Why Meryl Lost It Over Patricia Arquette’s Acceptance Speech

Patricia Arquette won the Academy Award tonight for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Boyhood. She was nominated along with other major names in Hollywood, including Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, and Keira Knightley. But, her acceptance speech was the most kick-ass and empowering we've seen and heard in a long time. So, it's kind of like all women won. "To every woman who gave birth to every tax payer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America," Arquette told the Oscar audience. The crowd went WILD. Streep was all "Yeah, girl!" in the audience, complete with encouraging hand gestures. (She's done a lot of work for social justice for women, so this felt like an especially poignant reaction from Streep.) Jennifer Lopez, who was sitting next to Streep, applauded like crazy and did one of those whooping sounds you do when you're like "I SO support this. What sound am I making?"