The National Board of Review dinner is like the big pre-game to the Golden Globes, where wine bottles are uncorked in New York and don't stop flowing until the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's gala on Sunday. But this year's ceremony will forever be remembered for its nine-minute tour-de-force speech from Meryl Streep.
Streep, for once, wasn't invited to accept an award. Instead, she was there to honor Emma Thompson for her portrait as "Mary Poppins" creator P.L. Travers in Disney's "Saving Mr. Banks."
There was plenty of effusive Thompson praising in the speech — with phrases like "she's practically a saint" and "she's a beautiful artist" — and it ended with a poem that Streep had written for her friend titled "An Ode to Emma, Or What Emma is Owed." But Streep also made a point of blasting Walt Disney for his sexist and anti-Semitic stances.
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