Meryl Streep unleashed a wave of attacks against Walt Disney during a recent awards ceremony in New York City, calling the famed movie animator and business tycoon a “bigot” who despised women.

Ms. Streep was making the speech in honor of her friend and fellow actress Emma Thompson, who just portrayed Mary Poppins in the Disney flick, “Saving Mr. Banks,” The Daily Mail said.

After raving about Ms. Thompson’s on-screen talents, Ms. Streep described Mr. Disney as a “hideous anti-Semite” who “formed and supported an anti-Semitic industry lobby. And he was certainly, on the evidence of the company’s policies, a gender bigot,” The Daily Mail reported.

As proof, Ms. Streep read from a letter that his company sent out in 1938 to a woman who wanted to become an animator: “Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that task is performed entirely by young men,” The Daily Mail reported.

The National Board of Review dinner ceremony, where Ms. Streep gave her speech, is considered one of the biggest movie events, and as a sort of warm-up to the Golden Globes.

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