Streep: 'Oscars shouldn't be the caboose'

Meryl Streep has reportedly insisted that the Oscars should precede all other televised award shows to uphold its distinction.

The Julie & Julia star, who has received the most Oscar nominations ever at fifteen, has admitted that it is unfortunate for actors like her to have to bear countless races before gracing the Academy Awards.

Streep told Entertainment Weekly: "As time has gone on, so many other televised award shows precede the Oscars, and I do think that's diluted their importance.

"Certainly, everybody seems exhausted by the time the same people have trampled up onstage at the Golden Globes, the SAGs, the Broadcast Film Critics, the BAFTAs. . . . There are so many now and they're all on TV. I mean, you wanna see some real acting? Watch somebody who's won five times before they get to the Oscars, then they get up on stage and they do the performance of, 'Oh! Yes!' Wow, that's a big job! And who could blame them?"

She added: "I think the academy should move it up to January 1 and preempt everybody else. That is the big kahoona, it's the one that counts. And I think it's just so bizarre that they allow themselves to be the caboose."

Julie & Julia will be released in UK cinemas on September 11.