According to Variety, Cher has joined Universal’s “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!” The multi-hyphenate hinted at her appearance in the movie over the weekend in a tweet and Variety has confirmed that she has been cast in the film. Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, and Christine Baranski are returning, with Ol Parker writing and directing. The film goes back and forth in time to show how relationships forged in the past resonate in the present. Lily James will play the role of Young Donna. Young versions of Rosie and Tanya will be portrayed by Alexa Davies and Jessica Keenan Wynn, respectively. Young Sam will be played by Jeremy Irvine, while Young Bill is Josh Dylan and Young Harry is Hugh Skinner. The movie began shooting in September in the U.K. and Croatia. Littlestar’s Judy Craymer and Playtone’s Gary Goetzman, who produced the original, will re-team for the sequel. Craymer is also the creator and producer of the stage musical. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus are aboard again to provide music and lyrics and serve as executive producers. Universal’s Kristen Lowe and Lexi Barta will oversee production for the studio. The original 2008 movie was a surprise blockbuster, grossing more than $600 million worldwide. “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!” hits theaters on July 20, 2018. Many thanks to my news-heroes, Frank and Glenn, for the heads-up.

There isn’t much we know about “The Post” as of now – sure, we know it’s eagerly anticipated and a serious contender for the 2018 awards season, simply because Spielberg, Hanks and Streep are involved. But we don’t really know anything about its storyline, except that it will follow Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and executive editor Ben Bradlee and their 1971 decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, the leaked government documents about secret escalations during the Vietnam War. From what I’ve read since the project’s announcement, and from the Spielberg films I’ve seen, I was expecting Hanks to lead the picture and Streep playing second fiddle, an important one, but not a central one. But as screenwriter Liz Hannah has told Vulture in an interview, her script puts the focus onKatharine Graham. After reading her autobiography Personal History, “I absolutely fell in love with her,” Hannah says. Given that Graham had enough drama in her life to make “10,000 movies,” the problem was how to write something more than a broad biopic. By using the Pentagon Papers as a turning point, Hannah could zoom in on Graham’s struggle to find her voice – at age 54 – “and to become the person she was really going to be for the rest of her life.” The article also notes that Hannah was partnered with Josh Singer, a veteran screenwriter who won an Oscar for Spotlight, after Spielberg came on board. This sounds really exciting, as does the rest of the article, which can be read here.

Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg have rehearsed their red carpet appeal at yesterday’s screening of the HBO documentary “Spielberg”, about – you’ve guessed it, the visionary director’s career. Streep and Spielberg will share many more photo calls in December when their film “The Post” is being promoted. Additional coverage from Showbiz411: It was just your basic night at Alice Tully Hall for HBO and the premiere of Susan Lacy’s stunning “Spielberg” documentary. HBO welcomed a select crowd across the street for dinner at Lincoln Restaurant, where Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw had the whole family– lots of kids, and lots of friends: Blythe Danner, her son Jake Paltrow, his wife photographer Taryn Simon, plus Meryl Streep, Tony Bennett, Mike Myers, Barry Levinson, Paul Haggis, Greta Gerwig, Danny Strong, plus HBO’s Richard Plepler, as well as actor Bob Balaban and writer wife Lynn Grossman, Gina Gershon, Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue, Bennett Miller, and Spielberg’s legendary publicist since “Close Encounters,” Marvin Levy, the dean of Hollywood flacks. “Spielberg” begins airing on HBO tomorrow night. You’ve never had such a good reason stay home on a Saturday night.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Meryl Streep will present her Doubt co-star Amy Adams with this year’s American Cinematheque Award. Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hanks, Chris Messina, Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart will also be on hand at the Nov. 10 event to toast the Arrival actress. The American Cinematheque Award ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton. Proceeds from the evening will go toward the year-round programs of the nonprofit American Cinematheque, which includes programming at the Egyptian Theatre and the Aero in Santa Monica. Adams will next be seen in Justice League Part One, reprising her role of Lois Lane, and is set to star in HBO’s Gillian Flynn adaptation Sharp Objects. The American Cinematheque Award is usually broadcast as well, although no date has been given. Streep and Adams are two-time co-stars, having shared the screen in “Doubt” and at least the film although no scenes in “Julie & Julia”. Many thanks to Glenn and Frank for the heads-up.

On October 02, 1977, Meryl Streep’s very first film appearance released US theaters, Fred Zinneman’s “Julia”. The drama about the friendship between Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) and Lilian Hellman (Jane Fonda) would go on to receive 11 Academy Award nominations and win 3 – for Best Screenplay, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Jason Robards and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Vanessa Redgrave. If you’ve never seen Redgrave’s infamous acceptance speech, this is you chance to do it. Much can be said about the film and very little about Meryl, because almost all of her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. You can read the whole backstory on Meryl’s casting and the role of Ann-Marie Travers on Julia’s career page. All pictures in the photo gallery have been updated in better resolution and a new fantastic production still has been added as well. So, from today on, one can say that Meryl Streep is entertaining us with movies for 40 years!

In honor of the centennial of women being granted the right to vote in New York, the New-York Historical Society will screen the Meryl Streep-narrated documentary We Rise. The short film, which also features Alicia Keys’ original song “We Are Here,” tells the story of the women who fought for change in the U.S. during the early 20th century. The doc will profile many women of the era, including suffragist and black women’s organizations leader Addie Hunton, Henry Street Settlement founder Lillian Ward and birth control activist Margaret Sanger, to name a few.

“We are proud to celebrate the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York this year with a powerful new film and exhibition, each one showing how a determined group of people struggling for rights and equality can succeed in creating change,” NYHS CEO and president Dr. Louise Mirrer said Wednesday in a statement. “We Rise recounts a period of history that tends to be overlooked in textbooks, but the impact of those first decades of the 20th century leading up to women’s suffrage in New York is still felt today.” The film will premiere Nov. 3, the same day as the opening of the society’s latest exhibit, Hotbed. The exhibit will feature the bohemian vibe of Greenwich Village in the early 20th century and will explain the pivotal role female artists and activists played in earning the right to vote. We Rise will play on rotation with the film New York Story in the historical society’s ground-floor theater. Many thanks to Frank and Glenn for the heads-up.

Meryl Streep has made a surprise visit yesterday at Michael Moore’s Broadway performance of “Michael Moore: The Terms of my Surrender”. Moore, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, brings his unrivaled powers of provocation and satire to the stage for the first time in The Terms of My Surrender, a world premiere one-man play, which has been described as an “exhilarating, urgent show is a hysterical theatrical coup d’etat that takes the utter lunacy of our times and turns it into a subversive piece of theatre”. Pictures from the backstage visit have been added to the photo gallery.

As it tunes up for a July release, Universal’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again has added Andy Garcia to the cast. The sequel to 2008’s toe-tapping $610M worldwide grosser will return audiences to the magical Greek island of Kalokairi in an original musical based on the songs of Swedish pop sensations, ABBA. Garcia is stepping into a new role that is being kept under wraps. He joins the previous film’s Meryl Streep as Donna, Julie Walters as Rosie and Christine Baranski as Tanya. Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper reunite as Sophie and Sky, while Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård and Colin Firth return to play Sophie’s three possible dads: Sam, Bill and Harry. The story goes back and forth in time to show how relationships forged in the past resonate in the present, Lily James, Alexa Davies, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Jeremy Irvine, Josh Dylan and Hugh Skinner are the young versions of the original leads. Ol Parker writes and is directing Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again from a story by Catherine Johnson, Richard Curtis and Parker. It’s produced by Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman. Abba’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus are providing music and lyrics and serve as executive producers. Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Phyllida Lloyd, Richard Curtis and Nicky Kentish Barnes also serve as executive producers. Universal’s Senior Vice President of production Kristen Lowe and Creative Executive Lexi Barta will oversee production for the studio. Many thanks to Frank and Glenn for the heads-up.

Without any advance publicity or notice, The Weinstein Company quietly slipped the Chinese animated feature The Guardian Brothers onto Netflix last Friday. It was originally released on January 1, 2016, in China as Little Door Gods, marking the debut production of Beijing’s Light Chaser Animation. The ambitious production aimed to lift the quality of Chinese cg animation and push it closer to Western standards. Weinstein’s English version added a cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Edward Norton, Mel Brooks, Dan Fogler, Mike Birbiglia, Bella Thorne, and Randall Park. Rooted in the traditions of Chinese folklore, Guardian Brothers follows two guardian spirits – Yu Lei (Norton) and Shen Tu (Fogler) – who venture out of spirit-world retirement to help a mother and daughter whose restaurant is being sabotaged by a competitor. The Weinstein Company released Guardian Brothers through its new kids’ label Mizchief. It also has another animated film, Leap!, currently in U.S. theaters through the label. Netflix has made the film available in a total of 20 countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, U.K., New Zealand, India, Philippines, and Russia. The above trailer also features interviews Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Edward Norton. Many thanks to Alvaro for the heads-up.

Yesterday, Meryl Streep has won her third career Emmy Award, which means she now has three Emmys to go along with her trio of Oscars. Streep prevailed at the 2017 Creative Arts Emmys as Best Narrator for the Netflix documentary “Five Came Back,” though she was not in attendance to accept. Previously, she won Best Movie/Mini Actress for both “Angels in America” (2003) and “Holocaust” (1978). “Five Came Back” is Netflix’s acclaimed three-part series that streamed on March 31. Based on Mark Harris‘ book, the documentary profiles a quintet of Oscar-winning directors who put their Hollywood careers on hold in order to serve their country during World War II. Current directors honor each of the five men: Steven Spielberg for William Wyler, Guillermo del Toro for Frank Capra, Paul Greengrass for John Ford, Francis Ford Coppola for John Huston and Lawrence Kasdan for George Stevens. While Streep provides the narration for all three parts, the finale “The Price of Victory” was her official Emmy submission. That’s the entry that showcases the five directors returning home from war and how it forever affected their personal and professional lives. Streep did not attend the Creative Emmys, so no pictures to add. The full article can be read over at Goldderby. Many thanks to Frank and Glenn for the heads-up.