Meryl Streep’s not-so-subtle dig at Donald Trump during the Golden Globes was the talk of Hollywood and the media on Monday, and late-night TV hosts followed suit.
Comedians Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, James Corden and Trevor Noah all tackled the topic on their respective shows, while Ben Affleck defended the Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
“If there’s one thing, truly, in the world that we know is not true, it’s that Meryl Streep is overrated,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker said.
Trump called the actress “overrated” on Twitter after she criticized him on Sunday for using his position of power to attack others, such as the disabled reporter he mocked during his campaign. “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 kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing,” she said.
“Late Night With Seth Meyers” made Trump’s response the subject of its “Closer Look” segment, with Meyers reminding his viewers of the impact that Trump’s tweets have on the news cycle.
“Whether these tweets are calculated distractions or just the ramblings of an unhinged narcissist,” he said. “It’s clear Trump would much rather talk about his feud with Meryl Streep than, say, the fact that intelligence officials believe Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and the Trump campaign to help Trump win the election.”
Of course, all the late night hosts used Streep’s mile-long list of accolades and performances to refute Trump’s “overrated” label. “She’s so good, people use her to compliment people in other professions,” said Meyers. “Like, ‘LeBron James is the Meryl Streep of basketball,’ or, ‘Donald Trump is the Meryl Streep of having thin skin.’”
Colbert, meanwhile, pointed out Streep’s wide range of roles over her many years in film during his “Late Show” monologue: “Have you seen ‘Sophie’s Choice’? Have you seen ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’? Have you seen that one with the dead people that she’s even funny in that one?”
Corden said he was actually happy that Trump went after Streep, as he believes “most overrated actor” is the only accolade the actress hasn’t won yet.
But one late-night host that wasn’t on the Streep love train was Noah. While the “Daily Show” host did attack Trump for his Orwellian approach to the truth, he also criticized Streep for elements of her speech such as saying that without foreigners “you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”
“Here’s the thing I feel like we could all learn as people,” Noah said. “You don’t have to make your point by s—ing on someone else’s thing, because a lot of people love football and the arts.”
Noah also criticized Streep’s praise of Hollywood as a diverse industry, referencing issues with representation in movies and TV that gave rise to the #OscarsSoWhite movement.
“I thought it was a little weird last night that Hollywood celebrated itself for being progressive but ignored how much they reinforce negative stereotypes,” he said. “In Hollywood, Middle Easterners are almost always terrorists. Black people are gangsters and slaves. It’s not like there aren’t other diverse stories to tell. Just look at ‘Hidden Fences,’ you know?”