Streep says ‘We can get through this moment’ at NBR Awards

NEW YORK (AP) — Steven Spielberg’s newspaper drama The Post took a bow at a politically-charged National Board of Review (NBR) Awards where Meryl Streep

(photo) took a moment in an awards season rife with gender politics to praise the men who have been her mentors and collaborators.

It was already decided that Tuesday night’s gala at Cipriani’s in midtown Manhattan would belong to The Post. The National Board of Review announced the winners last month, with The Post taking Best Picture, Best Actress for Streep and Best Actor for Tom Hanks. But given that the film was unexpectedly shut out at Sunday’s Golden Globes, Streep, Spielberg and Hanks were able to trot out the speeches they might have given days earlier.

“The men, I just think we can get through this moment,” said Streep, referring to the Me Too moment and sexual harassment scandals that have coursed through Hollywood. “Here’s the main thing I don’t want to go away: the danger of making movies. How far you have to push stuff. How physically, emotionally dan- gerous it can be. How much we really need to trust each other. I don’t want that to go away because that’s where art lives.”

Streep has been a prominent voice regarding gender equality in Hollywood following the fallout of disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein, who distributed numerous films of Streep’s. She’s among the several hundred women in the entertainment industry who have banded together in an initiative dubbed Time’s Up, to promote gender equality among Hollywood executives.

Streep concluded her remarks by quoting her character, Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, who strides forward at a crucial moment in the maledominated 1970s newspaper industry to publish the Pentagon Papers in “The Post.” ‘’And the time’s up so let’s go girls,” said Streep. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.”

But Streep also sounded some more optimistic notes about gender relations in Hollywood. The relationship of The Post between Graham and editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks), she said, typified her working experience “in my 40 years making movies.”

“I love men,” said Streep, noting the speeches of Hanks and Call Me By Your Name star Timothee Chalamet, the breakthrough actor winner. “Yeah, I know it’s the year of the woman and everything, but oh my god. The men. All my mentors have been men, even my sixth grade music teacher Paul Grossman, who let me sing five version of O Holy Night in French, German and something else. And he became a woman, the first man in New Jersey to have surgery and become a woman.”