iraq war last year by writer HeathCliff Rothman and designer Xorin Balbes.

At last year’s Oscars, nearly three dozen film artists wore the Dove of Peace pin inspired by Pablo Picasso and created by Henry Dunay including Meryl Streep, Adrian Brody, Martin Scorsese, Daniel Day-Lewis and Susan Sarandon.

Gillian Sorensen, a former UN assistant secretary-general who’s now senior adviser to the UN Foundation, said 30 or 40 artists at this year’s Oscars are expected to wear the pin, not only as a symbol of the organisation but as part of its effort “to salute and support the UN.”

When Barrymore received her Dove of Peace, she gushed, “This is the first time I’ve ever been pinned, I’m serious.” The 28-year-old ‘Charlie’s Angels’ star added, “We wake up every morning thinking, like, what more can we do in this world to make it a better, happier, more peaceful and beautiful place?”

“I always say this is so silly but I wish there were, like, little boxes at every corner that you could list the thing that speaks to you, like: I love the environment, I want to protect it! I care about animals! I care about the AIDS epidemic!” she said. — Associated Press