Throughout the 2000s Meryl Streep appeared in many cinematic and theatrical productions. In 2001, Streep voiced the Blue Fairy in the science-fiction film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. That same year she co-hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert with Liam Neeson. As well as returning to the Delacorte Theater for the first time in twenty three years, playing Irina Arkadina in a revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. In 2002, Streep appeared in the films The Hours and Adaptation, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2003, she starred in the six-episode miniseries, of HBO's adaptation of the play Angels in America, winning both a Best Actress Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
In 2004, Streep was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award, and she also starred in the films The Manchurian Candidate and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. In 2005, Streep starred in the film Prime. Beginning 2006, with the film A Prairie Home Companion, and the stage production Mother Courage and Her Children. Then she slipped into the role of Miranda Priestly, for the first time in the acclaimed The Devil Wears Prada, which Streep would revise in twenty years. In 2007, Streep appeared in the films Dark Matter, Rendition, Evening, and Lions for Lambs. In 2008, Streep starred in the films Mamma Mia! and Doubt. In 2009, Streep starred in the films Julie & Julia and It's Complicated, as well as loaning her voice to the animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox.
2001–2005 In 2001, Meryl Streep voiced the Blue Fairy in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence based on Brian Aldiss' short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, first published in 1969. A CGI-driven science fiction film, initially conceived by Stanley Kubrick in the early 1970s, it revolves about a child-like android, played by Haley Joel Osment, uniquely programmed with the ability to love. A critical and commercial success, the film collected US$235.9 million at international box offices. The same year, Streep co-hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert with Liam Neeson which was held in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2001, in honor of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate - the United Nations and Kofi Annan. And, after a stage absence of more than twenty years, she persuaded Mike Nichols to stage Anton Chekhov's popular play The Seagull at the open air Delacorte Theater in New York, playing actress Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina. Co-starring Kevin Kline, Marcia Gay Harden, Natalie Portman, and her eldest son Henry, the play received favorable reviews, with The New York Times remarking, "Two decades in front of movie cameras haven't diminished her capacity for looming large from a stage. Streep has drawn a portrait of comic ruthlessness and gentle understanding."
In Spike Jonze's 2002 comedy-drama Adaptation., Streep portrayed Susan Orlean, a real-life journalist whose book is to be adapted by screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage. Streep, who declared the screenplay one of "the most interesting and ambiguous scripts [...] in a long time", expressed dire interest in the role before being cast, and took a salary cut in recognition of the film's budget of US$19 million. Lauded by critics and viewers alike, the film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Streep, who David Ansen of Newsweek felt had not "been this much fun to watch in years". While Adaptation. ended Streep's winning drought at the Golden Globes, when she - after thirteen nominations - was awarded her first trophy since 1982's Sophie's Choice in 2003, she received a second nomination by the Hollywood Foreign Press for her participation in another project that year: Stephen Daldry's The Hours (2002).
In The Hours, featuring Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore, Streep played the role of Clarissa, a literary editor who is followed for one climactic day, during which she plans a party for her long-time friend and one-time lover, played by Ed Harris, who is wasting away from AIDS. Based on the 1999 novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham, the episodic film focuses on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Generally well-received, The Hours was praised for the performances of all three leading actresses, who shared a Silver Bear for Best Actress the following year. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commented, "These three unimprovable actresses make The Hours a thing of beauty [...] Streep is a miracle worker, building a character in the space between words and worlds." The film grossed US$108.8 million worldwide on a budget of US$25 million, the majority of which came from foreign markets.
In 2003, Streep appeared uncredited as herself in the Farrelly brothers film Stuck on You, a comedy about conjoined twins, played by Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, who wish to move to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actor. Streep, who filmed her part within three days, was required to perform a musical version of Bonnie & Clyde in the film. The same year, she reunited with Mike Nichols to star alongside Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, and Mary-Louise Parker in the HBO adaptation of Tony Kushner's six-hour play Angels in America, the story of two couples whose relationships dissolve amidst the backdrop of Reagan Era politics, the spreading AIDS epidemic, and a rapidly changing social and political climate. As done in the play, some of the actors played multiple parts in the mini-series, with Streep portraying three different characters: an Orthodox rabbi, a Mormon woman, and American communist Ethel Rosenberg. The mini-series became the most watched made-for-cable movie in 2003, and garnered 21 Emmy Award and five Golden Globe nominations, winning Streep one award each.
In 2004, Streep became the youngest woman to ever be awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award by the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute, which honors an individual for a lifetime contribution to enriching American culture through motion pictures and television. The same year, Streep appeared with Denzel Washington in Jonathan Demme's The Manchurian Candidate, a remake of the same-titled 1962 film based on the 1959 novel by Richard Condon. Streep, who did not know the original movie prior to filming, took over a role originated by Angela Lansbury, playing a U.S. senator and manipulative, ruthless mother of a vice-presidential candidate, played by Liev Schreiber. On her Golden Globe-nominated performance, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle commented that, "no one can talk about the acting in The Manchurian Candidate without rhapsodizing about Streep. She's a pleasure to watch - and to marvel at - every second she's onscreen." The thriller became a moderate box office success, grossing US$96 million worldwide on a budget of US$80 million.
Also in 2004, Streep appeared alongside Jim Carrey and Timothy Spall in Brad Silberling's adaption Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Based on the first three novels in Snicket's popular children's book series, the black comedy tells the story of Count Olaf (Carrey), a mysterious theater troupe actor, who attempts to deceive three orphans over their deceased parents' fortune. Streep was cast in the role of the children's overanxious Aunt Josephine, a character she has described as "a great tremulous bird of a person". The film received generally favorable reviews from critics, who called it "exceptionally clever, hilariously gloomy, and bitingly subversive", and was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning in the Best Make-Up category. Though the film became a financial success, grossing US$209 million on a budget of US$140 million, plans to expand the film into a franchise failed to materialize.
Streep's was next cast in the 2005 romantic comedy Prime, directed by Ben Younger. In the film, she plays a Jewish New York psychoanalyst, whose 23-year-old son (played by Bryan Greenberg) enters a relationship with one of her patients, a divorced 37-year-old business-woman, played by Uma Thurman, resulting in a dilemma of two conflicting intentions. Streep welcomed the opportunity to reprise her comedic talent, though she and Younger agreed on her not consciously playing the part for laughs. Prime received generally mixed reviews, with many critics declaring it another formulaic Hollywood rom-com. Desson Thomson of the Washington Post commented that the film followed a familiar boy-meets-girl scenario, but found that Younger had turned "the routine into combustible fun", and that, "Streep, meant to be the third party here, rapidly becomes the drama's most entertaining nucleus". A modest mainstream success, the film eventually grossed US$67.9 million internationally.
2006–2007 Streep began 2006 with A Prairie Home Companion, director Robert Altman's final film. An ensemble piece featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, and Lindsay Lohan, the film revolves around the behind-the-scenes activities at a long-running public radio show which is nearing its cancellation, depicting the show's final broadcast. Streep, initially unsure about the gestalt of the movie due to its genre-crossing nature, noted it "an odd little creature". In the film, she, along with Lily Tomlin, portrayed one half of a sister duo which was once part of a popular family country music act. Required to perform her own vocals in the film, Altman decided to cast Streep without any vocal audition. After releasing in several film festivals, the film grossed over US$26 million, the majority of which came from domestic markets. General reaction to the film was favorable by critics, who called it "a worthy swan song from one of the cinema's best", resulting in an average 81% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
The same year, Streep appeared in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. Co-starring Anne Hathaway as a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant at the fictional fashion magazine Runway, Streep played the powerful, demanding, and much-feared editor Miranda Priestly. Though widely speculated that Streep's performance was modeled after Vogue editor Anna Wintour, to whom Weisberger had once been an assistant, the actress denied basing her portrayal on Wintour, stating that she "was just interested in making a human being as contradictory and messy as we all are". While the film itself received a mixed reception, Streep's performance drew rave reviews from critics, and later earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as another Golden Globe. In her review for the Washington Post, Jennifer Frey wrote that, "When Streep's on the screen, she has the same effect [as her role] on her audience; she totally commands every scene." The film was the biggest box-office success of Streep's career, and grossed more than US$326.5 million.
Also in 2006, Streep returned to the New York Delacorte Theater when she starred onstage at The Public Theater's production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. The play was a new translation by playwright Tony Kushner, with songs written by composer Jeanine Tesori and direction by George C. Wolfe. Streep starred alongside Kevin Kline and Austin Pendleton.