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Meryl Streep reveals she and Cher once fought off a violent attacker

By Will Stroude

We already know that Meryl Streep and Cher are already bad-ass icons of the highest order, but their legend status has been reconfirmed with the news that the pair were once helped fight off a thug in the middle of a violent attack.

Streep made the surprising revelation at the International Press Freedom Awards in New York on Wednesday (November 15), where the three-time Academy Award-winner detailed her own experiences with abuse and violence in an impassioned speech to guests.

“I do know something about real terror – the two times in my life when I was threatened and dealt with real physical violence, I learned something about life that I wouldn’t have known otherwise and I was lucky because my instincts served me well,” she said.

“In one instance, I played dead and waited until the blows stopped — watching like people say you do from about 50 feet above from where I was beaten.

“And in the second instance, someone else was being abused and I just went completely nuts and went after this man. Ask Cher — she was there. And the thug ran away, it was a miracle.”

Streep’s revelation comes just weeks after it was revealed that Cher is set to play her onscreen mother in the upcoming sequel to 2008’s Mamma Mia.

Who knows, maybe if some some savvy producer can get a script together, we could see a recreation of the pair’s heroic intervention on the big screen. Or maybe not. But we can dream.

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