The Dingo Ate My Baby

Important Hollywood thoughts:

*Mary Louise Streep became Meryl when her father realized that "Meryl" just seemed like a better fit.

*Meryl's character in BIG LITTLE LIES is "Mary Louise"--which, as NPR notes, is simply a subtextual (or textual?) tribute to the greatness of Meryl.

*Meryl, like Amy Schumer, was *not* an arty misfit in high school. (Many artists were.) Meryl was exceptionally popular--because, as she says, she studied how certain kids behaved and then "assumed a role."

*Meryl begged for her part in SOPHIE'S CHOICE. She had to beg.

*Meryl so loved the first season of BIG LITTLE LIES that she asked to be a part of Season Two--without having first seen any finished scripts. It seems clear to me that Meryl's interest is an outgrowth of her feminism: BIG LITTLE LIES is based on a novel by a woman, starring several women, spearheaded by female funders, in which the Bechdel Test is crushed, and crushed, and crushed again. Meryl--in her championing of a Women's History Museum, and her advocacy for HRC--has been an outspoken feminist for many years.

*The selection of OUT OF AFRICA as Best Picture is among the more controversial Oscar moves of all time. Many people are "down" on (lumpy) OUT OF AFRICA, just so you know.

To art! To Fridays! To Meryl! Ta ta.

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