The icons of American publishing have their stories told in Steven Spielberg’s latest, which finally hits cinemas today.
It’s already generated a lot of awards season buzz, with Streep expected to garner an Oscar nod for her portrayal of Graham.
The real Kay Graham – who died in 2001, aged 84 – led the Washington Post for two decades, and won the Pulitzer Prize for her memoir Personal History in 1998.
Bradlee, meanwhile, passed away just a few years ago: he died in 2014 at the age of 93.
Bradlee was at the Post as executive editor from 1968 to 1991, and at the time of his death he was still known as the vice president at-large of the newspaper.
In an interview in 1997, Graham said of the Pentagon Papers – the scandal which forms the backbone of The Post: “The Pentagon Papers had been given to the New York Times and the New York Times published them after they thought about it for three months.
“Then they were taken to court [by the administration] and stopped on the theory that the government could use prior restraint against a newspaper and so they had been stopped – and just as they were stopped, the Pentagon Papers were delivered to us.
“The editors and reporters really thought we had to resume where the Times left off and that the momentum was very important to keep up.”
She added: “The editors and reporters convinced me that they had to print that night, and so I had to make up my mind on the phone.”
Graham also described Bradlee as a “wonderful figure and a great colleague of mine”.
Streep and Hanks are joined by the likes of Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk and Bradley Whitford in the movie, which is in cinemas from today.