Lots of pictures from yesterday’s Public Theater Gala’s benefit reading of “Romeo & Juliet” have been added to the image library, most of them in high quality.

According to BBC News, George Clooney is to produce the film version of Tracey Letts’ play, August: Osage County, which will star Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. The play, about a dysfunctional family brought back together after their poet father disappears, won the Pulitzer and the Tony awards for best drama in 2008. Streep and Roberts will play mother and daughter in the film. “It’s such a terrific group and we feel honoured to help bring it to the screen,” said Clooney in a statement. The Weinstein company is backing the movie adaptation, while John Wells is directing. Wells is best known for his TV work including ER, Mildred Pierce and the US adaptation of Shameless. And Clooney will be joined by co-producer Grant Heslov, who was also behind the star’s previous films The Ides of March and Good Night and Good Luck. “Grant and I are thrilled to work on this project… I can’t think of anyone better than Harvey to put this all together,” Clooney continued. Weinstein returned the compliment: “George and Grant are gifted producers, with great taste and instincts, and a work ethic that is second to none.” Streep will play a matriarch who is addicted to prescription drugs, while Roberts will portray her eldest daughter Barbara. The play made its Broadway debut in December 2007 after premiering at Chicago’s Steppenwolf theatre earlier that year. The rest of the cast has still to be announced. Shooting will begin in the autumn.

The Public Theater today presents Kevin Kline as Romeo and Meryl Streep as Juliet in a one-night-only benefit reading of “Romeo and Juliet” – the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The cast will also feature F. Murray Abraham, Christine Baranski, John Cullum , Raúl Esparza, David Harbour, Bill Irwin, Jesse L. Martin, Sandra Oh, Phylicia Rashad, Jerry Stiller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Christopher Walken, Sharon Washington, Sam Waterston and Jeffrey Wright. Conceived by Public Theater founder Joe Papp as a way to make great theater accessible to all, over the past five decades, more than five million people have enjoyed more than 150 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at the Delacorte. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, this star-studded cast will be joined on stage by live musicians playing original music by award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori.

This Sunday’s spotlight is “The Hours”, Stephen Daldry’s Oscar-winning drama that combines the stories of three women’s life in a day – a fantastic film I can only recommend. New DVD screencaptures have been added to the image library, three new clips, a complete making of and television spots have been added to the video archive. Also, a good occasion to replay the 2002 Oprah Winfrey Show, featuring in-depth conversations with Meryl, Julianne and Nicole. Production notes and my review can be found after the cut. As always, please share your thoughts on “The Hours” in the comments.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama made a rare joint fundraising appearance when they visited the home of actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. The intimate dinner banked about $2 million, with 50 people paying $40,000 each. Speaking in a dimly lighted, art-filled room, Obama told supporters they would play a critical role in an election that would determine a vision for the nation’s future. “You’re the tie-breaker,” he said. “You’re the ultimate arbiter of which direction this country goes.” Among the celebrities on hand to hear Obama’s remarks were Oscar winner Meryl Streep, fashion designer Michael Kors and Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who moderated a private question-and-answer session between the president and the guests. Broderick, who was starring in a Broadway musical, was absent. The few pictures from this event posted so far are all paparazzi shots which I’m not going to post. Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

We always come back, because the good nights at the Delacorte have a rare, peculiar magic. Wind stirs the trees, the skies darken, the stage fills with a blending of real and artificial moonlight; then one of our country’s greatest actors, working for sub-minimum, steps forward to speak the best and most beautiful words ever written, revealing aspects of ourselves we never expected to encounter in Central Park. Boundaries dissolve, between actor and audience, self and park, art and nature.

We discover anew how porous boundaries always are. This summer, for the price of a little urban strategy, Sitzfleisch, and faith, we’ll walk into the woods of Central Park to enter… the woods, either Shakespeare’s or Sondheim and Lapine’s, their ersatz forests onstage not a twig more unnatural than the park the stage is nestled in. Gloriously self-invented and self-deceiving, Lily Rabe’s Rosalind will speak, and Donna Murphy’s witch will sing, and our knowledge of what it is to be human will deepen. In this theatrical heart of this communal dream of paradise that’s the heart of the ceaselessly inventing, deluding, magical city surrounding us, our hearts will skip a beat, or momentarily stop, or swell to bursting – and then begin beating anew, pumping through our veins and arteries revivified and richer blood.

Yesterday, Meryl Streep applauded Viola Davis as she handed her a top prize at the 2012 Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards. The Help star was honored with the Crystal Award for Excellence In Film at the Los Angeles ceremony. She called Davis “a lion-hearted woman;” a gifted and determined actress who studied at Juilliard, won Tony Awards and captivated Hollywood with her eight-minute performance in “Doubt.” “She was a newcomer at 45,” Streep joked. Davis returned the love as she accepted the award. “I have a confession,” she said, sharing how touched she was when Streep sent her a card after the film wrapped. Davis also kept a photo of the two of them together on set. “OK Meryl, I framed the card,” Davis said. “So you can never come over to the house.” Pictures from the event can be found in the image library. Edit: Some 100 more pictures have been added. Click the second row of previews to launch all last added images.

Additional casting has been announced for one-night-only reading of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at The Public Theater’s Delacorte Theatre in Central Park on Monday, June 18. The reading will be directed by Daniel Sullivan and will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte. In addition to Oscar and Tony Award winners Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep in the title roles, the reading will feature F. Murray Abraham (Friar Laurence), Christine Baranski (Nurse), John Cullum (Capulet), Raúl Esparza (Sampson, Apothecary, Watchman 1), David Harbour (Abraham, Capulet Servant, Paris’ Page), Bill Irwin (Montague), Jesse L. Martin (Gregory, Friar John, Watchman 2), Sandra Oh (Lady Montague), Phylicia Rashad (Lady Capulet), Jerry Stiller (Peter), Michael Stuhlbarg (Paris), Christopher Walken (Mercutio), Sharon Washington (Stage Directions), Sam Waterston (Benvolio), and Jeffrey Wright (Tybalt), along with an on-stage band playing the music of Jeanine Tesori. The evening will also include dinner al fresco and a party immediately following the performance. Click here for more information and tickets to The Public Theaters gala celebration.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the storied Paramount Pictures, the only studio to still call Hollywood (the L.A. neighborhood, not the state of mind) its home. Founded in 1912 as the Famous Players Film Company, it more than lived up to its billing, claiming silent greats such as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, and Rudolph Valentino, not to mention Cecil B. DeMille, who made all his biblical epics for the studio. To celebrate its 100th birthday, Paramount Pictures assembled 116 of the greatest talents ever to work at the studio—including Meryl Streep, Kirk Douglas, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, and many, many more. An interactive version of the picture can be found on the Vanity Fair website and in the image library.

Thirty-two years after Azaria Chamberlain, 9 weeks old, disappeared from a campsite in Australia, the coroner in the fourth inquest into her death announced on Tuesday that the baby died as a result of being taken by a dingo, an Australian wild dog. The ruling signified the end of three decades of struggle for the Chamberlain family. At first, Azaria’s mother, Lindy Chamberlain, was convicted of murdering her daughter and was sent to prison. That verdict was later overturned and Ms. Chamberlain set free, but subsequent inquests were unable to reach a determination on how Azaria died, despite growing evidence that Ms. Chamberlain was truthful in her statement that a dingo was responsible for the death at the campsite in central Australia. The coroner, Elizabeth Morris, with tears in her eyes, addressed the Chamberlain family in a courtroom in Darwin, Australia. “Please accept my sincere sympathies on the death of your special daughter,” Ms. Morris said. “I am so sorry. Time does not remove the pain and sadness of the death of a child.” She said of Azaria, “The cause of her death was the result of being taken by a dingo.” The death of Azaria and the arrest and conviction of her mother became an international saga with the making of the 1988 movie “A Cry in the Dark,” in which Meryl Streep played Ms. Chamberlain. The full article can be read at the New York Times.