MERYL TAKES AIM
AFTER A RUN-IN WITH DONALD, DESIGNER KARL IS NEXT IN HER FIRING LINE
The celebrated actress butts heads with Karl Lagerfeld
You’d think by now that people would have learned not to mess with Meryl Streep.
She took on US President Donald Trump and trounced him. Now fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (83) is in the firing line after his own run-in with the Oscar winner over a dress.
Before the awards ceremony, Karl – who is the creative director of fashion house Chanel – accused Meryl (67) of rejecting a gown he was making for her because another designer had offered to pay the star to wear their dress to the Oscars.
He told prestigious fashion magazine Women’s Wear Daily that a member of her team called Chanel after they’d started work on the dress to say, “Don’t continue the dress. We found someone who will pay us.”
Karl added, “After we gift her a dress that’s $150,000, we found later we had to pay,” he said. “A genius actress, but cheapness also, no?”
Meryl hit the roof when she read the story and immediately let it be known that she wasn’t being paid to wear another designer’s dress.
Karl responded by saying there had been a mistake. He explained, “Chanel engaged in conversations with Ms Streep’s stylist, on her request, to design a dress for her to wear to the Academy Awards. After an informal conversation, I misunderstood that Ms Streep may have chosen another designer due to remuneration, which Ms Streep’s team has confirmed is not the case.
“I regret this controversy and wish Ms Streep well with her 20th Academy Award nomination.”
While his mistake wasn’t quite on the same scale as the later monumental screw-up that saw LaLaLand named as the winner of the best picture award when in fact it was Moonlight [for more details see page 14], it was still a big deal to Meryl.
The day before the event, the screen star, nominated for best actress for her role in Florence Foster-Jenkins, released a statement saying Karl had defamed her, her stylist and the designer whose outfit she had chosen to wear, and the comments had ruined this year’s Oscars for her.
“The story was picked up globally and it continues to overwhelm my appearance at the Oscars on the occasion of my record-breaking
20th nomination.”
The IronLady star added, “I do not take this lightly and Mr Lagerfeld’s generic ‘statement’ of regret for this controversy was not an apology. He lied, they printed the lie and I am still waiting.”
She turned up at the Oscars in an off-the-shoulder deep blue Elie Saab outfit, which was extremely elegant and flattering but nearly caused her a moment of embarrassment when she tripped over the skirt on the red carpet. Luckily, she regained her footing and kept walking as if nothing had happened.
The dress drama was alluded to during the ceremony when host Jimmy Kimmel joked about where Meryl’s gown was from.
“Is that an Ivanka?” he quipped in reference to US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who has her own clothing range.
Jimmy also referred to Meryl’s recent war of words with the president, by introducing her as “the highly overrated Meryl Streep”. Donald described the three-time Oscar winner – and most nominated actor ever – as overrated after she lambasted the former reality TV star in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes.
Meryl criticised the president for imitating a disabled reporter and condemned “the powerful for using their position to bully others” – without actually using Donald’s name.
Jimmy played up Donald’s inference that Meryl’s not as good an actor as everyone makes her out to be, telling the Oscars crowd, “Please join me in giving Meryl Streep a totally undeserved round of applause.”
Meryl laughed at Jimmy’s words last week but obviously wasn’t impressed with Donald’s “overrated” remark. While being honoured by a human rights group for defending LGBT rights, she said, “Yes, I am the most overrated, overdecorated and currently, I am the most over-berated actress of my generation. But that’s why you invited me here, right?”
She said the “weight of all the honours” she had received in her career compelled her
‘ I do not take this lightly... He lied, they printed the lie and I am still waiting’
to stand up for causes she believed in. But she added, “It’s terrifying to put the target on your forehead and it sets you up for all sorts of attacks.”
However, she has proved that she can give as good as she gets and is not afraid to deal with any disputes head on.
Back at Chanel, Karl must be steeling himself for Meryl’s next move.