Meryl Streep: It's funny how complicated life is for Meryl

Most romantic comedies follow a basic plot of boy meets girl, but the title of Nancy Meyers' latest film suggests there's a lot more to relationships than that.

It's Complicated stars Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin as a middle-aged couple who start an affair – 10 years after they got divorced.

Streep plays mother-of-three Jane, who owns a bakery and restaurant in Santa Barbara, California, and is on good terms with her ex-husband Jake (Baldwin).

The old flame begins to flicker again when they stay at the same hotel in New York for their son Luke's graduation, and end up reminiscing about their 19-year marriage over a drink or three.

With attorney Jake now married to a younger woman, Agness (Lake Bell), Jane soon becomes the "other woman".

Things get even more complicated when it turns out that the architect helping to build Jane's dream kitchen, played by Steve Martin, is ever so slightly in love with her.

The film has garnered a whole slew of Golden Globe nominations, ahead of this year's awards season, including Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for Streep, Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Best Screenplay for writer/ director Nancy Meyers.

Streep has recently carved herself a comedy niche, with memorable roles in Mamma Mia! and last summer's Julie and Julia, for which she's also been nominated at the Golden Globes, meaning that she's competing against herself in the Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical category.

She was the actress Meyers had in mind to play Jane – and she instantly loved the script and the screenwriter's sensitivity to such a universal subject.

"(She has] tapped into something deep about families who've encountered divorce... or anybody who has been abandoned by someone they love," says Streep.

But it was the draw of her leading men that proved irresistible.

"They're just so wildly and inventively funny, I love them both," she says of Martin and Baldwin.

"They're not just willing to be funny, they're willing to reveal themselves, which is not always that easy.

"Steve has a very graceful presence and Alec embraces the process, embraces everybody he encounters. Everyone felt that on set, he's like a big magnet and he pulls you into his magic sphere."

Off-screen, the lead actors have had very different experiences of love and relationships.

While Baldwin, 51, was locked in a seven-year custody battle with his ex-wife Kim Basinger, following their divorce in 2002, Streep, who turned 60 this summer, has been married to her husband for more than 30 years, but like Jane, she is also now an empty-nester.

"Starting a new relationship as an older person, I think you are probably just more aware of the red flags that are there, because you've been in trouble before.

"You are a little bit more cautious and sensitive and you pick up signals more easily.

"There are times when you think, will (the children] ever be gone, will I ever be able to go out again? But then it is quiet. Although our youngest still comes home a lot at the weekend."

While 15-times Oscar nominee and double winner Streep may well see a 16th nomination this year, if the Golden Globes are anything to go by, her co-stars Martin and Baldwin will be teaming up to host the glamorous awards show in March.

"I'm grateful I'm doing it with Steve, he's done it twice before," says Baldwin.

"But even if I wasn't doing it, I'm glad he's doing it, because it needs to be funny."

"We had our first meeting with the producers the other day and we have to come up with about half an hour of funny stuff."

Last year Baldwin published a book called A Promise to Ourselves, which charted his battle for joint custody of his daughter and critiqued the US family law system.

"Nothing is as satisfying as writing in terms of saying what you want to say.

"Acting in TV and films, you're saying other people's words – if you want to have real force behind your self-expression, you paint or write.

"And I think writing is definitely something I might want to do more of and just take a break from (acting], indefinitely maybe. I have done it so long."

Streep, on the other hand, shows no signs of wanting to retire.

There are rumours of several films afoot and, whether they are romantic comedies or dramas, whatever she chooses will no doubt be well received.

The key to her longevity? Not taking life too seriously. "If you get to a certain age and you aren't laughing at yourself, you haven't recognised all the things that are funny," she says.

Rapid rise to screen fame

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep was born in New Jersey on June 22, 1949.

Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville in 1977 and critical acclaim came quickly. By the end of the decade she had starred in The Deer Hunter and won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Kramer vs. Kramer.

She has since been nominated for a further 14 Academy Award nominations and in 1982 was named Best Actress for her portrayal of a Polish Holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice.

In 2001, Streep returned to the stage for the first time in more than 20 years, in Chekhov's The Seagull, alongside Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Walken.