Meryl Streep and Martin Short ‘delighted in each other onscreen’ — and off: ‘Only Murders in the Building’ co-creator

Meryl Streep and Martin Short may have more than friendship in their building.

Only Murders in the Building” co-creator John Hoffman is getting candid on the stars’ working relationship ahead of the Season 4 finale.

“You know, it is one of the most unexpected turns but I remember thinking like, ‘God,’ ” the show’s executive producer and writer told Decider Thursday. “As I got to know Meryl, as I’ve known Marty and as I watched the two of them work together in Season 3, I just — it was unbelievable. We were laughing our heads off and they just delighted in each other onscreen, off screen in every way.”

Meryl Streep and Martin Short at the Season 4 premiere of Hulu’s “Only Murders in yhe Building” at Paramount Studios in August. Variety via Getty Images

Hoffman also shared how Streep, 75, had a breakthrough moment while playing Loretta. 

“I remember one night we were shooting on the ferry in Episode 5 of Season 3. We shot until about two in the morning on the most gorgeous night in Manhattan,” he explained. “I got off to gangplank there and Meryl was waiting and she had tears in her eyes and she said, ‘I just had to wait here for you to get off the boat to say thank you.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ and she said, ‘I just got to play a scene I really thought that the likes of which I wouldn’t have a chance to do. To play romantic scenes at this age with this band in this way, it’s just the greatest thing ever.’”

Hoffman noted that he felt like “the luckiest guy in the world to have her anywhere near a set that I was near.”

Short and Streep during “OMITB.” ©Hulu/Courtesy Everett Collection

Streep, Steve Martin, John Hoffman, Selena Gomez and Short at the Season 4 premiere in Los Angeles. FilmMagic

“So that felt like one of the most gratifying things,” added the creator. “And I kept on thinking like, ‘I hope the world falls in love with this couple the way we all are.’ And that is so due to the magic that they create together.”

Short, 74, and Streep have continued to create buzz around their relationship, most recently by grabbing dinner at celeb hot spot Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica earlier this month.

And their “Only Murders” co-star Steve Martin poked fun at the dating rumors via Instagram Saturday. 

Streep and Short at the 81st Golden Globe Awards. CBS via Getty Images

The actor, 79, posted a photo of the trio from a Glamour article, with a giant red X over Martin’s face.

After Short and Streep sparked romance speculation after getting cozy at the 2024 Golden Globes in January, the “Father of the Bride” alum’s rep shut down the speculation.

At the time, Short’s rep told E News, “They are just very good friends. Nothing more.”

Streep and Short in “OMITB.” ©Hulu/Courtesy Everett Collection

The comedic actor himself insisted that he and the “Mamma Mia!” actress were merely “friends” during an August interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

Viewers, however, still feel that life is imitating art, since Short’s and Streep’s characters on the hit Hulu show strike up a romance during the show’s third season.

Short is a widower, having been married to Canadian actress Nancy Dolman — with whom he had three kids: Katherine, 40, Oliver, 37, and Henry, 34 — from 1980 until her death from cancer in 2010. 

Sources told Page Six in October that Streep and Don Gummer — whom she married in 1978 and had four children with: singer-songwriter Henry Wolfe, 44, and actresses Mamie Gummer, 40, Grace Gummer, 37, and Louisa Jacobson, 32  — had been quietly “separated for more than six years.”

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