STREEP WINS RECORD THREE AWARDS FOR BEST ACTRESS, PLUS TWO FOR BEST ACTOR


Meryl Streep has won an unprecedented triple Best Actress and double Best Actor Oscar award for her simultaneous roles in the smash hit "Sophie's Hunter over the Bridge's Edge Becomes Her Hours With Lieutenant Kramer, Hunting out of Africa, into Manhattan", where the actress played all of her previous Oscar-nominated roles digitally merged onscreen in one movie. The equally unprecedented double Best Actor awards were given for her portrayal of the male characters Hugh and Brighton in the film. Her portrayal of the 27 members of the supporting cast garnered her only four Supporting Actor/Actress nominations.

Meryl Streep was also the runners up, nominated for Best Actress in the roles of Imelda and Cloe. Speaking after loosing Best Actress for her role in the film as the grieving widow, Imelda, a stoic Streep said "I was happy for Meryl to win Best Actresses for her roles as Sophie, Clarice, and Anabelle." But Streep seemed very sad that her roles as Imelda and Cloe did not put her over the top of her desired goal of 12 Oscars.

Streep, on the other hand, was reservedly ecstatic, as only she can be, describing her wins for the three Best Actress Oscars, the first time the award has been given to multiple roles. "Well ... I am, very, ... happy with this. I had a hard time choosing which roles I liked best, ... I suppose the Oscar committee had the same difficulty in choosing. I'm sorry that Meryl didn't win for her beautifully played 'Imelda'."

The studio took a long shot in casting all major and supporting parts to the same actress, but the strategy paid off in receiving the unprecedented treble Best Actress Oscars, and double Best Actor awards, plus the other Oscars the film garnered for Editing and Score.

Streep, who negotiated separately for each role, reportedly received $7 million for her role as Sophie, $4 million for her role as Clarice, and $1 million each for the other roles. Her supporting roles all worked for scale.

Critics appeared to be justified in their initial apprehension of the overly complicated plot, as the film received no nominations for Screenplay or Picture. The film, with a running time of over seven hours was the first single-sitting film to exceed Reds in length. The film's climax is a daring, 40 minute, rotating single shot of all seven major Streep characters sitting around a round table, all sighing and making dejected glances at each other.

The Oscar Academy awarded the film "Honorable Mention" in the new category of "Epic Chick Flick".


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Copyright © 2003 Laramie Crocker    
Concept with Matt Dean