Just an observation.....

Great observations, but you forget that those actors whom you mention did not live during a time where their every move, every interview, every word is broadcasted to the public seconds after they have happened (twitter, youtube, Facebook etc.). Today it is nearly impossible to stay hidden from the public eye. Sure, it can be done, but it is a totally different beast to fight with altogether and therefore I do not think that it is fair to compare the actors from the golden era to today´s, because of the media and the world in which we live in today.

Maybe I can help in the understanding of my point by having you ask yourself this question. Are there any actors or actresses, whom you used to enjoy watching, whom you now find yourself no longer interested in, not so much because they’ve lost their ability to act, but because you can't get past something they've either done or have said which you find unacceptable or disagree with? And consequently, because of this, you find yourself no longer watching movies or television shows in which they appear.

Sure, absolutely, but I do not think it is always the actor´s fault, but it is the society we live in which makes this happen easier than ever before. Maybe you can understand my point if you consider this; if a film is good, and yet one can not have an imagination enough to let an actor present a story because one mixes the personal opinions of the actor with a character, you are the one at fault to some extent as well.

Actors would be regular if there was no celebrity culture.

Actors would be regular if there was no celebrity culture. And if they would eat more fiber.

Meryl Streep is a shape-shifter.

Both of you made excellent points.

However, I am sure there are many actors who find ways to keep there personal life very private albeit at the cost of a temporary gain in their bank balance.

The bird film ,which won tons of echo chamber praise, showed the insecure, self doubting, 'trying to stay relevent' actors have to trade using twitter fb etc .

By being 'open' and not measured and discerning, they risk splitting their audience.
When that happens they are at the mercy of what ever their peers/agents think is best to do to claw back. Or compromise they choice of film roles.

Streep is pretty high up, so splitting her audience still leaves her with enough full theatres (for a short run)
She was nervous but felt her righteous points needed to be made.
Yes , the more we know about these performers , the more their percieved talent is tainted or occasionally celebrated.

Social media can play us so we are entitled to feel cognitive dissonance if eg the actor who plays the war hero was found to turn a blind eye to a real life atrocity.
The fantasy was given to us by them.

Of course they did Jillian just look at Elvis Presley for starters.
He was the very first rock star and even prior, politicians would pose with celebrities because it helped them get elected.
They were under the watchful eye but faced far less negative publicity because the newspapers wanted to their cooperation to help sell newspapers.

Elvis went on record and said he had no political views because he was famous and it simply didn't effect his life or help his career by making political views public.
He knew better!
These idiots today think they speak for the middle class, who are truly just on the bright side of poor, but they don't.

The average middle aged, married couple has a combined life savings of $5,000 and they want to insist that's not poor, white people are "privileged" and minorities are under constant racial and economic attacks???
Biggest load of crap sold to the public since the explanation for 9/11.

Racism is now a mainstream product and you can only market racism against white people so, that's what Hollywood is doing. They are just hocking one more product for their own financial and political gains with no concern about the well being of their customers let alone the entire public.

Streep is trash like 99% of these idiots selling a false view of reality to naive kids and young adults that simply don't know any better.

You argument sound right and should be respected. It just does not cut it. These ego driven children at heart are being paid more for three weeks work than most people make in a lifetime. There is defiantly something so wrong with this picture. No other film making countries , England,France, Italy. you name one that pays their professional liars ,that's what they are, Great Professional Liars , such sums of money. So no one seems to be suffering.

I agree with this convo and I also believe it is possible for one to be a great actor and to keep ones opinions to oneself. See Denzel Washington. Compared to his acting chops, Meryl is a hack. I've made a list of actors in my mind that I can no longer watch and it's sad because until last year I thought these folks had some talent... Streep, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lena Dunham and every hack who threatened to leave is Trump won... the list goes on. Hollywood and the MSM need a huge wake up call.

You're talking about talent and you put Lena Dunham and SJP in the same sentence with Meryl Streep? They don't even come close to Meryl.