Meryl Streep criticized Walt Disney for being a “gender bigot” who was a member of an anti-Semitic lobbying organization while honoring Emma Thompson at a dinner for the National Board of Review on Tuesday night.
Meryl Streep showed she is far from a cozy establishment figure as she carefully trod a line between praising Emma Thompson and attacking Walt Disney.
The film Emma Thompson was being celebrated for, Saving Mr. Banks, is based around Walt Disney’s persuading of PL Travers to allow him to adapt Mary Poppins.
According to Variety magazine, Meryl Streep called Emma Thompson “a beautiful artist” who is “practically a saint”, and read out a self-penned poem to the actor, before launching into her criticisms of Walt Disney. She quoted a letter he wrote to a female animator that read: “Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that task is performed entirely by young men.”
Meryl Streep also noted that Walt Disney’s colleague Walter Kimball said that his boss “didn’t trust women or cats”.
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