Meryl Streep was six months pregnant when she struggled to fit into her seat at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the 55th Academy Awards in 1983. Her dress, which she bought off the rack in the basement of Saks, was ill-fitting. It was too short in the front to hide her protruding belly, so she wore it backwards and covered her midriff with a little train. “People didn’t have stylists and designers and all that stuff,” she said. “I thought I was so smart.” Streep was up for Best Actress for her acclaimed performance as a Polish Holocaust survivor in...