Several websites started "reporting" that the Russian government had banned all Meryl Streep movies with no other reason given than that Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Streep was "overrated".
Of course none of it is true: the story originated with the satirical Borowitz Report section of The New Yorker and was meant to poke fun at the supposedly good relationship between President Elect Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The (fake) putin quote echoes Trump's tweets after Meryl Streep criticized him during a recent speech at the Golden Globe awards:
Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a.....
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017
Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never "mocked" a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him.......
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017
"groveling" when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017
The satirical article took off wildly, as this graph generated using Trendolizer shows:
