Meryl Streep has castigated the designer Karl Lagerfeld for overshadowing her record 20th Oscar nomination with inaccurate claims about the dress she will wear at the awards ceremony.
Earlier this week Chanel’s creative director accused the actor of rejecting a dress he was working on for her, claiming that a different designer was willing to pay her to wear one of their designs.
He subsequently admitted this was not correct, but his retraction left Streep unsatisfied, and she has released a damning statement criticising both him and Women’s Wear Daily, the fashion website that printed his comments.
Despite Lagerfeld’s statement saying he had “misunderstood” and that he regretted the controversy, Streep has dismissed the so-called apology and said the original comments have eclipsed her latest nomination.
“I do not take this lightly, and Mr Lagerfeld’s generic ‘statement’ of regret for this ‘controversy’ was not an apology,” her statement read.
She also accused the designer of defaming her, her stylist and the “illustrious designer” whose dress she chose to wear, “in an important industry publication”, adding: “That publication printed this defamation.”
The story received global attention, she said, and continues “to overwhelm my appearance at the Oscars, on the occasion of my record-breaking 20th nomination, and to eclipse this honour in the eyes of the media, my colleagues and the audience”.
The dispute began when the website published an interview in which Lagerfeld said he had started work on a dress for Streep to wear at the awards ceremony. He claimed he was then told by one of the actor’s representatives not to continue as they had found somebody who would pay them.
“After we gift her a dress that’s €100,000, we found later we had to pay,” he said. “We give them dresses, we make the dresses, but we don’t pay ... A genius actress, but cheapness also, no?”
The designer later issued a statement admitting he had “misunderstood that Ms Streep may have chosen another designer due to remuneration” and said he regretted the controversy.
A spokesperson for Chanel said that they had engaged in conversations with Streep’s stylist to design a dress for her to wear to the Academy Awards, with the full understanding that she was considering options from other design houses: “When informed by the stylist that Ms Streep had chosen a dress by another designer there was no mention of the reason. Chanel wishes to express our continued and deep respect for Ms Streep.”
Streep, one of the most admired and honoured actors of her generation, is nominated for playing an eccentric opera singer in the comedy Florence Foster Jenkins. She has won three academy awards for previous roles.
