Meryl Streep criticised over Weinstein denial
She started the year leading the chorus of opprobrium against president Donald Trump but 12 months on Meryl Streep, multiple Oscar-winner and doyenne of the liberal Hollywood elite, has become a target herself.
The 68-year-old is coming under fire over her denials that she knew about the misconduct of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is alleged to have spent his career sexually assaulting, harassing, and intimidating women.
Streep has worked on several Weinstein produced films and jokingly referred to him as "God" at the 2012 Golden Globes.
The pre-eminent actress of her generation, Streep has had a glittering 40-year career that has seen her play everything from a Nazi concentration camp survivor to an ABBA-singing mother.
She earned her first of a record 20 Oscar nominations in 1979 for the Vietnam war drama "The Deer Hunter" and has won the coveted golden statue three times, most recently in 2012 as Margaret Thatcher in the Weinstein-distributed "The Iron Lady."
It was her political activism rather than her acting prowess that grabbed headlines during the last awards season, as she received widespread praise, and some criticism, for a speech at the Golden Globes denouncing Trump.
All eyes turned to the actress again as the Weinstein controversy broke in early October, when Streep spoke out to say she was "appalled" by the "disgraceful" news and had no idea about the allegations.
Her denials over Weinstein have sparked incredulity, particularly among activists in the #MeToo social media movement against sexual misconduct who have concluded that those closest to the disgraced producer must have turned a blind eye.
Rose McGowan, one of the campaign's most prominent advocates and an alleged victim of Weinstein, criticised Streep in a since-deleted tweet over plans for actresses to wear black to the Golden Globes in a silent protest against sexual assault.
"YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You'll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect (sic) no real change. I despise your hypocrisy," McGowan tweeted.
Streep responded in a lengthy statement to the Huffington Post on Monday that she "did not know about Weinstein's crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked (McGowan), or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others."
The new denial has done little to silence her critics, however, and on Tuesday around a dozen posters appeared in Los Angeles, depicting Streep as an enabler of Weinstein, who has always denied nonconsensual sexual contact with any of his accusers.
Sabo, a 49-year-old rightwing guerilla artist and former US marine claimed responsibility for the posters, which show Streep with a red stripe across her face and the text, "She knew."
Entertainment writer Ira Madison III wrote in a commentary for the Daily Beast that Streep's denials rang true, arguing that the rough ride she has had over Weinstein is nothing more than a manifestation of the sexism inherent in show business.