Meryl Streep, who won the best supporting actress Golden Globe for "Adaptation" but lost in the Oscar race, has described the Academy Awards as "distasteful," she tells Britain's Daily Telegraph.

"I find it alarming that all the campaigning for Oscars is getting like a political campaign," said the star, 53, who has been nominated 12 times (tying with Katharine Hepburn's record) and has won twice: as Best Supporting Actress in 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer" and as Best Actress in 1982's "Sophie's Choice."

"That part of the business is horseracing, the other is acting, and that's my interest," she added.

"It won't be long before they start paying for television commercials for best picture, best actor and all those things."

Coincidentally, as Streep was making her comments, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was announcing that it is cracking down on Oscar campaigning that pushes the proverbial envelope, as the Hollywood Reporter sees it.

In a sternly worded warning from Academy president Frank Pierson, the group officially announced: "There will now be personal consequences to improper campaigning."

Replacing what had previously been termed "guidelines," the Academy calls its new campaign standards "regulations" and warned that serious violations "could result in a film losing its eligibility for awards consideration."

In the past, violators simply lost their tickets to the Oscar ceremony.