MADAM PRESIDENT MERYL STREEP

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     With class and elegance - "America's actress" - Meryl Streep...expressed herself with the utmost eloquence while being honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the Saturday night, January 8th, 2017 ceremonies of The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards on NBC.  After verbalizing much gratitude and sincere appreciation to a room filled with endearing fans - her peers who share with her a love of filmmaking - the three-time Academy Award and eight-time Golden Globe winning superstar used her acceptance speech to call out Donald Trump...and to defend Hollywood... foreigners...and the press.

     With a standing ovation at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, Miss Streep's show-business colleagues cheered and applauded her...as did fans all across our great nation.

     "You...and all of us in this room, really...belong to the most vilified segments in America society right now," Miss Streep told her fellow members of the entertainment industry at the Dick Clark Productions and Hollywood Foreign Press Association presentation.  "Think about it?  Hollywood.  Foreigners.  And the press."

     Following laughter from the crowd, Miss Streep went on to say..."But who are we?  And what is Hollywood anyway?  It’s just a bunch of people from other places.  I was born and raised and educated in the public schools of New Jersey.  Viola (Davis) was born in a sharecropper's cabin in South Carolina...came up in Central Falls, Rhode Island.  Sarah Paulson was born in Florida...raised by a single mom in Brooklyn.  Sarah Jessica Parker was one of 7 or 8 kids from Ohio.  Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy.  And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem.  Where are their birth certificates?"  The audience of celebrities applauded Miss Streep and she continued with her remarks.  "And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia...raised in Ireland, I do believe...and she's nominated for playing a small town girl from Virginia.  Ryan Gosling - like all the nicest people - is Canadian.  And Dev Patel was born in Kenya...raised in London...and is here playing an Indian raised in Tasmania.  So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners.  And if we kick 'em all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."  Rousing hand-clapping and energetic jubilation by her friends, other thespians and cinema artists...verified Hollywood's overwhelming feeling of strong support for Miss Streep's words.

     Americans certainly remember the video of Donald Trump...when - during a campaign rally last year - he mocked a disabled reporter.  Meryl Streep emphasized that "An actor's only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us...and let you feel what that feels like.  And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year...that did exactly that.  Breathtaking, compassionate work.  But there was one performance this year that stunned me.  It sank its hooks in my heart.  Not because it was good.  There was nothing good about it.  But it was effective, and it did its job.  It made its intended audience laugh...and show their teeth.  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 privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back.  It kind of broke my heart when I saw it and I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't a movie.  It was real life.  And this instinct... to humiliate...when its modeled...by someone in the public platform...by someone powerful...it filters down in to everybody's life...'cause it kind of gives permission...for other people to do the same thing." 

     "Disrespect invites disrespect.  Violence incites violence.  When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose."  Phrases used by Meryl Streep to cut down Donald Trump to size without actually mentioning his name.  

     "This brings me to the press.  We need the principled press to hold power to account...to call them on the carpet for every outrage," Miss Streep articulated to more and more applause.  An attentive and receptive gathering of movie and television stars plus other industry professionals listened carefully to her, as she explained..."That's why our Founders enshrined the press...and its freedoms...in our Constitution.  So I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood Foreign Press...and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the Committee to Protect Journalists.  'Cause we’re going to need them going forward...and they’ll need us to safeguard the truth."

     "One more thing," Miss Streep noted, as she neared the conclusion of her impassioned address.  "Once when I was standing around on the set one day... whining about something, you know...we were going to work through supper or the long hours or whatever...Tommy Lee Jones said to me...'Isn't it such a privilege, Meryl...just to be an actor?'  Yeah, it is.  And we have to remind each other of the privilege...and the responsibility of the act of empathy.  We should all be very proud of the work Hollywood honors here tonight."

     With tears of sadness and heartfelt emotion, Miss Streep ended her impressive and dynamic oration by invoking award winning actress Carrie Fisher, whose death came much too soon, at age 60, on December 27th, 2016.  "As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia said to me once...'Take your broken heart, make it in to art.' Thank you very much."

     Later that night...I tweeted the following.  Perhaps Democrats have found a nominee for President in 2020.  #MerylStreepForPresident.

     Wow!  In four years, the United States of America just may have a Madam President...named Meryl Streep.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits:  Golden Globe Awards, Dick Clark Productions, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, NBC, YouTube and ytimg.com (Meryl Streep #1), Golden Globe Awards, Dick Clark Productions, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, NBC, Los Angeles Times and trbimg.com (Meryl Streep #2) and Golden Globe Awards, Dick Clark Productions, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, NBC, Us Weekly and wennermedia.com (Meryl Streep #3)

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