Meryl Streep took matters into her own hands — literally — as wildfires rampaged across Los Angeles County earlier this month.

According to nephew Abe Streep, the Oscar- winning actor sprang into action after a fallen tree blocked her driveway as she tried to evacuate her home the day after wind-stoked fires broke out across the region.

In his harrowing account of the historic fires in Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Hollywood that was published Tuesday in New York Magazine, Streep wrote that his aunt, 75, borrowed a neighbor’s wire cutters and “cut a car- size hole in the fence” they shared.

The star, “determined to make it out,” then drove through her neighbor’s yard to escape, her nephew recalled.

Meryl Streep was one of a handful of area residents whose experiences with the fires were told in the New York story. The younger Streep also spoke to a longtime West Altadena resident, a Palisades native and schoolteacher, actor Haley Joel Osment and his aunt’s “Only Murders in the Building” co-star Martin Short, among others.

Short, who knew “right away” in the early years of his career that he would live in Pacific Palisades and bought there in 1984, told Abe Streep he “will definitely stay in my home,” despite one of his sons losing a house.

“The Sixth Sense” star Osment said he and his parents lost their homes in the Eaton fire.

Brown to publish new Langdon novel: Dan Brown’s next global, multi-tiered thriller finds protagonist Robert Langdon journeying from Prague to New York to London as he evades a would-be assassin and ponders the depths of human consciousness.

Doubleday announced Wednesday that “The Secret of Secrets,” his first Langdon novel since “Origin” came out in 2017, will be published Sept. 9.

Brown, best known for the blockbuster “The Da Vinci Code,” is calling it his “most intricately plotted and ambitious novel.”

“Writing it has been an unforgettable journey of discovery,” he said.

Brown’s new novel begins with Langdon, the Harvard symbologist, in Prague. He plans to see a lecture by noetic scientist and emerging love interest Katherine Solomon, only to have her talk become a crime scene when someone is killed and for Solomon to disappear.

Princess Beatrice welcomes child: Britain’s Princess Beatrice gave birth to her second child last week, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday.

The palace said 36-year-old Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi welcomed new arrival Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi on Jan. 22. She weighed 4 pounds and 5 ounces.

“She is tiny and absolutely perfect,” her father said in a social media post.

The king, queen and other members of the royal family are “delighted with the news,” the palace said.

Jan. 30 birthdays: Actor Gene Hackman is 95. Actor Vanessa Redgrave is 88. Musician William King is 76. Musician Phil Collins is 74. Actor Charles S. Dutton is 74. Actor Ann Dowd is 69. Comedian Brett Butler is 67. Singer Jody Watley is 66. Actor Christian Bale is 51. Singer Josh Kelley is 45. Actor Wilmer Valderrama is 45.