Streep speech a sign of the times

IF the lead-up awards are anything to go by, this year’s Oscars are shaping up to be one of the most political in recent memory.

The tone was set early with the mostly liberal Hollywood establishment railing against the incoming administration ever since Donald Trump’s shock win on November 8.

But the tension ratcheted up several notches at the Golden Globes when multiple Oscar-winner Meryl Streep was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement.

As she took to the podium, Streep (pictured) had her soon-to-be president firmly in her sights when she said: “There was one performance this year that stunned me … It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in p privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of b broke my h heart when I s saw it it. I stilltil can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.”

Trump hit back at Streep – one of the most Oscarnominated actors in history with 20 nods – posting on Twitter that she was “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood”.

Battlelines were drawn, with actors Elizabeth Banks, Emmy Rossum and Zoe Saldana immediately leaping to Streep’s defence.

Marlon Brando boycotted the Oscars when he was nominated in 1973 and sent a Native American activist to refuse the award on his behalf. Richard Gere was presenting an award in 1993 when he called on China to pull out of Tibet.

Michael Moore called George W. Bush a “fictitious president” while accepting the Best Documentary Oscar for Bowling For Columbine in 2003.

Two years ago, Patricia Arquette spoke out in favour of wage equality for women after winning Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood and last year there was the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, with not a single non-white actor nominated for an award.