Screen legend Meryl Streep today tore into Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric and denounced him as a bully who humiliated others as she received a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes, prompting the President-elect to dismiss her as one of the "overrated" Hollywood actresses who is a "Hillary flunky".
Streep, an ardent supporter of Trump's rival Hillary Clinton, slammed the next US President in her scathing speech while accepting the Cecil B DeMille Award at Golden Globes. The three-time Oscar winner took swipes at Trump's divisive rhetoric without naming him as she cautioned against powerful people using their position to "bully others".
Echoing British actor Hugh Laurie's earlier comment about how the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is part of "the most vilified segments in American society right now", the 67-year-old actress said the association was made of -- Hollywood, foreigners and the press.
"But who are we and what is Hollywood, anyway? It is just a place with a bunch of people from other places," Streep said in her speech while accepting the Cecil B DeMille Award.
"Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy. And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates? And (Indian-origin) Dev Patel was born in Kenya, raised in London, and is here playing an Indian raised in Tasmania," she said as she highlighted the rich diversity of Hollywood.
"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if you kick us all out, you'll have nothing to watch except for football and mixed martial arts, which are not arts."
The multiple award-winning actress, who is one of the most respected names in Hollywood, said the "performance" that stood out this year did not belong to an actor but to Trump when he publicly mocked a disabled reporter.
"There was nothing good about it, but 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 my head because it wasn't in a movie, it was in real life. That instinct to humiliate when it's modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone's life because it gives permission for others to do the same," Streep cautioned.
"Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose," she said.
Responding to Streep's comments, Trump tweeted, "Meryl Streep, one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. "She is a Hillary flunky who lost big."
Earlier, Trump told New York Times that he had not seen Streep's remarks or other parts of the Globes ceremony but added that he was "not surprised" that he had come under attack from "liberal movie people".
Trump also flatly denied that he had intended to make fun of the Times reporter Serge F Kovaleski.
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