Streep Honored as Woman of the Year

The Hasty Pudding Club yesterday hailed actress Meryl Streep as its 1980 Woman of the Year before an overflowing crowd in the Club's theater.

Shipley Munson '80, Club president, and David I. Levi '80, president of Hasty Pudding Theatricals, awarded Streep a small, gold-plated pot in recognition of her acting achievements. Streep most recently starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in "Kramer vs. Kramer."

"Boy, I hope my son doesn't turn out like this," Streep quipped as she hugged Douglas Fitch '81, who sings and dances--in drag--in this year's Pudding production, "A Little Knife Music."

Nearly 1000 people turned out earlier on Mass Ave to cheer for Streep during a parade held in her honor. A dozen Pudding cast members, costumed as women in outlandish dresses, garish wigs and layers of heavy make-up, escorted Streep to a waiting convertible when she first arrived at Quincy Square.

Surrounded by a throng of photographers and well-wishers, Streep giggled, signed autographs and joked with her escorts as the motorcade, led by the Harvard Band, struggled toward Harvard Square. Hundreds of balloons bobbed overhead, while a 30-foot satin dragon belched smoke into Streep's car.

Wishful Thinking

"I wish I had gotten this reception when I applied to Radcliffe," Streep joked at the awards ceremony to a receptive audience that included her father and her three-month-old son.

"I'm really honored to receive the Hasty Pudding Pot considering the contestants: all women," Streep said while the band played the theme from "The Seduction of Joe Tynan."

Streep co-starred in "Tynan" with Alan Alda, who will receive the Pudding Man of the Year Award next Wednesday at the opening of "Knife Music."