Karl Lagerfeld called Meryl Streep cheap over Oscars dress drama

The story reportedly goes like this: Streep ordered a couture dress from Chanel for the Oscars, the brand started making the gown, and then Streep's people contacted Lagerfeld saying not to make the dress because there was another designer who wanted to pay Streep to wear their stuff on the red carpet. "A genius actress, but cheapness also, no?" Lagerfeld said. Streep's rep said the story was "completely untrue," adding that the star "would NEVER wear anything in exchange for payment."

“ “I made a sketch, and we started to make the dress,” Lagerfeld told WWD. Days later, a phone call came in from a member of Streep’s camp. “’Don’t continue the dress. We found somebody who will pay us,’” Lagerfeld quoted the messenger.

Chanel, he noted, has a policy of not paying celebrities to wear its clothes, apparently even those of the “greatest living” ilk...“We give them dresses, we make the dresses, but we don’t pay,” Lagerfeld said.”