Justjared has posted the cover of Vanity Fair – Meryl Streep.¬†I have grown up with Meryl Streep. When I was in high school, I watched Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. I would later come to appreciate her funny, long-haired lesbian in Woody Allen’s Manhattan. And, of course, The Deer Hunter. I have been following Meryl so long I actually remember a time when people wrote her off as just someone who puts on a wig and tries out a new accent. Naturally, that theory has long since been put to bed. Streep is in a class by herself. She is one-of-a-kind, like Katharine and Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis. She represents both old and new. She evolves as she ages. She is wise. She is funny. She is humble.
And so maybe 2009 is another year to celebrate Meryl Streep. She who turned in a flawless, moving, unforgettable portrayal of Julia Child. She who also voiced The Fantastic Mr. Fox. And she who will strip down and show thighs, be vulnerable and play the pretty woman once again in It’s Complicated.
Vanity Fair is looking back on Streep’s career. So many of these photos of her I remember, having studied them for years as a young woman myself.
There is a line in Bob Dylan and Sam Shepard’s Brownsville Girl which says “I’m standing in line in the rain to see a movie starring Gregory Peck, but you know it’s not the one that I had in mind. He’s got a new one out now. I don’t even know what it’s about. But I’ll see him in anything, so I’ll stand in line.” That is how I always felt about Streep. Yes, even in The River Wild. I’ll see her in anything, so I’ll stand in line.
