Late Night: Meryl Streep is game for Jack Nicholson (just playing)

By Meredith Blake

Aug. 10, 2012 12 AM PT

Meryl Streep might be one of the world’s most acclaimed performers, but that doesn’t mean she’s too good to dish the dirt on her many famous costars.

And thank goodness for that, because in an appearance Thursday night on “Watch What Happens Live!” to promote her new comedy, “Hope Springs,” Streep was about as candid – yet somehow still gracious – as a living legend can be.

The highlight of the appearance was a round of “Plead the Fifth,” the devilishly clever game that host Andy Cohen uses to get guarded celebrities to go off-script. Even by the loose-lipped standards of “Watch What Happens,” Streep’s honesty was refreshing.

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The first question she had to answer in “Plead the Fifth” was a variation of the popular game known in some corners by its more colorful name but which we’ll call “Marry, Shag, Kill.” Given the options of Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman, Streep would marry Redford (although she had to think about it), sleep with Jack Nicholson (duh) and dispense with poor Hoffman altogether (hey, someone’s got to go).

But just because the happily married Streep would hypothetically sleep with Nicholson doesn’t mean she approves of his indoor sunglasses. In another gossip-mongering game called “Spill the Tea,” Streep was required to share the first words that came to mind at the mention of various costars, including Lindsay Lohan (“I pray for Lindsay”), Tommy Lee Jones (“infallible”) and Alec Baldwin (“he should be mayor”).

Her thoughts on Jack Nicholson? “Take off your sunglasses.”

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