The renowned Hollywood star Meryl Streep called out former President Barack Obama on Monday night for a mistake that he made in his new memoir.

During an interview on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Streep was asked if she had read Obama’s new book “Promised Land.” Host Stephen Colbert explained that he especially wanted to know if Streep had read the book, given the fact that the actress is mentioned in it at one point.

“I’m not in the damn book, but you’re in the book,” Colbert said with a laugh. “He’s talking about artists and entertainers and the cultural hub they wanted the White House to be. He mentions, ‘Meryl Streep so softly recited in Mandarin the song about clouds that she learned for a part years ago.'”

After admitting that she had not read Obama’s book, Streep proceeded to call put the ex-president for making a mistake in his reference to her.

Streep explained that she was actually reciting a poem, not a song, during this trip to Beijing with the legendary cellist Yo Yo Ma. She had been brought in to recite the poem while Yo Yo Ma played the music behind her words in a performance that ended up being nerve-wracking for a number of reasons.

“It was a cultural kind of exchange thing. I went with Yo Yo Ma and a bunch of performers and we were to be in the great, big nest stadium with 7,000 people. We were going to do a concert,” said Streep, who went on to explain that the poem she read is “a famous fourth-century Chinese poem everyone knows.”

Though the three-time Academy Award-winner had planned to recite the poem in both English and Mandarin, she became “terrified” as soon as she learned that the cultural prime minister at the time was coming.

“This was a very important person with her 40-person entourage. I had learned the poem in Mandarin and Yo Yo Ma would weave in his music in-between. We practiced this, but in Chinese the same word can be translated as a completely different thing,” Streep said.

Despite her decades of acting experience, Streep froze onstage as soon as it came time for her to recite it in Mandarin.

“I meant to start up in Mandarin and I just looked up at [Yo Yo Ma] and smiled,” she recalled. “And he went cross-eyed and kind of finished up and then we both bowed. Because of his artistry, it was a wonderful moment. People loved it.”

Streep then recited the poem in both Mandarin and English, much to Colbert’s delight.

“Thank you. We rarely get Mandarin poetry in late-night these days,” he said.

“Yes, but 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,” Streep added. “It’s an international incident!”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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