Why I've Never Been Happier!

AT 75, THE THREE-TIME OSCAR WINNER HAS NOTHING TO PROVE TO ANYONE

- LOUISE A. BARILE

Comedy star Amy Poehler admits that it was a little intimidating to share a dressing room with three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep during SNL’s 50th Anniversary show. “She was getting ready for her sketch and really rehearsing it,” Amy recalled on the podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. “I remember thinking, ‘I have never rehearsed as hard as Meryl Streep is in this one moment.’”

Despite her years in show business and many accolades, Meryl, 75, had never hosted or appeared on the sketch comedy show before. Though she did break character and laugh while appearing with Kate McKinnon in a skit about alien abductions, it was among the most talked about sketches of the night. “Meryl Streep and Kate McKinnon need to make a buddy comedy together,” joked a critic on NBC Insider.

Meryl has known her Only Murders in the Building co-star Martin Short for years.

After years of largely concentrating on serious dramatic roles and becoming the queen of foreign accents, Meryl is letting her hair down and accepting jobs that are just plain fun. In 2022, she contacted Steve Martin, whom she worked with on 2009’s It’s Complicated, asking if a role on Only Murders in the Building could be created for her in its third season. “I was a huge fan of the show,” Meryl said at a press event on the Paramount lot. “I also just wanted to have some fun because the world is pretty [lousy] right now.”

Her role as aspiring actress (and sometimes murder suspect) Loretta, has since carried over into the show’s forth and upcoming fifth season.

She wed Don Gummer, the father of her four kids, in 1978.