Drew Barrymore learned on an upcoming episode of her TV show just how dedicated her “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” director Steven Spielberg was to keeping movie magic alive for the then-7-year-old actress.

“Now I believed E.T. was real,” Barrymore, 47, tells co-stars Henry Thomas, Robert MacNaughton and Dee Wallace — who played her older brothers and mother in the film — on “The Drew Barrymore Show’s” Halloween episode on Monday.

“I really, really loved him in such a profound way. ... What would happen? Because I would go and take lunch to him.”

Thomas, 51, recalled seeing Barrymore asking for “a scarf for E.T.’s neck, because he was gonna get cold. So you wrapped the scarf around his neck.”

“We found you over there just talking away to E.T.,” said Wallace, 73. “And so we let Steven know and so Steven, from that time on, appointed two guys to keep E.T. alive, so whenever you came over to talk to him, he could react to you.”

The 1982 sci-fi family favorite was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including best picture.

———

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cormac Roth, a musician and son of actor Tim Roth, has died at 25 after a battle with cancer, the family announced Monday.

Roth “died peacefully in the arms of his family who loved and adored him” on Oct. 16, the family said in a statement, adding that “he maintained his wicked wit and humor" to the end.

“The grief comes in waves, as do the tears and laughter, when we think of that beautiful boy across the 25 years and 10 months that we knew him,” the family said. “An irrepressible and joyful and wild and wonderful child. Only recently a man. We love him. We will carry him with us wherever we go.”

A graduate of Bennington College, Roth was a guitarist, composer and producer. He revealed on his Instagram account that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 germ cell cancer in November 2021.

"It has taken away half of my hearing, 60 pounds of weight, my confidence, and will continue its murderous path until I can manage to stop it some how, and kill it,” he wrote. “But it hasn’t taken away my will to survive, or my love of making music. It hasn’t taken me down yet.”

He urged everyone to see their doctors.

His father is the star of such films as "Reservoir Dogs," “Pulp Fiction” and "The Incredible Hulk."

Cormac Roth is survived by his parents, Tim and Nikki Roth, and his brother, Hunter Roth.

———

NEW YORK — Asbestos and cockroaches could sink the plans of "Saturday Night Live" comedians Pete Davidson and Colin Jost to open a nightspot aboard a retired Staten Island Ferry boat, say former crew members.

Davidson and Jost joined an investor group that bought the 310-foot ferry from the city for $280,000 earlier this year with the idea of turning it into a bar, restaurant and entertainment venue.

Turning the 57-year-old ship into a nightspot is likely to cost millions, ferry workers said.

The ferry entered service in 1965, a time when “asbestos was a common building material,” said Kevin Hennessey, who captained the ship.

There’s also a big cockroach problem on the ship, which Staten Island Ferry workers said is the case with all of the service’s boats — but is especially bad on this ferry.

Many roaches were attracted to compartments beneath the ship’s seats used to store life jackets.

The ship’s engine room was also damaged last year from a fire that broke out shortly before the ship was taken out of service, Hennessey said. By the time Jost, Davidson and the other investors bought it, the engines were still smoking and sputtering, he said.

It’s unclear how much it will cost to bring the ship into a state of good repair.

Hennessey said he was skeptical Jost and Davidson could turn the ship into an entertainment venue.

“I wish these guys luck with the project, but they’re going to need some help,” said Hennessey. “They had good intentions, but this was an impulse buy by two guys with a lot of money who don’t know anything about maritime vessels.”

———

From combined wire reports