I'm happy to see that Liz Smith is debunking a right-wing rumor (in the New York Post):

Would it be possible to can all the obvious speculation that Meryl Streep based her senator-villain in the remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" on New York's real-life Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton?

The 13-time Oscar nominee has more imagination than that. Take it from me, the two people Meryl studied were Karen Hughes, the former and still-sometimes adviser to President George W. Bush, and Reagan speechwriter and conservative thinker Peggy Noonan.

But Liz, I had that story back in April.

(How Liz Smith gets her scoops: same way I do -- by reading Entertainment Weekly. Except I credit my sources.)

UPDATE: Via Alicublog, I see that the usual right-wing mouth-breathers are certain they know more about Streep's work methods than Streep herself does.