Meryl Streep hosted a star-studded screening of Emilia Pérez on Wednesday at the San Vicente Bungalows, followed by a Q&A with her Only Murders in the Building co-star Selena Gomez, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. After Streep posed a number of questions to Gomez, the three-time Oscar winner invited questions from the audience. Bening and Wilson were the first who were called on. A full transcript of the Q&A appears below. Emilia Pérez, written and directed by Jacques Audiard, stars Gomez alongside Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz. The film follows a feared cartel leader who enlists a lawyer to help her disappear while achieving her dream of transitioning into a woman. At May’s Cannes Film Festival, the fest jury bestowed upon the film a jury prize and Gomez, Saldaña, Gascón and Paz the best actress award. France has since submitted it for the best international feature Oscar competition, and the film is widely regarded as a top contender in many other categories. Numerous industry A-listers have championed Emilia Pérez, including Guillermo del Toro, who after a screening at the Directors Guild of America in October, moderated a Q&A with Audiard during which he declared, “It’s so beautiful to see a movie that is cinema” and said of Audiard, “I think he’s one of the most amazing filmmakers alive today.”

On Wednesday, New York Public Radio, home of WNYC and WQXR, hosted its annual gala celebrating WNYC’s 100 years on the air. The centennial event paid tribute to WNYC’s century of service, from its origins as New York’s first City-run radio station to its transformation into an independent, listener-supporter public radio station and global leader in audio storytelling. The event, held at The Glasshouse, was hosted by Seth Meyers. Notable attendees included special guests Meryl Streep, Julia Stiles, Rosie Perez, John Turturro, Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, and more. The evening honored the Leon Levy Foundation, which enabled the digitization of WNYC’s archives through a generous $2.5M contribution — ensuring access to historical documents, recordings, and photographs that chronicle the institution’s public engagement and role in New York City’s history since 1924. Pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery.

On Friday, Meryl Streep was honored at the Irish Arts Center’s 25th Annual Spirit of Ireland Gala in New York. Speaking about the Spirit of Ireland Gala, Streep said: “I am thrilled and delighted to join my Irish friends on the night, in support of this extraordinary center and its dedicated staff and associated writers, performers and artisans. I know the craic will be good!!” Irish Arts Center Executive Director, Aidan Connolly, said: “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to present Meryl Streep with our Spirit of Ireland Award at this year’s 25th Annual Gala. A couple of pictures from yesterday’s event have been added to the photo gallery.

On Sunday, Meryl Streep spoke at Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation 30th Anniversary Ambassadors for Humanity Gala at New York Hilton Midtown. “I am honored and I’m humbled to be here in the presence of survivors of the Shoah and in the company of some people who have dedicated their lives, heart and soul, to preserving the memories of these people and honoring their lives,” Streep said. Speaking of her friend, she went on to say, “30 years ago, my lion-hearted friend, Steven Spielberg, oppression artist with an unmatched gift for storytelling, saw that the defense of the truth was very, very important.” Spielberg founded the USC Shoah Foundation in 1994 after the release of his 1993 historical drama film Schindler’s List. A couple of pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery.

This vault of irrefutable truth has a living mission, and 80 plus years after the Holocaust,” Streep continued. “The spoken words of the survivors are more crucially important than ever to bring us face to face with what hate can do and where it can lead us, to remind us of the consequences if we do nothing, and to keep alive the memory of what actually happened. Not just to chronicle the unspeakable acts of the past, but to inspire us with the vivid counts of courage that are lying within them, that they reveal to us, and that very courage is something we’re all going to need in the very near future. (Meryl Streep, October 13, 2024)

I cannot remember the last time we’ve had two weeks with that many news and appearances. Yesterday, Meryl Streep attended the annual Albie Awards hosted by the Clooney Foundation for Justice. “For the third year in a row, The Albies continues to be the event that brings us together with CFJ’s friends and supporters to recognize and celebrate those who have put their lives on the line in their fearless fight for justice around the globe,” said Amal and George Clooney. “This year’s awardees have confronted major barriers as well as great danger in their pursuit of justice. The Albies shines a light on their work and we are proud to honor them.” A list of all honorees can be found on the foundation’s official website. Pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery.

On Sunday, the New Jersey Hall of Fame team was thrilled and honored that Actress Meryl Streep stopped by to visit the New Jersey Hall of Fame at American Dream last week to film her remarks for the NJHOF’s 16th annual Induction Ceremony, which will be hosted by Danny DeVito and scheduled to broadcast on November 9, 2024, and premiere on social media in January. “Meryl is widely regarded as the greatest actress of her generation (and probably any generation). The wisdom she shared about the importance of tapping into your imagination to live your best life, was priceless. Meryl is very kind and humble, and proud to be a Jersey girl. She will be formally inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in November. Details about our television special that is being filmed on location at our new museum and will be released in the coming weeks,” stated NJHOF President Steve Edwards.

On Thursday, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez and Meryl Streep were on hand at the Paramount Lot in Los Angeles to celebrate the fourth season of “Only Murders in the Building”, which will premiere next week. Hopefully, there will be lots of promotion and interviews these coming days to promote the show. For now, pictures from the premiere have been added to the photo gallery.

Back in April Nicole Kidman was honored as the recipient of the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award. Yesterday, TNT finally aired the ceremony and posted an array of speeches online, including Meryl’s final speech before handing the AFI award to her co-star from “The Hours”, “The Prom” and “Big Little Lies”. It was a heartfelt and very entertaining speech, so make sure to check it out. Screencaptures have been added to the photo gallery.

On Friday, Meryl Streep joined conductor Mikko Franck, the Chœur de Radio France, Maîtrise de Radio France and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, for the world-premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s “Dream Requiem”. Streep read Lord Byron’s poem “Darkness”, written in July 1816. Introducing the Dream Requiem, Rufus Wainwright wrote: “The music speaks of death, but I wanted it to be inspiring and full of hope at the same time. The work combines two soundworlds: The Latin Requiem text is sung by a large mixed choir, children’s choir and soprano soloist while the Byron text ‘Darkness’, which describes an environmental catastrophe, is spoken by a narrator. Dream Requiem was conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic and is also about the people we have lost during that crisis, for the loss of human connection that we all experienced. The full concert is curerntly available on-demand on the ARTE Concert webiste (at least for French and German viewers) and will be released on DVD later this year. Pictures from the rehearsals, the concert day and screencaptures have been added to the photo gallery.

All public appearances at the 77th Cannes Film Festival have been updated with additional pictures, including a new Q&A, which took place earlier today: Taking a broader look at the state of the industry, as France currently goes through its own #MeToo reckoning, Streep considered how significantly the film industry changed once women gained greenlight authority at the studios.

Before there were women in greenlight positions at studios, it was very hard for men to see themselves in a female protagonist. It was not difficult for the women executives to see themselves in a male protagonist, but the hardest thing — I’ve said this 150,000 times — the hardest thing is for a male to live through the female in a movie who’s the lead,” Streep said during the Q&A. “They just didn’t get it. The first movie I ever made where a man came up to me afterwards and said ‘I know how you felt’ was “Devil Wears Prada.’ It was more than one man who came and said ‘I know how you felt, I know what it’s like to be the one to take the decisions and nobody understands you.’ That was fascinating to me.

After an extended standing ovation at the top of the Q&A, Streep talked through her first experience at the Cannes Film Festival back in 1989, where she would go on to win the best actress award for “A Cry in the Dark.” She remembered not feeling “safe” there. “I needed maybe a dozen [bodyguards] the first time I came here because, in the olden days, I don’t know, there wasn’t the same security. All the barriers weren’t there… it was insane. I almost didn’t recover from that. I couldn’t believe how wild it was. So that was 35 years ago. It’s changed a lot, the world has changed a lot,” Streep said. When asked further about this, she said it’s tied back to how she doesn’t consider herself a “rock star” and instead has a “life that is filled with things that are not hyperbolic like that.”