Throughout Hollywood history, there have been decades of feuds that are almost as infamous as the actors that make up the city of stars, whether it be the long tiff between Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds, Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, or Gwyneth Paltrow and Winona Ryder.

It’s a famously competitive and incestuous industry, with many of Hollywood’s best and brightest sharing the same ex-partners and co-stars, leading to some messy crossovers and entangled relationships.

However, perhaps more fun than a genuine feud is a performative one, with two actors engaging in a bashful yet entirely fake feud in the build-up to the fame Oscars, in which both performers were nominated in the same category.

Meryl Streep is one of the most legendary actors in the business, with a name that speaks for itself and holds a monumental level of weight whenever attached to a project.

Whether it be her role in Kramer vs Kramer, The Post or Adaptation, Streep has never missed the mark and continues to be one of the most versatile forces in Hollywood.

Something that is nearly as famous as her work is her stacked list of Oscar wins and nominations, with the actor being critically recognised an almost comical number of times.

However, 2010 was not her year, with Streep losing out to Sandra Bullock, something that was made all the more entertaining after their light-hearted prank war.

Bullock won for her performance in The Blind Side, with the actor describing her fun at taunting Streep during the build-up to the awards, saying, “With Meryl, when [the awards season] thing started, I left her a voice mail going, ‘You’ve got to watch your back.

I’m gonna cut you. I’m gonna take you down. And then she sent me dead orchids and told me to die, so I sent her a case of liquor and told her to toast to white trash.”

Comically, the pair were also batting against each other in 2014, with Bullock being nominated for her performance in Gravity and Streep for August: Osage County. 

Bullock explained, “People don’t realize that there’s a side of Meryl that’s just mean. You walk away and she’ll just rip your dress . . . I know not to turn my back on her.”

If the fight were physical, she joked, “I will try to kick her ass but she will kill me. That’s just how it’s gonna end and then she’ll be lovely Meryl again and I’ll just be dead.”

Perhaps this is the best spirit with which to approach the awards season, with many actors taking it very seriously and becoming all fired up when they don’t receive the level of external validation they were hoping for and doing everything in their power to win.

But the idea of a light-hearted feud subverts the way that women have been played against each other in the past and takes on a comical approach to the ridiculous concept of the Oscars, with both actors knowing that, ultimately, it isn’t that serious.