Meryl has attended yesterday’s Vassar College commencement. Pictures can be found in the Image Library with additional information below the previews.

Featured as commencement speaker was 1985 graduate Lisa Kudrow, who is also a college trustee. Kudrow told the graduates how she went from being a biology major to an actress. After graduating and doing research in her father’s headache clinic, she said, she found herself looking critically at how other actors and comedians approached their craft, and decided at 22 it was time to try her hand at acting. “I was also nervous about this career choice because I didn’t really care for actors,” Kudrow said. No one seemed to laugh more at that comment than Vassar alumna Meryl Streep, who was sitting with the other trustees.

The recenlty released Blu-Ray edition of “Out of Africa” features a bunch of never-before-seen deleted scenes of the 1985 film. With many thanks to Tina, captures from those can be now found in the Image Library. Also, with thanks to Nora, a compilation of the scenes is available on Youtube. Enjoy!

As reported earlier, Meryl Streep has delivered this year’s commencement speech at Barnard College, yesterday. Pictures can be found in the Image Library. Her speech – with thanks to Nora – can be watched at Youtube. The additional information below comes from the New York Post and Salon.

In her lovely commencement speech at Barnard College on Monday, Meryl Streep touched on a great many things: the importance of empathy; Streep’s history, as a high school student, of performing the role of the amenable, agreeable, gaily giggling girl who appealed to boys; her experience of meeting Vassar classmates who allowed her brain to wake up.

My success has depending wholly on my putting things over on people, so I’m not sure that parents think I’m that great a role model anyway. I am however an expert in pretending to be an expert in various areas. Just randomly, like everything else in this speech, I am an expert in kissing … river rafting, miming the effects of radiation poisoning, knowing which shoes go with which bag, coffee plantationing, Polish, German, French, I-talian – that’s Iowa-talian, from “the Bridges of Madison Country,” bit of a brogue, bit of the Bronx – Aramaic, Yiddish, Irish clog dancing, cooking, singing, horse riding, knitting, playing the violin and simulating steamy sexual encounters. These are some of the areas in which I have pretended quite [successfully to be proficient in] … as have many women here, I’m sure.

Among the things she noted was that years ago, men used to tell her that their favorite of her performances was as Linda, the submissive, sweet character from “The Deerhunter.” Now, Streep said, men are more likely to tell her that their favorite of her roles is as Miranda Priestly, the icy, complicated fashion magazine editor from “The Devil Wears Prada.” This ability of men to not simply look down on or fall in love with a deflated and unthreatening female character, but instead to identify with a powerful, bossy, and intense one, is a vital sign of gender progress.

“Things are changing now,” Streep told the Barnard graduates. “And it’s in your generation that we’re seeing this. Men are adapting. They are adapting consciously and also without realizing it for the better of the whole group. They are changing their deepest prejudices to accept and to regard as normal things that their fathers would have found very very difficult and that their grandfathers would have abhorred.”

A starry cast, featuring Marcia Gay Harden, Alfred Molina, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Elias Koteas, Viggo Mortensen, Aidan Quinn, Gloria Reuben and Debra Winger, presented a concert reading of Ariel Dorfman’s “Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark” May 3 to benefit Habitat for Humanity’s earthquake relief efforts in Chile.

According to the Public, “Speak Truth to Power chronicles the true-story accounts of heroic people withstanding horrific human rights abuses across the globe. Voices from around the world cry out against violence and oppression — from world leaders like Desmond Tutu to the unknown activists working on the ground level. Speak Truth to Power is a powerful and moving testimony of the will of the human spirit to rise up against injustice, even in the face of incredible darkness.”

Tony Award winner Marcia Gay Harden will join the previously announced Elias Koteas, Alfred Molina, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, Aidan Quinn, Gloria Reuben, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Debra Winger for a reading of Ariel Dorfman’s Speak Truth to Power: Voices From Beyond the Dark, adapted from the book by Kerry Kennedy. David Esbjornson will direct the benefit performance, at the Public Theater on Monday, May 3 at 7pm. The reading is presented by Dorfman, Kennedy, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and The Public. It chronicles the true-story accounts of heroic people withstanding horrific human rights abuses across the globe. Proceeds from the reading will benefit the relief efforts of Habitat for Humanity in Chile. All ticket holders will be invited to an exclusive post-show reception featuring the cast and creative team.

For more information, visit www.publictheater.org.

With many thanks to the great Tina, over 1000 DVD screencaptures of “It’s Complicated” have been added to the Image Library. The romantic comedy, co-starring Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, has been released on DVD in the United States on April 27, so be sure to grab your copy and enjoy Meryl’s latest film.

Top artists from the entertainment community will come together on June 10, 2010 as AFI presents the 38th AFI Life Achievement Award – the highest honor for a career in film – to acclaimed director Mike Nichols. The 25 artists from film, television and the stage who have confirmed their participation on the AFI Benefit Committee in support of the event are: Amy Adams, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Candice Bergen, Cher, Nora Ephron, Harrison Ford, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Shirley MacLaine, Steve Martin, Elaine May, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Mary-Louise Parker, Natalie Portman, Robert Redford, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Taylor, Emma Thompson, Sigourney Weaver and Robin Williams. “TV Land Presents: The AFI Life Achievement Award Honoring Mike Nichols” will air on TV Land on Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Added better quality scans of the French Vogue, May 2010 issue (see below’s update for more). Besides the two covers, a third picture of Penelope and Meryl is featured inside. Enjoy!

According to Playbill, Alfred Molina, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci will participate in Ariel Dorfman’s Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark, chronicling global human rights abuses, at the Public Theater May 3. The Public joins Kerry Kennedy and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights to present the reading of Kerry Kennedy’s book that has been adapted for the stage by Dorfman. Proceeds benefit Habitat for Humanity’s earthquake relief efforts in Chile. In addition to Molina, Moore, Streep and Tucci, the star-studded evening will include Elias Koteas, Viggo Mortensen, Aidan Quinn, Gloria Reuben and Debra Winger. David Esbjornson will direct.

According to the Public, “Speak Truth to Power chronicles the true-story accounts of heroic people withstanding horrific human rights abuses across the globe. Voices from around the world cry out against violence and oppression — from world leaders like Desmond Tutu to the unknown activists working on the ground level. Speak Truth to Power is a powerful and moving testimony of the will of the human spirit to rise up against injustice, even in the face of incredible darkness.”