Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep is, and this is no overstatement, as good as it gets. At age 57, the actress delivered one of those ridiculously varied, Oscar-worthy years of work that have come to seem de rigueur from her. First, she beguiled and broke hearts in Robert Altman's ensemble piece A Prairie Home Companion, playing a tenderhearted siren whose face was constantly flooded with emotion. Watching her character perform the breathtaking hymn ''Goodbye to My Mama,'' it's now hard to imagine a more fitting tribute to her late director.

All that warmth disappeared, however, when Streep slid into some stilettos and stole The Devil Wears Prada right out from under her costar, Anne Hathaway. Miranda Priestly was written as an icy shrew by twentysomething novelist Lauren Weisberger, but in Streep's deft hands she evolved into a powerful woman the audience couldn't help but root for. ''Usually women over 50 in the movies are in some ways grotesque,'' says Streep. ''I thought this was an opportunity to take that same kind of villainess and look at it politically, psychologically, and pragmatically.'' She pauses to laugh at herself. ''Hey, I did all p's there!'' Devil, made for a modest budget and aimed at a female demographic studios typically ignore, earned an impressive $124.7 million and emerged as summer's Cinderella story.

So Streep, who also found time to rip into a theatrical production of Brecht's Mother Courage this summer in New York's Central Park, enjoyed what she refers to as a ''very full year. I've always imagined that the wolf is at the door and I'll never work again.'' But she's signed up to play a reporter alongside Tom Cruise in Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs, and she'll then square off with Anthony Hopkins in a movie about Tolstoy's last days. Good for Hollywood. Starlets too often get the industry's attention, but Streep remains a true star. —Karen Valby