AFI Life Achievement Award honoree Meryl Streep will present Shirley MacLaine with the American Film Institute’s 40th Life Achievement Award – America’s highest honor for a career in film. The private black tie gala will be held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City on June 7 and will air on TV Land on Sunday, June 24 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. “The world loves Shirley MacLaine,” said Bob Gazzale, President and CEO of AFI. “AFI’s challenge will be how to fit it all into one evening because hers is a life that spans from movies to television to Broadway, books and beyond. Perhaps more than any other recipient, with Shirley I would underline the word life in Life Achievement Award,” he said. “Hers is a story more than just movies. It’s an epic journey, and she has invited all of us to come along for the ride.” “It is sure to be a magical evening celebrating Shirley’s career, especially with Meryl Streep and many other stars who will be on hand,” remarked Larry W. Jones, President, TV Land. “Shirley’s storied film and television career is so rich and colorful, it will be an unforgettable tribute.” Thanks to Glenn and Frederique for the heads-up.

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.

Yesterday, Meryl has attended the opening night of “An Early History of Fire”, the world-premiere of David Rabe’s new play. Pictures have been added to the image library with many thanks to Joan for the heads-up!

According to Playbill, Academy Award winners Kevin Kline and Meryl Steep – both veterans of New York Shakespeare Festival – will play the famous balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet as the Shakespeare classic’s title characters in a gala benefit staged reading June 18 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Daniel Sullivan will direct the performance that celebrates to the day The Public Theater’s 50-year anniversary of producing Shakespeare in the outdoor venue. Additional casting for the staged reading of the “tale of woe” about star-crossed lovers will be announced. This is the Public’s annual fundraising gala. The Public Theater has produced Romeo and Juliet twice before at the Delacorte (1968 and 2007). Streep, who has performed five times at the Delacorte since 1976, and Kline, who has performed nine times since 1970, will play the iconic teen-age roles for the first time in their careers, according to The Public. They last shared the Delacorte stage in a 2006 production of Mother Courage and Her Children.

Equality Now, one of the world’s leading organizations working to protect and promote the human rights of women and girls worldwide, will mark its 20th Anniversary on April 19 with a benefit at the Asia Society in New York City. The evening will honor Equality Now’s accomplishments over the last two decades and will also celebrate the future of the organization. Hosted by Sarah Jones, the event will feature celebrity readings written by writer, director and producer Joss Whedon and Sarah Jones and a musical performance by Natalie Merchant. Expected performers include Meryl Streep, Laura Linney, Rosie Perez and others. Information about the event can be found at equalitynow.org/event/20thanniversary.

Meryl Streep j4has oined Elton John, Sting and James Taylor for their own special version of The Wizard of Oz at a benefit concert to raise funds for rainforest communities in Central and South America, yesterday. Sting’s wife, Trudie Styler, produced the all-star fund-raiser with the theme Songs from the Silver Screen for The Rainforest Foundation US at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Sting had a surprise hit with the dark theme from comedy series M*A*S*H, Suicide is Painless, while Streep sang When You Wish Upon A Star. Over 100 pictures from the concert have been added to the image library.

Also, there is some speculation at this time that Meryl is in talks to join Stephen Sondheim’s production of “Into the Woods”, playing the Delacorte this summer. Not long ago, a British newspaper interview with Sondheim mentioned that Meryl was a rumored possibility to portray the Witch in the revival. Sondheim didn’t confirm or deny the buzz, but interestingly said, “We will see. I think she’d be great.” That set excited little heads spinning all around town. Meanwhile, a good friend of Meryl was just cast. Amy Adams – who costarred with the multi-Oscar winner in Doubt and Julie and Julia – is going to play the Baker’s Wife. Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up!

The 2012 Tribeca Film Festival revealed its panel series as well as six new titles that will world premiere at the upcoming event. Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Judd Apatow will take part in the tribute panel “Tribeca Talks: 100 Years of Universal” on April 19, 2012, to celebrate the anniversary of Universal Pictures, and to share their favorite moments and memories from Universal’s extraordinary history. The panel will be moderated by Mike Fleming. Additional panels include conversations with Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore; director Jim Sheridan and his daughter Naomi Sheridan; as well as Rob Lowe and Christian Slater. The Tribeca Talks panel series is open to the public and will take place throughout the festival, which runs April 18-29 at locations around New York City.

As previously reported, Meryl has attended the New York screening of “Bully”, yesterday. Pictures from the event have been added to the image library.

Here’s what Forbes wrote about the event: Meryl Streep has three Oscars and is considered the best of all American actresses. But she was bulled in school. She talked about it on Monday night after she was introduced by actress Regency Boies at the Weinstein Company screeening of “Bully” at the Paley Center in New York. The screening was part of the campaign to get the MPAA to change the rating to PG-13 before the film opens next Friday in New York and Los Angeles. Here’s what she said: “I watched this with my four college roommates. We get together every year. A child psychologist, a woman who’s a lawyer, a columnist, and a businesswoman–we were all stunned. It brought me back to New Jersey in nineteen fifty…–a long time ago. I was eight year old and up a tree. And my nemesis, this one bully, was hitting my legs with a stick until they bled. It was very ‘Lord of the Flies’. It was a very nice Republican community, I might add. [Ed note–Meryl said this a with a smile, knowing a lot of the audience were bankers from similar towns. The remark got laughs.] Seeing this, you realize it’s been around, bullying. But I hope this film will give encouragement to the kids who are being bullied. My dad had a little statue on his desk of three little monkeys, a carved Chinese statuette– doing this, this and this. [She demonstrated See No Evil, Say No Evil, Hear No Evil]. I thought maybe this will encourage all those little monkeys to stand up and open their eyes and take the earbuds out of their ears and say something. Because a team is stronger than a bully. I hope you really like it, and tell absolutely everybody at the MPAA that it should have a rating of PG-13.”

And from the New York Daily News: Meryl Streep learned something new about her daughter Tuesday. At a special screening of “Bully” that the Oscar winner hosted at the Paley Center for Media, actress Regency Boies recalled the times her classmate, Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer, came to the aid of fellow students who were being tormented. “I saw her on more than a few occasions come to the rescue of some of our classmates that were being ridiculed when none of the rest of us were brave enough to confront them,” Boies said, adding that she knew Gummer’s actions were a product of “the integrity and the kindness that Meryl instilled.” After listening to Boies remarks, an emotional Streep said it was the first time she’d heard this and needed a moment “to recover, because that’s just so great to hear.” Other guests called “Bully” great, adding that they could not understand why the MPAA would give such a powerful documentary an R rating.

In other news, director Ulu Grosbard, who directed Meryl in the 1984 love story Falling in Love, has died. Grosbard was nominated for his first Tony Award in 1965 for The Subject Was Roses, Frank D. Gilroy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a soldier (Martin Sheen) returning from war to his parents in the Bronx. His second nom came in 1977 for the original Broadway production of David Mamet’s American Buffalo, the junk shop-set drama that starred Robert Duvall. Grosbard directed Dustin Hoffman in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971) and Straight Time (1978) and helmed the 1968 screen adaptation of The Subject Was Roses, his feature debut. Other credits include Georgia (1995), with Jennifer Jason Leigh and The Deep End of the Ocean (1999), starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

Yesterday, Meryl has attended the Broadway revival’s opening night of “Death of a Salesman”. Pictures have been added to the image library.

Meryl Streep, Tom Brokaw, Terrence Howard, Dianne Reeves, Chip Kidd, and others will gather on stage at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City, on April 5 for the 10th anniversary celebration of Poetry & the Creative Mind. This annual poetry gala is hosted by the Academy of American Poets and features acclaimed actors, musicians, writers, visual artists, and other creative individuals sharing the poems that inspire them. Tickets to the performance ($45-$75) are now available and can be purchased through the Lincoln Center website, the Alice Tully Hall box office, or by phone. Many thanks to Sabine for the heads-up!