Plot - Never Been Kissed

Barrymore plays 25-year-old Josie Geller, a one-time high school misfit turned pedantic and lonely copy-editor for the Chicago Sun-Times. Josie desperately wants to be a reporter, and constantly sends story ideas to her boss, Gus (John C. Reilly). One day during a staff meeting, the tyrannical editor-in-chief, Rigfort (Garry Marshall) assigns her to report undercover at a high school. At first, despite her best efforts and the support of her best friend at the paper, Anita (Molly Shannon), Josie reverts back to her geeky, misfit, high school persona, and becomes friends with fellow geek Aldys (Leelee Sobieski). However, after counselling by her brother, Rob (and with the benefit of hindsight of her original high school career), Josie learns how to let go of the who she was in highschool.

A subplot involving the attraction between Josie (who has never had a romance) and young English teacher Sam Coulson is complicated by the fact that Sam thinks Josie is 17-years-old and a student, and therefore out of bounds.

The premise of the film is loosely based on the real-life undercover work of Shann Nix, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who posed as a high school student to uncover the conditions in inner-city schools in San Francisco.  Unlike the fictional character, Nix was not unpopular in high school, and never had a romantic connection with a teacher when she went undercover.

Directed by: Raja Gosnell
Produced by: Sandy Isaac - Nancy Juvonen
Written by: Marc Silverstein - Abby Kohn
Starring: Drew Barrymore
David Arquette
Marley Shelton
Michael Vartan
Molly Shannon
John C. Reilly
Garry Marshall
Leelee Sobieski
Jessica Alba
Jeremy Jordan
Music by: David Newman
Cinematography: Alex Nepomniaschy
Editing by: Debra Chiate - Marcel Sansevieri
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release date(s): April 9, 1999
Running time: 107 min.
Budget: $25,000,000