Meryl Streep - Holocaust (Mini-Series) "a piece of garbage!"

Direct quote\ \ "Unfortunately the stage just does''%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%99t have the resonance that a piece of garbage like Holocaust did. I really hated the writing in Holocaust. They made me so noble it was sickening. I did it for a very specific purpose at that time in my life %C3%A2%C2%80%C2%93 the money."\ \ The Meryl Streep Story\ Nick Smurthwaite\ Page 34\ \ If she feels that way, do you think she should return her Emmy?

• No.

• Uhm, some people how much more "sickening" jobs they do for money.

• No.%0D\ %0D\ And it was garbage.%0D\ %0D\ Still, her saying so is a rare occasion on which Ms. Streep has been ungracious and tactless.%0D\ %0D\ Moreover, I would be curious to know, since she certainly doesn''t need the money now, why she still occasionally does garbage.

• how = have

• Has this ever been repeated anywhere on TV?%0D\ %0D\ I saw it as a kid and was very moved by it. Have no idea how it holds up now.%0D\ %0D\ Meryl can be very blunt in her opinion, but she''s usually more discrete than that.

• I really, REALLY wish this woman would just fade away.\ \ She''s never called out as the famewhore she is. She takes roles for one reason, and one reason only: she''s a famewhore who''s desperate for another Oscar.\ \ At this point, her incredible acting ability is now overshadowed by her Pierre Cardin-like career; she''ll put her name on ANYTHING. She shows up to every award show with a crumb of respect, she over-exposes herself to the point of exhausting the public from seeing her.\ \ Meryl, just GO AWAY.

• R6=Glenn

• Nope R7; Not "Glenn" or "Helen" or "Judi" et all. \ \ Just really over this woman. She''s a fine actress, but she''s everywhere, to the point where Hollywood is either using her or some other older actress, from the U.K.\ \ It''s to the point that if Meryl isn''t hired for a part, it goes to some older British woman, and the U.S. has some incredible middle aged/older female actors who deserve more work instead of it being all Meryl, all the time.\ \ Oh, and true. Her desperation for another Oscar could not be more tangible. So sad for such a great actress.

• R7, I doubt R6 is Glenn as I found the emotions in that post totally believable.

  M

• I really doubt she did "It''s Complicated" or "Mamma Mia" to win an Oscar. And she deserved the Oscar this year, especially over the noble, negro-loving character that Ms. Sandra played. (Oscar loves white folks who love Negroes.)%0D\ %0D\ She''s a talented actress who is lucky enough to get some good parts. Just because there are two decent parts for an older actress a year (if that many) and she gets one of them only means that they need more films for older actresses. It doesn''t mean we blame the older actresses who take the part.%0D\ %0D\ And who else would have played Julia Child as well? Sally Field? Jessica Lange? Michelle Pfeiffer? Jane Fonda? Only Glenn Close might have been able to pull it off.%0D\ %0D\ And if it''s true that she''s hungry for a third Oscar, well, good for her.

• "And who else would have played Julia Child as well? Sally Field? Jessica Lange? Michelle Pfeiffer? Jane Fonda? Only Glenn Close might have been able to pull it off."\ \ She was a freaking one-note cartoon in a piece of crud movie made for neanderthals. Why would anyone WANT to be able to pull off this lowbrow crap?

• Okay, that was witty, R9.

• "The Meryl Steep Story", by "Nick Smurfwaite?" Boy, what a piece of tabloid trash that must be!%0D\ %0D\ That quote is rather suspect. It seems hard to believe that Streep would call "Holocaust" garbage. It wasn''t. And her character wasn''t over the top noble. She was a good person in the midst of of a great many evil people, which made her stand out, but the character was not some kind of perfect, flawless angel. She was just a decent person who loved her husband very much and tried to save him. I thought the character seemed very real.

• EVERY actor is hungry for an Oscar, and always has been. They would all kill to get one. That''s just the way Hollywood is.

• Oh boy, we''re gonna here it from the Jews. That movie was sacrosanct to them.

• Maybe that is why Meryl thought it was garbage

• Didn''t she also say something vaguely anti-semitic about some woman? That the chick couldn''t get ahead because of looks which were "Jewish looks" or something? Does anyone else remember this?

• R17, all I said was that Glenn is such a blowhard, you could use that head as a Shofar.

  M

• R17\ \ I doubt it. Streep herself was the victim of something similar when Dino DeLaurentis lambasted her looks right in front of her when she read for King Kong. He did it in Italian but Streep was proficient enough in Italian to understand him and she called him out on it. Her impression of his face was priceless.

• I read it. Someone posted the link to the interview here. I just can''t remember who the woman was she was talking about.

• R19, what did he say about her?

• R21\ \ See for yourself

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLYUYiD5AX0

• R11, you obviously know a lot about neanderthals.

• "She was a freaking one-note cartoon in a piece of crud movie made for neanderthals. Why would anyone WANT to be able to pull off this lowbrow crap?"%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ %0D\ %0D\ Neanderthals? Come on. It wasn''t a snuff film.%0D\ %0D

• It was about Pauline Kael, for those of you who can''t remember.\ \ But it wasn''t anti-semitic per se. She tried to explain why Kael disliked her (form her viewpoint), and that was because she (Meryl), a WASP, had gotten an easy ride at Vassar/Yale, while a Jewish girl like Kael had to struggle more in such an environment. Hence the deep-seated resentments.\ \ She was self-critical, if anything.\ \ You don''t seriously believe an anti-semitic actress would have taken a role like Sophie''s Choice, do you?

• Hi, Meryl! What''s up?%0D\ %0D\ Are you going to play Margaret Thatcher? If not, I will step in.

  Glenn

• According to Meryl Streep''s official website, she has read the book in question that contains this quote (piece of garbage).\ \ Books on Meryl\ \ Q: Have there been any books published about Meryl?\ \ A: To the best of my knowledge, there have been several, they are all, however, out of print:\ \ Q: Have you read them, and do you recommend them?\ \ A: The answer to the first question is yes. The answer to the second is no\ \ So while she admits to reading the book, she doesn''t recommend it.\ \ Since she read the book that has the quote, she would have sued if it was a false quote.

  http://www.merylstreeponline.net/

  FAQ Section

• R27\ \ Not necessarily. She would likely have sued if there was a media storm over the quote.

• In r22''s clip, at first she says she never watches her old films (so cool), then she says when she watches them they remind her of what was going on in her life at the time. %0D\ %0D

• [quote] You don''t seriously believe an anti-semitic actress would have taken a role like Sophie''s Choice, do you?\ \ \ Silly boy.

  Oscar

• Having never seen ''Holocaust'' I''m curious what character flaw Meryl would''ve cared to see in her character.%0D\ %0D

• Though the title of the film is ''Holocaust'' the whole mini-series is one big glossy soap opera. I think that is what Meryl is referring to, as it was not a serious look at the Holocaust.

• Why, if you''ve never even seen it, would you care?

• [quote]They made me so noble it was sickening. \ \ Maybe she wished there were some ABBA songs to sing to.

• The people on this thread insinuating Meryl Streep is anti-semitic need to give it a rest.\ \ Seriously.\ \ She''s not Melina Gibson.

• I was born on Myrtle Street. True story.

• I used the spend my summers in Myrtle Beach.

• My grandmama taught me how to do The Mildred Strip.

• "Since she read the book that has the quote, she would have sued if it was a false quote."%0D\ %0D\ Not really. I think she tends to just ignore any trash that''s written about her. I think that''s a pretty smart way to deal with it. %0D\ %0D

• What does she think "Mama Mia" was, high art?

• Streep did Mama Mia because she loves ABBA, and she got to dance and sing ABBA songs. It was for fun, and for people that aren''t self-serious, pretentious snobs incapable of enjoying something for it''s simplicity, it was simply fun.%0D\ %0D\ Europeans are well aware that, while we have to endure very blantant racism against us, up to and including being called the Devil, if we say anything that can be interpreted in the broadest sense as racist, we''re accused of being racist, if not Nazis. Streep merely acknowledged that she had it easier than someone as a result of racism and felt sort of bad about it, though the racism wasn''t her own. In Who Do You Think You Are, she appeared genuinely disappointed to discover she is genetically 100% European. %0D\ %0D\ She also deals with BS about her the same way Jodie Foster does, ignore it.

• R30, Sophie was Catholic.

• "Having never seen ''Holocaust'' I''m curious what character flaw Meryl would''ve cared to see in her character."\ \ I don''t know, but in one scene she sleeps with a Nazi. I think it was to keep her husband from being sent away or something. Maybe she wanted her character to enjoy the sex.

• Sometimes I think she''s overexposed, but then one must realize that she is this generations Sarah Bernhardt. She''s been called a genius numerous times, and when watching her films, one gets the sense of what it must have felt like to see Einstein or Edison at work. You''re watching pure brilliance, and there''s nothing you can do but sit back in awe and take it all in.%0D\ %0D\ The Academy is quite frankly numbed by an actress of her capabilities. She should have at least five oscars by now, but they simply see everything post - "Sophie''s Choice" as an afterthought.

• "I don''t know, but in one scene she sleeps with a Nazi. I think it was to keep her husband from being sent away or something."%0D\ %0D\ She sleeps with the Nazi to get her husband out of a heavy labor detail in a quarry and into an indoor artists'' program. Her disgust at this exchange is made quite clear.

• I just her latest crapfest "It''s Complicated" on dvd and gotta say that at times, Meryl''s face looked like 10 miles of bad road and don''t even get me started on Steve Martin''s death-warmed-over make-up....positively ghoulish.

  make-up by Fischer and Sons Mortuary

• How can anyone not like a miniseries starring Joseph Bottoms?

• See! See!\ \ And people thought I was just being petty when I accused her of being a "Holocaust" denier!

  Glenn Close

• [quote]How can anyone not like a miniseries starring Joseph Bottoms?\ \ \ And me! Don''t forget me!

  Tovah (Terry) Feldshuh

• [quote] Dino DeLaurentis lambasted her looks right in front of her when she read for King Kong. \ \ Dino didn''t know what he was talking about. Meryl''s looks were PERFECT for the role of King Kong.

  Glenn

• "Since she read the book that has the quote, she would have sued if it was a false quote."\ \ Assertions like this suggest that some boning up on libel law would be helpful.

  Oooh, he typed "boning"

• r6, and 8, are you just trying to bait us? this is undoubtedly one of the greatest we''ll ever see.

  DinahCancer

• I can''t believe all the bottled up rage against Meryl Streep.%0D\ %0D\ I liked It''s Complicated. She''s just an actress. She doesn''t write the films.

• [quote]Not "Glenn" or "Helen" or "Judi" et all. %0D\ %0D\ [quote]Oh boy, we''re gonna here it from the Jews.%0D\ %0D\ Oh dear.%0D\ %0D\ Oh dear.

• R44 = MARY!

  MERYL

• Joseph Bottoms? For whom?

• Yeah, yeah, she loves Abba and that''s why she did that piece of crap. What was her excuse for "It''s Complicated," or "Rendition," or that awful movie where she was Edward Furlong''s mother, or "The Manchurian Candidate," or any of the numerous other crapfests she''s picked? "Holocaust" is heads and tails above those movies.\ \ One would think she''d be a little classier than to trash a TV movie that brought her so much when she''s done garbage throughout her career.

• "EVERY actor is hungry for an Oscar, and always has been. They would all kill to get one."\ \ Why? Winning an Oscar is a career killer for a lot of them. Look at how many of them have won Oscars, and after that it is all downhill:\ \ Kim Basinger\ \ Cuba Gooding Jr.\ \ Gwyneth Paltrow\ \ Renee Zellwegger\ \ Reese Witherspoon

• Yeah, r58, and you could add Luise Rainer (the queen of "all downhill" after her double Oscar win) and several others to that list, but the truth is it''s a small amount compared to the many, many actors whose careers have been revived or enriched by their Oscar wins. \ \ Usually it''s poor choices of material following an Oscar win that does an actor in.

• What I resent about the Holocaust mini-series is that it stole almost all the awards that year from I, Claudius. Because of its political content, Holocaust won almost every award, and I, Claudius only ended up with a couple despite being one of the best mini-series of all time.

• [quote]What was her excuse for "It''s Complicated," or "Rendition,"\ \ She doesn''t need an excuse for Rendition. It was a worthwhile project that didn''t turn out well. Streep did a good job with her role.

  R83

• [quote]She''s been called a genius numerous times, and when watching her films, one gets the sense of what it must have felt like to see Einstein or Edison at work. You''re watching pure brilliance, and there''s nothing you can do but sit back in awe and take it all in.\ \ DOWN, Mary!

• "She''s been called a genius numerous times, and when watching her films, one gets the sense of what it must have felt like to see Einstein or Edison at work. You''re watching pure brilliance, and there''s nothing you can do but sit back in awe and take it all in."\ \ Oh, please. You can see the wheels turning the whole time.\ \ And she only has 2 Oscars.

  Kate "4 Oscars" Hepburn

• Well, Kate/R63, you didn''t win three of your Oscars until you were older than Meryl. So she has time to catch up to you. And if you could win with your head shaking the whole time, then think of how she could do without your affliction!%0D\ %0D\ By the way, how did that thing with drunken closet case Spencer work out? He used you to take care of him and then he died and his wife took over, erasing you from the picture, you old lez.

• "didn''t win three of your Oscars until you were older than Meryl."\ \ Meryl is not Kate. Do not assume that because Kate won several Oscars when she was older that Meryl will too.\ \ And Kate won an Oscar in 1967 and 1968 when she was about the same age as Meryl is now, so your point is not completely accurate.

• so was it garbage or not? It is now out on DVD

• Buy it r66, no matter what it costs. Meryl must've been lying about a miniseries she starred in. It couldn't possibly be true. And as many others in this thread have noted, Meryl saying she hates the miniseries makes her pure evil. She might as well be a Nazi herself!

• She is a wonderful actress - luminous, with a great facility for language. She is malleable enough to play highborn and low. She can imitate without being hollow - she can fill mimicry with her own humanity. Is she a genius? I find it very hard to call someone a genius who has not assayed the traditional cannon of roles in the theater. I have no context for her. She has been very smart from the beginning about her marketing. She understood the power of public perception - having a publicist plant the idea that she is THE actress. It is so interesting that she talks about her early years, studying the role of "the popular girl" and becoming that. She studied the role of "the great actress" and she then became that. The fact that she bankable at this stage of her career is testament to her big time smarts working public perception.

• R68, you really nailed it about her. I agree with you 100%, particularly the last paragraph. "Is she a genius? I find it very hard to call someone a genius who has not assayed the traditional cannon of roles in the theater. I have no context for her." She's done a couple of those roles lately in short runs in Central Park (Arkadina in THE SEAGULL, MOTHER COURAGE) and essayed Shakespeare early in her career, but she hasn't distinguished herself as a stage actress the way, say, Helen Mirren did for years in the U.K. Daniel Day-Lewis is another actor who is called a "genius" on regular occasions. He also did stage work early in his career (the early 80's), but gave it up after having a nervous breakdown doing HAMLET. You have to wonder what sort of actor has a breakdown doing HAMLET, given the vast number of actors who have done the role.

• "Holocaust" is heads and tails above those movies. Head and shoulders, even. Oh, and r69, it's 'canon', not 'cannon'.

• "She has been very smart from the beginning about her marketing. She understood the power of public perception - having a publicist plant the idea that she is THE actress." Very true - she was one of the few Yale students who had an agent before she graduated. Though the "Magic Meryl" publicity did backfire on her for a while, probably because there was a coldness about her persona that put people off. Fortunately she had the acting chops to push past that and grow into the "great actress" role over time. I can't think of any actor who truly merits the "genius" label. That word is bandied about much too freely.

• R70, I had pasted R68's post with the misspelling of "canon," so blame that poster.

  R69

• I'm r68- - I misspell stuff all the time. I prefer artists that maintain more aesthetic distance - BUT - to be the bankable "legend" she has had to promote her family life and accessible persona to a degree. I see "her" many times in what she's doing - and that has its drawbacks. I know much less about Day Lewis. I don't see him in mundane circumstances; it is easier to call him a "genius" for that reason. If more good films were made with more roles for real actors, how many more would we be tempted to tap as "genius"?

• People with no great films on their resume shouldn't throw stones. I assume She-Devil and whatever that thing with Uma Thurman was were done for the art. I love her but its clear she chooses projects based on "i can act the SHIT out of this", not artistic merit or daring.

• As someone whose entire family on my mother's side died in the camps, I did not think Holocaust was garbage. I just watched it again last year after not having seen it in ages and I thought it held up pretty well. Granted, it was no "Schindler's List" and some of the writing left much to be desired, but all in all, I thought it was pretty successful and told a compelling story. Meryl's character, by the way, was probably the least interesting in the very large cast. Fritz Weaver, Rosemary Harris, Tovah Feldshuh, Sam Wanamaker and James Woods were all excellent (especially Weaver and Harris). I had forgotten that Streep won an Emmy for this, but in my opinion, it was undeserved.

• Holocaust actually had an enormous impact in Germany and helped them start the conversation on what had been a taboo topic. I guess its no Music of the Heart, but what can you do?

• I don't buy that she did it for the money. She worked on stage for years, Kramer vs Kramer and Manhattan checks had possibly been cashed, she would have gotten many offers in addition to Holocaust. A film career was predicted for her right out of Yale. If she found it so objectionable, refusing the part wouldn't have put her in the poor house. I'd bet anything she smelled an Emmy the moment the script was opened and was miss sunshine in the audition.

• Actors are never geniuses. Geniuses create; actors imitate more or less convincingly characters and emotions created by someone else. If you know a lot of actors, you know some who are riveting, with great charisma and a lot of acting skill, who are dumb as rocks and are about as creative as an amateur gardener. Only in a society that elevates pop celebrity over substantial creative achievement, or productive intellect, can an actor be thought of as more than a very good actor, who, if you've heard of him/her and s/he has lasted more than a decade in leading parts is in addition a clever survivor and simply terribly lucky. I knew Streep in her early years and saw her often; she was a singularly gifted mimic and a great clown -- neither equates to 'genius' and both talents have their limits. Early on she lacked the personal richness and emotional readiness to fill demanding roles on stage where she couldn't be helped by the elaborate mechanics of film making. She has grown considerably over time, and clearly works hard but ... genius?

• R6 is a misanthrope. Most of MS's peers consider her the best actress of her generation, or any generation, and like her as well. She happens to be a very nice woman.

• I think John Cazale was ill during Holocaust and she needed a TV job that would bring in more $$ than stage work.

• R22 this is the story

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DMihpVBrtGLM

• R78- just one person's opinion. I think actors or actresses can definitely be called geniuses- a genius R78 is someone who is supremely good/gifted at what they do, whether they are singer, a painter, a sculpter, a composer, an actor, a scientist, a lawyer, a statesman, an entrepreneur, or a banker. Streep and DD Lewis are acting geniuses in my opinion. And I do think they are creative- after all their characters are creations- usually from the seed of a script. Do you not believe that DD Lewis's brilliant portrayal of Lincoln is not a creation of his from a script and his enormous background preparation? Do you not believe that Streeps interpretation of a demented Margarate Thatcher is not creative? If you think acting R78 is only about mimicry or charisma, you cannot know much about acting. And while I agree that some actor are not too bright- some are very bright. If you knew Streep in her early career, you would know this. I also don't thnk your knowing Streep in her early career gives you special insight- obviously.

• R78 makes a great point. You'd never know it from watching the likes of Jessica Biel, but acting is most definitely more craft than art, and Meryl has mastered it through a lot of hard work and working out every detail. Like Daniel Day Lewis, she doesn't just try out a generic accent and proclaim "now I'm Thatcher". In her best work (Silkwood and A Cry in the Dark) you don't see the hundred little decisions she made because she was in the zone and was more than craft. Sometimes you do so it (click click click). If she has genius, it lies in the moments where she does something another actress wouldn't have thought was right, but on seeing it makes perfect sense and couldn't possibly be done another way. For instance, having Miranda Priestly speak in a near whisper. Or the split second when Karen Silkwood reacts to Thelma saying "nigger", a tiny tiny detail that tells us a ton about her. In her best work there is always a moment or two like that where you're stunned. I'll never forget the entire audience drawing in their breath on seeing her death stare at Hathaway when she brings the book upstairs.

• [R82] demonstrates he usual ignorance and false equivalencies that have become typical here in the last five years. Michelangelo was a genius, but now Streep and DD Lewis are his equals? Shakespeare was a genius, an improbable one from a poor background with no education, but Streep and DD Lewis are his equals? Wagner was a genius who kept going despite penury and discouragement but Streep and DD Lewis are his equals? Emily Dickinson was a genius who had no wide experience of life but was capable of amazing profundity. Annie Proulx is a genius, able to generate entire worlds of experience and feeling from nothing... As with the usual pop fans, your idolization of the heavily promoted trumps creativity, invention, the will to understand and express deeply. You have embraced the superficiality of the trendy, the acclaimed, the 'star'. The insecurity and lack of intellectual fiber and experience that underlies your absence of mind demands hype. It's not enough for someone to be gifted and highly skilled to a rare degree, they must he 'geniuses'. You are like the people here who think Justin Bieber is 'great', it's just a matter of degree and fake sophistication. Streep and other very famous actors have more to offer than he does but the principal is the same. And frankly, all movie actors are helped by camera angle, lighting, editing, lens and so on. At least those who can replicate the power one sees in movie performances on stage, where the actor is his/her own close up and edit, have a kind of skill, concentration and emotional force, which one can respect more than movie trickery. However, even those great stage actors still rely on the writer to invent their characters, put them in powerful situations, give them great lines and speeches. Some of those actors can bring a lot to wonderful, already written material but the process begins with the script. Plays are sometimes simply effective for the time in which they are written; there is talent not genius involved in that kind of writing, too, but the actor is always dependent on what someone else has created. And creation is a necessary part of 'genius'. That Streep, aided considerably by a script (manipulative but effective enough in those scenes), subtle make up and prosthetics only possible on film, lens, camera angle, lighting, edit, re-takes, imitates the elderly Thatcher is not genius, that she does it well displays a considerable technical adroitness. There are many who would have been less good, but that makes her outstanding at her craft, not a genius. My knowing her only gave me the opportunity to see her in efforts you did not see, and in a few cases to watch her 'up close' in some of her famous roles. I respect her greatly, but she's not a 'genius', nor do I see much value in using the term to glamorize performers, even talented and hard working ones.

• Check your dosage, R84.

• CW has canceled her daughter's TV series, "Emily (something), MD."

• Thanks for your extremely interesting posts, R78-84.

• Another quote from Meryl trashing Holocaust. "Austria was unrelentingly Austrian. The material was unrelentingly noble. Matthausen was too much for me. Around the corner there was a Hofbrau, and when the old soldiers got drunk enough, and it was late enough, they would pull out their souveniers of the war, it was very weird and kinky." "I was going crazy. I did it for the money. I needed it very badly, and I make no bones about that. The fame of the show has brought me something surreal. The other day I was riding my bike through Chelsea when these four guys in a Volkswagen started yelling at me out of the window, ‘Hey, Holocaust, hey, Holocaust!’ Can you imagine? It’s absurd that that episode in history can be reduced to people screaming out of car windows at an actress."

  http://www.simplystreep.com/movie-of-the-week-holocaust-mini-series/

• [quote]I did it for the money. I needed it very badly, and I make no bones about that. OK seriously. Gambling? Drugs? I don't understand how she could be hard up for cash at that point in her life.

• R84- Michelangelo was a painter and sculpter and architect. He was a singular genius to be certain. But he was also dependent on the biblical context of his art and all artists and architects who preceded him. You cannot compare his to an actor, or to a statesment like Churchill or Lincoln- all geniuses. Look up the work in a dictionary R84. You have a very narrow and rather pompous view of genius. Einstein was a genius too- but NOT an artist, not a stateman, not an actor. By the way- Streep had a lousy script to work with for her Thatcher role, in particular as the demented Thatcher. Wonder how she managed? Michelangelo was and is a giant among his fellow artists in his time and in all time. I believe both Streep and DD Lewis are the same among actors and every bit as creative in their conjuring of a character as a painter is with a brush. It's just a different medium. Ditto Churchill, Lincoln, Einstein, Price (Leontyn to my mind the greatest soprano of the last 100 years or so.) P.S. I am not in thrall to Streep or DDL's glamour as "stars". Perhaps you might guess that if I could have dinner with anyone- it would be either Lincoln or Churchill. It was their minds and singular use of the English language that made them great-

  R82

• R89 her partner at the time, John Cazale was very ill, at death's door. She needed the money to help pay his medical bills.

• So John Cazale was broke after staring in Godfather 1 and 2, Dog Day Afternoon, etc? People with less money than two movie stars manage cancer treatment. Sounds like an early Meryl PR plant - the selfless caretaker.

• R92 you obviously don't know how an illness can suck money.

• Before she made Holocaust she had only done one TV movie and one feature film, Julia The rest of her credits were all on stage. Julia was not a big part, so she wasn't rolling in the dough.

• John Cazale only made five feature films in his career. There is a three year gap between The Deer Hunter and Dog Day Afternoon. So he was definitely struggling for cash. I would think him not working for three years, he wouldn't qualify for SAG healthcare benefits.

• Kramer v Kramer was 77, Holocaust was 78. Did Holocaust take extra long to finish after shooting?

• Kramer v Kramer was 1979

• What was Meryl's parents financial status...she always tries to make it sound like she went came from such a humble background (she couldn't afford the application fee to Juilliard, she was desperate to get a commercial) YET she grow up in upscale Summit NJ, took opera lessons ,went to Vassar, and attended the theatre regularly as a child. What was her father's profession? Where did her siblings go to college and what the hell does Don Gummer do?!?

  Viola

• You can google R98 but I'll do it for you [quote] What was her father's profession? Pharmaceutical executive. Her mother is a visual artist. [quote] Where did her siblings go to college I don't know where they went, but one brother is a stock broker, the other brother (married to Maeve Kinkead) is a dancer/choreographer/dancer teacher. [quote] what the hell does Don Gummer do? Sculpter

• Oh Christ, I'm retarded.

  R96

• Was Meryl good in The Seduction of Joe Tynan? I've never seen that...it isn't even on DVD. She had three films in 79...Manhattan(in which she is very enjoyable)plus Kramer, plus Tynan.

• The family had enough money that upon graduating from Yale, she asked her father for the gift of a publicist. That's upper middle class. She would have succeeded anyway, but I find generally when people become successful memory starts to... shift... to make the success more dramatic.

• [quote] She had three films in 79...Manhattan(in which she is very enjoyable)plus Kramer, plus Tynan. That was all after Holocaust.

• plus The Deer Hunter goes in there in between Holocaust and Manhattan.

• [quote]is a dancer/choreographer/dancer teacher. hmmmmmmm, one of the gays?

• The Deer Hunter was AFTER Holocaust. But she needed to money to help John Cazale with the medical bills.

• didn't Cazale of SAG insurance?

  G%2C%20she%27s%20such%20a%20saint

• What was Cazale's relationship with Coppola? He had the money to buy him a fucking cancer hospital and seems like the type to do it, he spent like a madman. Just curious why it fell on Saint Meryl of Streep to panhandle for her lover's meds.

• [quote] what the hell does Don Gummer do?!? My errands.

  M

• [quote]Just curious why it fell on Saint Meryl of Streep to panhandle for her lover's meds. The publicist probably thought it was a good Oscar move...poor Meryl was so devastaed by Cazale's loss she married Gummer at the funeral (practically)

• Don Gummer is probably a fine artist and their marriage seems amazing, but get real. At least paint, for christsake. I've no doubt most of Gummer's art is purchased and later referred to as "a sculpture by Meryl Streep's husband" when saying "Don Gummer" fails to get any reaction.

• Saint Meryl

• Yes, Holocaust seems cartoonish. I didnt notice it when I saw it as a child, but now the jews seem too noble and the Germas too evil. Then again, WWII Germany itself was cartoonish.Just look at Hitler and his Nazis,trying a bit too hard to convince us of their moral or physical"superiority".Not very different from many other dictatorships though. As to the Jews, it was probably very hard not to act like a lamb when you are a tiny percentage of the popultion and had more than a million potential and enthusisatic executioners after you.

• Don Gummer at the award shows with Meryl always has a face that cries out: You only get to watch her but I get to take her to bed every night!

• I'm so sick of this pretentious, overrated windbag. Can't wait for her career to finally tank and she's forced to guest on Army Wives as Kim Delaney's grandmother.

• [quote]poor Meryl was so devastaed by Cazale's loss she married Gummer at the funeral (practically) Right. Didn't Streep marry two months after the funeral? It took me longer to get over my golden retriever dying.

• Shit, if she thinks the Holocaust was garbage, what must she think of Maeve's body of work?

  K. Zimmer

• That's funny, R114. I always thought his face said, "Another one of these crass awards shows where everybody sucks up to YOU for being such an accomplished mediocrity but clearly don't think enough of you to give you an actual AWARD. I'll give you an award! How about BIGGEST FUCKIN' BALL BUSTING, EMASCULATING BITCH?! Same one I gave you last year!"

• Now that Emily Ovens MD has been canned, I bet Meryl is on the war path. Heads are going to roll.

• Dont be too harsh on her (R15) remember that the dingo took her baby, and she was nearly decapitated by evil Goldie Hawn.

  Repentantolddingo

• I am not a Meryl Streep fan but I fail to see why her admission that she did a certain job for the $$ is any different than anyone else doing a job just for the money.

• How come Streep Troll has not weighted in here?

• Well, r122, you have summoned me, and here I am! All I can say is: Meryl is right. The writing was mediocre at best... the whole series was the Holocaust packaged as a soap opera. Which had a positive effect, though: it acquainted many people (gentiles) with the Holocaust in ways more academic or 'serious' fare wouldn't have been able to. Much like Roots acquainted a mass white audience with black history. So, she is right for slagging off the writing, and yet her work in it still wasn't without merit. I suppose she isn't aware of that, but that's a different question. To answer OP: she shouldn't return her Emmy, because her role was still well acted - even with bad writing. She received her Emmy for acting, not for writing.

  The%20Streep%20troll%20%28tm%29%2C%20by%20request.

• Streep Troll was the character she played so noble that it was sickening?

• I remember a mini scandal when the show was first broadcast: As some Nazi was complaining about the horrible smell of the crematoria, the network broke for a commercial for room freshener! You have to give them props for creativity. Not many people would seize upon Auschwitz as an opportunity for product placement!

• I remember this one for the presence of James Woods. He knocked me for a loop! Of course I had to see his movies after that. I have a favorite of his work, "The Onion Field" which I have to see every now and then. But, the censors cut his nude scenes.

  Anonymous