Celebrity Mound

MERYL STREEP was once forced to sleep rough in a London park because she couldn’t afford anywhere to stay.

The Hollywood star came to the U.K. when she was a struggling actress in her twenties and earned her keep by busking for loose change.

Streep admits that some days she would not earn enough to pay for a hotel – and once had to spend the night in London’s Green Park.

She tells British magazine Closer, “On my very, very first trip to London, when I was 20, I went around busking to afford food and overnight accommodation. One night when I hadn’t earned enough, I actually slept in the open in Green Park, under a tree.

“The view was of the Ritz hotel and I vowed to myself that night that I was going to stay there one day – and I have!”

(source)

Benny Andersson, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep

David Beckham

Will Smith

Jenna Elfman and Bodhi Elfman

Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford

Columbia is cooking up “Julie & Julia,” starring Streep as the famous chef and Amy Adams as a mastercook wannabe.

Project centers on a frustrated temp secretary who embarks on a yearlong culinary quest to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” She chronicles her trials and tribulations in a blog that catches on with the food crowd.

Nora Ephron, who is adapting the screenplay from Julie Powell’s book “Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen,” is attached to direct.

Studio is eyeing a 2008 start date.

Streep will next be seen in the war-themed drama “Lions for Lambs.”
Adams has three films awaiting release: “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,” “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Enchanted.”

Chuck Close

Kyra Sedgwick

Meryl Streep and Don Gummer

Fran Drescher

Meryl Streep

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Christie Brinkley

Tony Sirico and Julianna Margulies

Meryl Streep

Castmember Meryl Streep arrives for the Public Theater’s opening night of Shakespeare in the Park’s “Mother Courage and Her Children” after party at the Belvedere Castle in Central Park Monday, August 21, 2006 in New York.

(photos courtesy of Getty Images)