Artists Meryl Streep, Sting, Joan Baez, Cynthia Nixon, Yoko Ono and Patrick Stewart signed an Amnesty International Letter to Presidents Obama and Karzai on Afghan Women’s Rights. The open letter was released Sunday to President Obama and President Karzai, calling on them to give women a voice in the conversation about Afghanistan’s future. The letter was released by Amnesty International as it staged a “Shadow Summit for Afghan Women” hours before the NATO Summit got underway in Chicago. Signatories included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, feminist Gloria Steinem, Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi, along with a roster of leading Afghan women’s rights advocates.

Read the open letter: http://amnestyusa.org/obamaandkarzailetter
Read the list of signatories: http://amnestyusa.org/afghanwomensignatories

“The women of Afghanistan have come too far to see their rights vanish,” said Frank Januzzi, head of Amnesty International USA’s Washington office. “They must be part of the conversation about the future of Afghanistan or that future will look very bleak indeed. No one wants a return to the days when the Taliban banned women and girls from schools and work, and held them as virtual prisoners in their own country. This would be the ultimate catastrophe after a decade of gains for women. We hope the voices of these notable signatories will add to the pressure on Presidents Obama and Karzai to follow through on the promise of human rights for all women in Afghanistan.” Amnesty International urged Presidents Obama and Karzai to adopt eight key steps to make sure Afghan woman can continue the progress they have made on rights and freedoms after the troops leave in 2014. Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up

This week’s spotlight is “Before and After”, Barbet Schroeder’s 1996 drama about a family’s struggle after their son is being accused of murdering his girlfriend. If you would like to add this to your collection, “Before and After” has been released on Blu-Ray this week in the USA. The media pages for the film have been updated with Blu-Ray screencaptures, a couple of new production stills, on-set pictures as well as three new video clips. Production notes and my review can be found after the cut. As always, share your thoughts on “Before and After” in the comments section.

Another change has been made to Simply Streep that I had in mind for quite some time now – subsections for international articles. The aim is to provide foreign language articles as well. And to keep a better overview, each country receives its own subcategory. If you have collected non-english articles and would like to share them with the visitors of Simply Streep, please drop me a line. For now, subcategories for Germany, Italy and France have been created – you can already find some (translated) articles, which were kindly contributed by Simona and Soukup. You can find the subcategories on the left in the magazine archive, simply click the flags. Also added to the image library are two French articles from 1983 and 1986, sent in by Alvaro. Enjoy!

These days, lots of panels and parties are held to raise interest in the Broadway shows nominated for a Tony. Among them is Mike Nichols’ “Death of a Salesman”, produced by Scott Rudin and starring Philip Seymour Hofman. A discussion panel on the play, which has held yesterday, was hosted by Meryl Streep. Here’s more informtion courtesy the New York Post: The press wasn’t admitted. The Broadway League has some silly bugaboo about press coverage of the roadies. I suppose the League fears we might find out just how shaky the road is these days, what with so many mediocre shows flying around out there. Ted Chapin, chairman of the American Theatre Wing, was announced as the moderator. But – surprise, surprise! – Meryl Streep came onstage to a five-minute standing ovation. (Rudin’s produced several of her movies, including “Doubt” and “The Hours.”) Streep moderated the panel and asked some pointed and insightful questions. She wondered, for instance, if any of the actors ever “steal” from other actors, adding: “I do all the time, but only from men!” Of Nichols she said: “There have been many times, Mike, in our working relationship when I wished I were Diane Sawyer. But never more so than now.” Hoffman admitted that playing a role such as Willy Loman takes over your life. “You wake up, you’re Willy Loman,” he said. “You go to lunch, you’re Willy Loman. You go to dinner, you’re Willy Loman. You’re Willy Loman all the time.” To prevent the play from taking over their lives completely, Garfield told the crowd, the cast goes out every night after the show to “reconnect.” Nichols said he swings by the theater at least once a week to see the play. “Very often you have to do what I call ‘killing babies,’” he said. “You have to take an actor aside and say, ‘You know that part where you come in and say, “Hello,” and then pirouette around the stage? I think you should go back to just saying “Hello.”’ I don’t have to do that with this cast.” I’m told every single road voter attended the “Salesman” event, which should sew it up nicely for the show on Tony night. Many thanks to Glenn and Holly for the heads-up.

Forbes has released its annualy Celebrity 100 List of the world’s most powerful celebrities, and Meryl is among them. The full list can be found on their website. Here’s what they wrote about Meryl: The most nominated actress of all time, Streep won her third Academy Award this year for The Iron Lady a biopic about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. At the age of 62, Streep has an enviable career. She works consistently and balances smaller, award-worthy films with more mainstream fare like Hope Springs. Thanks to Christopher for the heads-up.

It’s Mother’s Days, so what better film to cover than “Postcards from the Edge”, Mike Nichols’ 1990 drama comedy of a disfunctional mother-daughter relationship. New DVD screencaptures from the film have been added to the image library, three clips from the film can be found in the video archive – with a bonus clip of Meryl performing “I’m Checking Out“. Also, be sure to have a look at this 1991 segment from E! Entertainment, featuring an interview with Meryl and on-set footage from the film. Production notes and my review after the cut. As always, share your thoughts on “Postcards from the Edge” in the comments.

It’s my great pleasure to announce a new section to Simply Streep – the Fan Sightings. Over the years, many fans and visitors of Simply Streep were fortunate to meet Meryl Streep at events, such as film festivals and premieres. So I have created a new section to collect those stories. You can already read two stories online – one by Simona, who met Meryl at the 2009 Rome International Film Festival, and one by Miri, who met Meryl last November in Beijing at the US-China Forum on the Arts and Culture. If you have met Meryl and would like to share your story, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll feature your story as well. You’re welcome to include pictures or memorabilia to share with the visitors. If there are more questions, feel free to ask :-) And now, enjoy the stories.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment Commissioner Katherine L. Oliver will host the seventh annual “Made in NY” Awards on June 4th at Gracie Mansion. The awards are given each year to individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to various fields in the City’s entertainment and digital media industries. The 2012 “Made in NY” honorees include: Academy Award-winning actor, director, producer Robert De Niro; Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep; Academy Award, Emmy, Tony and Grammy winner Whoopi Goldberg; actress and television host Kelly Ripa; award-winning transmedia company @radical.media, which develops, produces and distributes innovative content across all forms of media; and the locally based Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects. This year’s “Made in NY” Mayor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement will be presented to actors and legendary husband-and-wife comedy team Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.

This week’s spotlight covers “She-Devil”, Susan Seidelman’s 1989 comedy about a frumpy housewives revenge after being left by her husband for a beautiful, rich author. New DVD screencaptures from the film have been added to the image library, as well as three video clips from the film. Production notes and my review can be found after the cut. As always, please share your thoughts about the film in the comments. Enjoy your Sunday!

This month, Meryl Streep, Bill Clinton, Jason Wu, Alec Baldwin, and Yo-Yo Ma are linking arms to take part in the RFK Center’s fifth annual online auction to support human rights worldwide. The RFK Center launched its 5th Annual Spring Auction today and will be open to bidders through May 17. The auction features nearly 100 incredible adventures donated by A-list supporters of the organization, with more celebs joining every day. Meryl has donated two premiere tickets for the New York premiere of “Hope Springs” this August (likely August 6 but not guaranteed). You can find all auctions here and Meryl’s auction in particular here. Thanks to everybody for the heads-up!