MERYL STREEP: I do remember that moment, yes.
But he got the story a little bit wrong.
He's a very good writer, but his memory is--
STEPHEN COLBERT: OK, let's fact-check.
Let's fact-check the president here.
- Meryl Streep and Barack Obama are huge fans of each other.
In fact, he even awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
But during her visit on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"
Monday, she said the story in his latest memoir about her
softly reciting Chinese song lyrics to him in Mandarin
was incorrect.
It was actually a 4th century poem.
MERYL STREEP: Alone on a misty mountain I come to a clearing.
Sunlight on green Moss.
I am not alone.
- During a performance with world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma,
Streep recited the poem in English at the Beijing
National Stadium in China.
However, on "The Late Show," she shared the Mandarin version
that she told the president.
MERYL STREEP: [SPEAKING MANDARIN]
That's it.
- While Streep was happy to recite the poem,
she was a little worried that some Chinese people
won't be quite as impressed.
MERYL STREEP: Since one in five people on the face of the Earth
is Chinese, they will know now that I have just said
something horrible probably.
STEPHEN COLBERT: But my ratings are
going to be huge in Beijing.
MERYL STREEP: It's an international incident.
[LAUGHTER]