NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Speaking in a hoarse voice that quivered with emotion, Meryl Streep silenced a boisterous Golden Globes crowd and sparked a clamor heard around the country, all the way to Trump Tower.
Streep’s impassioned speech against Donald Trump while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at Sunday’s awards has been heard like a battle cry in a left-leaning Hollywood that has been trying to reconcile itself to a Trump presidency it overwhelmingly didn’t vote for. Her speech has also further intensified the divide between Hollywood and Trump supporters, who call Streep another example of media elite on a soapbox.
Though Trump is yet to take office, the arts and the President-elect are increasingly on a collision course. Trump has criticized the cast of \u00ab\u00a0Hamilton,\u00a0\u00bb which voiced its concerns about inclusion to Vice President-elect Mike Pence when he went to see the show on Broadway. Seeing political parallels in its story of underdog rebellion, some Trump supporters called for a boycott of the \u00ab\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0\u00bb film \u00ab\u00a0Rogue One. \u00a0\u00bb And now, following Streep’s remarks, he on Monday called the most decorated actress in Hollywood \u00ab\u00a0overrated. \u00a0\u00bb
With such institutions as \u00ab\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0\u00bb and Streep in the crosshairs, the culture wars have gone nuclear. Battle lines and boycotts are being formed ahead of the Jan. 20 Inauguration, at which most entertainers have refused to perform. Some conservatives have already vowed on social media not to watch the Feb. 26th Academy Awards, which promises to be rife with political protest.
How the growing discord will affect the tenor the next four years in the arts remains to be seen. But what was clear Monday in the wake of Streep’s galvanizing speech is that the clash is just getting started.
In a night where the song-and-dance ode to musicals \u00ab\u00a0La La Land\u00a0\u00bb set a Globes record with seven wins, including best picture, musical or comedy, Streep’s speech had the largest impact.
\u00ab\u00a0There has never been anyone like Meryl,\u00a0\u00bb applauded Ellen DeGeneres on Twitter. \u00ab\u00a0I’ve never admired you more! \u00a0\u00bb tweeted Sally Field. \u00ab\u00a0Nearly without voice, her voice has never been so strong,\u00a0\u00bb lauded Sharon Stone. \u00ab\u00a0Thank you, Meryl,\u00a0\u00bb wrote director Darren Aronfsky.
Political speeches at an award show \u2014 a little-loved, often ridiculed tradition \u2014 have seldom reverberated so strongly. She largely argued for empathy, inclusivity and the arts. And she claimed Hollywood wasn’t a bastion of elites, but \u00ab\u00a0a bunch of people from other places. \u00a0\u00bb Streep didn’t say Trump by name, but spoke directly about him.
\u00ab\u00a0It kind of broke my heart when I saw it,\u00a0\u00bb Streep said of Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter during the campaign. \u00ab\u00a0I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie, it was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose. \u00a0\u00bb
She also urged support for the Committee to Project Journalists , a media advocacy group, \u00ab\u00a0because we’re gonna need them going forward and they’ll need us to safeguard the truth. \u00a0\u00bb On Monday, Joel Simon , executive director of the CPJ, said Streep’s comments inspired \u00ab\u00a0a huge upsurge\u00a0\u00bb in donations and awareness.
\u00ab\u00a0We received 500 donations last night and a couple hundred more this morning,\u00a0\u00bb said Simon, who said the ongoing donations totaled about $60,000 as of early Monday afternoon. \u00ab\u00a0People are feeling very energized and impassioned. \u00a0\u00bb
Conservative pundits, though, saw Streep’s speech as a reflection of the bicoastal liberal pomposity that Trump’s election was in part a rejection of, regardless of his own show business affiliations. \u00ab\u00a0This is exactly why Hollywood is dying, what a bunch of hypocrites,\u00a0\u00bb said Fox’s Sean Hannity. \u00ab\u00a0The Meryl Streep speech is why Trump won,\u00a0\u00bb said Meghan McCain , also a Fox personality. \u00ab\u00a0And if people in Hollywood don’t start recognizing why and how \u2014 you will help him get re-elected. \u00a0\u00bb
Early Monday morning came Trump’s tweets. He called Streep, a longtime and outspoken Democrat who stumped for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention and famously imitated Trump at a Clinton fundraiser, \u00ab\u00a0a Hillary flunky who lost big. \u00a0\u00bb He called the allegation that he mocked a disabled reporter \u00ab\u00a0more very dishonest media. \u00a0\u00bb
The tweets provoked their own response. Soon, lists of other things that Trump finds \u00ab\u00a0overrated\u00a0\u00bb were trending. Author Stephen King called his comments about Streep \u00ab\u00a0childish, churlish, petulant… exactly why most Americans fear his presidency. \u00a0\u00bb
At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest said that Streep had clearly delivered \u00ab\u00a0a thoughtful, carefully considered message\u00a0\u00bb that reflected her deeply held beliefs.
\u00ab\u00a0It seemed to me to be a fairly straightforward exercise of her First Amendment rights, as this is the United States,\u00a0\u00bb Earnest said.
The Globes telecast drew 20 million viewers on NBC, according to the Nielsen company, an 8 percent increase from last year. It’s a positive sign for the Academy Awards, which will hope political debate fuels interest in this year’s ceremony, to be hosted by ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel \u2014 rather than turns off viewers whose views don’t align with Hollywood’s.
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Associated Press reporter Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this story.
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http:\/\/twitter.com\/jakcoyleAP<\/p>\n

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