Meryl Streep gets record 17th Oscar nomination! Will “Iron Lady” result in long-awaited third Oscar win?

As expected, Meryl Streep earned her 17th Academy Award nomination this morning for her performance as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

It is the 14th nomination in the best actress category for Streep who has been nominated for supporting actress three times winning in 1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer. She won her lone best actress Oscar in 1983 for Sophie’s Choice.

Streep’s competition this year is Viola Davis for The Help, Michelle Williams for My Week With Marilyn, Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs and Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Streep won the Golden Globe Award last week and appears to have her best chance in decades to win a long-elusive third Oscar. If she were to finally win again, she would match Ingrid Bergman and Jack Nicholson with three Oscars. Katherine Hepburn is the all-time champ for acting Oscars with four wins as best actress.

Dating back to her first Oscar nod in 1979 for The Deer Hunter, Streep has been nominated – and lost – for her performances in The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Silkwood, A Cry in the Dark, Out of Africa, Ironweed, Postcards From the Edge, The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing, Music of the Heart, Adaptation, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt and Julie & Julia.