According to ComingSoon.net, Aidan Quinn has joined the cast of the independent feature Dark Matter as production is underway in Salt Lake City. Quinn, who portrays a science professor in the film, is working with a renowned international cast that includes Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, Tony Award winner Blair Brown and Chinese star Liu Ye, who makes his American film debut. Dark Matter is financed by American Sterling Productions (ASP) and is produced by ASP in association with Saltmill LLC. Myriad Pictures is handling the films worldwide distribution. “We’re very honored to have actors in this cast who amaze us daily with their talent and generosity. It is a blessing to have an actor I’ve long admired, Aidan Quinn, join our production in such an important role,” said director Chen Shi-Zheng, who co-wrote the story with Billy Shebar, the film’s screenwriter. Dark Matter marks Chen’s transition to film from theater, where he is a renowned director. Inspired by a true story, Dark Matter depicts the humor, frustration and heartbreak that results when different cultures collide and communication falters. The film follows the story of Liu Xing, a brilliant Chinese science student, who strives to impress his mentor Jacob Reiser (Quinn) with his theories on the origins of the universe. Helping Liu Xing adapt but unable to protect him from academic politics are Joanna (Streep), a patron of the university with a passion for all things Chinese, and Hildy (Brown), Reiser’s secretary. “‘Dark Matter’ is a cross-cultural story, a sort of Spaghetti Eastern,” explains Chen Shi-Zheng. “It is about what happens when people from different cultures interact in a highly competitive environment, and the roller coaster ride of excitement, anxiety, and missed opportunity those interactions bring about.”

Unconfirmed yet, but interesting: Production Weekly reports that Anthony Hopkins, Meryl Streep and Paul Giamatti will star in an adaptation of Jay Parini’s novel The Last Station, for director Michael Hoffman. Set in the last tumultuous years of Leo Tolstoy’s (Hopkins) life, the historical biopic centers on the battle for his soul waged by his wife, Sofya Andreyevna (Streep) and his leading disciple, Vladimir Cherkov (Giamatti). Torn between his professed codtrine of poverty and chastity and the reality of his enormous wealth, his thirteen children, and a life of hedonism, Tolstoy makes a dramatic flight from his home. Too ill to continue beyond the tiny rail station at Astapovo, he believes that he is dying alone, while over one hundred newspapermen camp outside awaiting hourly reports on his condition. The film is scheduled to begin shooting at locations in Russia in February.

“The Devil Wears Prada,” a satire starring Meryl Streep as the editor of a woman’s fashion magazine, will kick off the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 22, eight days before its theatrical release, organizer Film Independent said Tuesday. More than 265 feature films and shorts will be presented during the 10-day festival, to be held primarily at venues in and around Westwood for the first time. More information can be found at the festival’s Official Website.

Coinciding with the release of the new film “A Prairie Home Companion,” the Hollywood Bowl will present A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor June 2. The 8 PM evening at the famed outdoor theatre will be hosted by Garrison Keillor and will feature Tim Russell, Sue Scott, Fred Newman and Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band. Special guests for the evening will include Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly and Academy Award winner Meryl Streep. “America’s favorite storyteller, Garrison Keillor,” reads production notes, “brings us The News From Lake Wobegon plus special guests for a live performance of the ever-popular radio show. It’s an evening of music, storytelling, comedy and down-home fun.” Robert Altman directed “A Prairie Home Companion,” which is due in movie theatres this summer. The film, which follows the final broadcast of a popular radio show, features Kline, Madsen, Reilly and Streep as well as Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, Tommy Lee Jones and Matthew Modine. The Hollywood Bowl is located at 2301 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood, CA. Tickets are available by calling (323) 850-2000. Visit www.hollywoodbowl.org for more information.

Meryl Streep is narrating a pair of children’s classics, “The Velveteen Rabbit” and “The Night Before Christmas,” that will be released later this year as audiobooks at Starbucks coffeehouses. “This is continuing our commitment to providing customers with compelling family entertainment titles,” Starbucks Entertainment President Ken Lombard told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The audiobooks feature musical accompaniment by George Winston, the Edwin Hawkins Singers and others. After an initial four-month run at Starbucks, Random House Inc.’s Listening Library will give the recordings a general release. Starbucks Corp. has been expanding its entertainment offerings over the past few years, releasing CDs by Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones, among others, and promoting the movie “Akeelah and the Bee.” The company recently announced an alliance with the William Morris Agency, a talent and literary agency that will help Starbucks identify music, film and book projects to consider for marketing and distribution in its stores.

The Public Theater’s 2006 Summer Gala will bring the Public’s 50th Anniversary Season to a close by honoring Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep, two prominent actors who have made significant artistic contributions to The Public Theater over the last four decades. The Gala will take place on Wednesday, June 28th at the Delacorte on the opening night of Macbeth, the first production this summer of Shakespeare in the Park. Artistic director Oskar Eustis said “Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep are the greatest stage actors of their generation and are indelibly linked to the history of The Public Theater. In honoring them we celebrate their achievements of the past and welcome them back to a central role in The Public Theater’s future.” The full article can be read here.

The May 2006 issue of “W” Magazine will feature the stars of the upcoming “A Prairie Home Companion”, Meryl Streep and Lindsay Lohan, on its cover. The magazine is also going to feature an insightful article on their film, their relationship to each other and their upcoming projects.

Streep blew into Brookline yesterday to accept the third annual Coolidge Award, handed out by the independent nonprofit Coolidge Corner Theatre to honor original and challenging filmmaking. “This award is really celebrating not so much me as what a small art theater, independent (means), and that creature has to be preserved,” she said yesterday. “I think it’s a really important thing and I’m proud to help out. Some of my really good friends are associated with the theater and I’m happy to support that.” Here’s an article on Meryl’s Coolidge Appearance.

Lindsay Lohan, Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly and Lily Tomlin will all sing on the soundtrack to the movie “A Prairie Home Companion.” The album from the Robert Altman film will come out May 23 on New Line Records, Billboard.com reported. The album will also include original songs written and performed by “Prairie Home Companion” host Garrison Keillor and his Shoe Band, Billboard said. New Line is releasing a 25-track CD along with a deluxe edition that includes a DVD of music outtakes from the film based on Keillor’s radio show. The film is scheduled to hit U.S. theaters June 6.

James Earl Jones, Meryl Streep, and Coutrney B. Vance are among the stars who will participate in the seventh annual Dramatists Guild Fund Benefit on Monday, April 10 at the Hudson Theatre. Public tickets to the entertainment portion of the event, which begins at 9pm, are now being made available to the public. There will also be a salute to the late Wendy Wasserstein by Streep and her daughter, actress Mamie Gummer, and a scene from August Wilson’s Fences performed by Jones and Vance, who starred in the show on Broadway.