This is kind of off-topic, but a funny one – and a nice opportunity to raise the word on the great Catherine O’Hara. The actress – who co-starred with Meryl in 1986’s “Heartburn” – was a member of the classic Canadian comedy show “SCTV” in the 1970s and 1980s, performing an array of characters and impersonations (brilliantly from Katharine Hepburn to Brooke Shields). In 1981, she did an impression of Meryl Streep. If there’s one person to impersonate Miss Streep, let it be Catherine O’Hara. More background information below the video.
The “Film Farm Report” evolved into a film review show where a couple of farmers enthuse about films where people are blown up. Recognizing that movies are hardly integral to seeing things get blown up, Farm Report finally became the show it was always meant to be: Big Jim and Billy Sol talk briefly with celebrity guests, and then blow them up. In an interview with the Toronto Star in 1986, Catherine recalled re-watching her impersonation in Meryl’s presence during the wrap-party of “Heartburn”:
Mike Nichols called me over to explain the skit to her. So it was like ‘Well, uh, Miss Streep… John Candy and Joe Flaherty did these two country bumpkin characters and they would have guests on their little talk show and then, umm, blow them up. So I went on as you and, well, I got blown up.” Then, Mike decided to run a tape of the SCTV sketch at the Heartburn wrap party. “People kept coming up to me and saying ‘Meryl is watching it! Meryl is watching it!’ And her face is like this close to the monitor. Afterward she came up to me and said ‘I saw what you did to me!’ But she laughed. It’s a compliment to be impersonated. ‘Very funny, just wait until you see my version of you!’
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