Hail, Meryl!

Meryl Streep, by unanimous decision the greatest living actress of our time, turns 62 today. And if anyone has ever earned the right to be a diva, it’s her. But she’s not, and that’s why we love her. Here are a few more of our favorite things about her:

When She Lives On A Farm, Interesting Things Happen

She’s made two movies with a heavily agricultural setting, Out of Africa and The Bridges of Madison County. And she’s a foreigner in both: a Dane among the British in Africa, and an Italian among the Iowans in Iowa. Luckily for her, she’s consoled by Robert Redford in the first movie and Clint Eastwood in the second.

She Never Had To Play Sexy To Be A Star Streep made her mark at the extremely competitive Yale School of Drama by playing an eighty-year-old woman in a wheelchair in a dark comedy by Christopher Durang. Said dean Robert Brustein, “It was immediately apparent she was destined for greatness.” (Believe it or not, though Streep has been nominated sixteen times for an Oscar, she's won just twice - for Kramer vs.Kramer and Sophie's Choice. Very unfair!)

She's Not Afraid To Speak Up -- Even To The Big Dogs When she was filming Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) she told director Robert Benton and co-star Dustin Hoffman that she thought her character, a woman leaving her husband, was portrayed as “too evil.” The guys agreed. She ended up rewriting two of her most important scenes—and going on to win an Oscar.

She Cares For Her Loved Ones In the early days of her career, Streep’s fiancé, Joe Cazale, was diagnosed with bone cancer. He got a part in The Deer Hunter, and she took a role herself so she could be with him. She nursed him until he died in 1978. With that kind of capacity to love, it’s no surprise that Streep’s 33-year marriage to sculptor Don Gummer is one of the longer-lasting Hollywood unions. The couple have four children. “Every single decision about what material I do,” she said once, “is because of my children.”

She Hit It Big In Portugal After Streep appeared in Mamma Mia!, the film version of the musical based on Abba’s hits, her recording of the title song hit Number 8 on the Portuguese pop charts.

She Doesn't Worry About Clothes Although she played an obsessive fashion editrix in The Devil Wears Prada, Streep has gone on record as saying that expensive clothes “are just a waste of money.” (She’s got a terrific minimalist style, though.)

She's A Big Risk-Taker We can’t think of any other female superstar who could have pulled off the role of the rabbi in Angels in America without making the character into either a comic figure, a stereotype or both. But Streep played the role so brilliantly that many viewers didn’t recognize her.

We Love Her Accents Whether Streep’s character is from Poland, Italy, Denmark or the Bronx, she nails the inflections and the pronunciations. Our favorite, though, is Julia Child, in Julia and Julie, when she channels her character’s plummy-toned exuberance in as simple an expression as “Eat!”

Her Best Lines Are Priceless “I thought you would be different,” she tells a terrified (and thin) Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada. “I said to myself, Go ahead. Take a chance. Hire the smart, fat girl. I had hope. My God. I live on it.”

She's Playing The Ultimate Iron Lady Streep’s scared us in spite of ourselves with roles like the sinister political conspirator Angela Shaw (The Manchurian Candidate) and the tough nun Sister Aloysius (Doubt). And now, get ready for her most imposing role of all: Margaret Thatcher, in the upcoming Iron Lady. By the looks of things, the helmet hair’s already in place. We can’t wait for the accent.