Fantastic news to look forward to this Sunday. Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio and director Adam McKay talk about the Netflix production “Don’t Look Up”, their careers and more in an interview with correspondent Tracy Smith for “CBS Sunday Morning,” to be broadcast December 5 on CBS and streamed on Paramount+. The film has an all-star cast and revolves around a scientist (DiCaprio) trying to warn the world that a comet is heading toward Earth and will destroy the planet. Streep plays the president who won’t take him seriously. The comet is a metaphor for climate change with the world split between believers and skeptics. But can a movie make a difference? “Hopefully,” DiCaprio told Smith. “But at this point, I’m a Debbie Downer with the system. So, you’re asking the wrong guy. To me, it’s about a little less, you know, conversation, and a lot more action.” The film was shot at the height of the pandemic’s impact on the entire world, which made it more meaningful to DiCaprio: “And that’s why it connected with this screenplay that was about the climate crisis that we’re all going to go through – we’re all going to feel the ramifications of this,” he said. “And what we’re seeing right now, with the wildfires and the massive hurricanes and all these catastrophes, doesn’t get better than this, okay? … It doesn’t get better than this. It slowly becomes worse.” Edit: You can now watch the full segment below and in the video archive, while screencaptures have been uploaded to the photo gallery.

On Thursday, Meryl Streep was among the many guests to congratulate Jeremy O. Harris at Broadway’s re-opening night of “Slave Play”. According to W Magazine and their coverage of the after-party, the provocative production made Tony Awards history with 12 nominations and established Harris as a critical darling. Naturally, there was an after-party, and the scene at Tao Downtown in New York City following the show at August Wilson Theater appears to have been almost pre-pandemic. (Harris noted that negative Covid-19 tests were required on Twitter.) A couple of pictures from the after-party have been added to the photo gallery.

We’re only two weeks away from the theatrical release of “Don’t Look Up” (and less than a month from its Netflix premiere on December 24) and the first batch of news outlets have been published. Alongside reviews from Entertainment Weekly, People and The Denver Post, there’s a lovely new cover story from the Polish Pani magazine. Unfortunately I have only found the cover, maybe some of our Polish visitors can help out with the article :-) Thanks to Alvaro for sending in the mentioned reviews. Enjoy your weekend.

It’s been a long time since we read a sentence that started with “Meryl Streep has attended…” but here we go :-) On Wednesday and Thursday, Meryl Streep has attended two Los Angeles screenings and Q&As for “Don’t Look Up”, hosted by Tastemaker and BAFTA L.A. While there aren’t many pictures from both screenings, there are some, and you can find them in the photo gallery. Edit: A third screening took place at the Bruin Theater in West Hollywood. Pictures have been added as well.

Netflix has released the full trailer for the upcoming “Don’t Look Up”, and it looks like we’re in for a very entertaining ride this Christmas Day. Two upcoming screenings for the film have been announced to take place in Los Angeles on November 17 and 18, which will be followed by Q&As attended by Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. Alongside the trailer, we also have the full synopsis and official poster.

Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system. The problem – it’s on a direct collision course with Earth. The other problem? No one really seems to care. Turns out warning mankind about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is an inconvenient fact to navigate. With the help of Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), Kate and Randall embark on a media tour that takes them from the office of an indifferent President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her sycophantic son and Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill), to the airwaves of The Daily Rip, an upbeat morning show hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry). With only six months until the comet makes impact, managing the 24-hour news cycle and gaining the attention of the social media obsessed public before it’s too late proves shockingly comical — what will it take to get the world to just look up?!

“Extrapolations”, the climate change anthology series that will be coming to Apple TV+, has added even more stars to its cast. Today, it was announced that Edward Norton, Indira Varma, Keri Russell, Cherry Jones, and Michael Gandolfini will be joining the cast of this Scott Z. Burns show, Variety reports. Norton will play a scientist named Jonathan Chopin. Playing the role of Jonathan’s son, Rowan Chopin, will be Gandolfini. Varma will portray an inventor named Gita Mishra. Russell, known for her starring roles in The Americans and Felicity, will play Olivia Drew, a gun for hire. Jones will portray the president of the United States, Elizabeth Burdick. The new list of cast members comes hot on the heels of the original announcement that Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller, Kit Harrington, Tahar Rahim, Matthew Rhys, Daveed Diggs, Gemma Chan, David Schwimmer, and Adarsh Gourav would be the leading stars in the series. Extrapolations will take 8 interconnected episodes to delve into how impending changes to the planet will ultimately affect every aspect of the way people experience life in ways such as love, faith, work, and family.

We don’t know yet what Streep’s role will be in the series, but we do know about the others. Miller will play a marine biologist named Rebecca Shearer, Harrington will portray CEO Nick Bilton who will be the head of an industrial behemoth, Rahim will play Ezra Haddad who is a man struggling with memory loss, while Rhys will portray Junior, a real estate developer. Diggs will take over the part of Marshall Zucher, a rabbi in South Florida, Chan will play Natasha Alper, a single mother and micro-finance banker, and Schwimmer will play Harris Goldblatt. All we know about Schwimmer’s character is that he is a man with a teenage daughter. Gourav will play a driver for hire ironically named Gaurav. The series sounds like it will tie everyone together by the end as they all grapple with the constant changes in climate and what that means for their own lives. Extrapolations does not yet have a release date.

In today’s The New York Times, Meryl Streep explains how she prepared to play a fictional (and not especially competent) U.S. president in Adam McKay’s apocalyptic satire “Don’t Look Up.” Who would you turn to if you learned a comet was on a collision course with Earth and decisive action was required to prevent the extinction of all life on this planet? If your first thought was Meryl Streep, you have made both an excellent and terrible choice. In “Don’t Look Up,” from the writer-director Adam McKay (“The Big Short,” “Vice”), two scientists played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence find themselves facing this end-of-the-world scenario and must turn to a United States government led by the fictional President Orlean for assistance. The good news (for the movie, which will reach theaters on Dec. 10 and Netflix on Dec. 24) is that Orlean is played by Streep, the venerated film and TV star; the bad news (for humanity) is that Orlean is a self-centered scoundrel who cares a great deal about her public image but little to nothing about running the country. Orlean is one of several malefactors in “Don’t Look Up,” a social satire that McKay wrote about climate change but that he fully expects will be interpreted as a commentary on the pandemic. The president is also a character whose many faults and shortcomings Streep delighted in bringing to life, and she credits McKay for giving her and her co-stars the latitude to indulge in awfulness. The complete article can be read over at The New York Times. Two pictures from the article and another new picture from Empire Magazine have been added to the photo gallery.

While we’re eagerly anticipating any kind of promotion for the upcoming “Don’t Look Up” (which might take some time given its December 24 release), and with not much happening right now, I’m happy to share two new old video interviews that were new to me – one from the Canadian CBC programme “The Bob McLean Show”, on which Meryl was interviewed for the promotion of “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, then an unseen interview during her time in Paris for the promotion for “Kramer vs. Kramer”. And while we have seen her interview from the Royal premiere of “Kramer” in London, I’ve never seen the full segment of The Queen making her rounds and attending the photo op with Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Justin Henry before the screening of the film. You can find all three video additions in the video archive. Enjoy.

The Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College (AAVC) has announced its 2021 awardees – according to this press release – a professor emerita and four alumnae who have all had a lasting impact on the College and beyond. As of press time, four of the five had received their awards. The remaining one, an eminent performer known to all, will be honored in the spring.

Meryl Streep ’71, P’08, ’13, a former College trustee, will receive the Distinguished Achievement Award. The award is presented to an alumna or alumnus who has reached the highest level in their field. While demonstrating exceptional talent, application, creativity, and skill within a certain career, this individual must at the same time exemplify the ideals of a liberal arts education and have used her or his position of visibility, power, or leadership to better the human community and serve the wider goals of society. The three-time Academy Award winner is not only one of the most decorated actors of all time, she is also an ardent supporter of Vassar and an effective advocate for women, education, and the arts. In 2014, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest civilian honor. “She was amazing even as a student—people would flock to her productions,” recalls committee chair Amy Pullman ’71, a classmate of Streep’s. “We would say, ‘Someday she’s going to get an Academy Award,’” she added with a laugh. “She was a very unassuming person then, and that’s how she is now.” Pullman said the award coincides with the 50th Reunion of their class and will be presented to Streep on the same weekend as the celebration of their class gift to Vassar: The Class of 1971 Gateway to the Old Vassar Farm.

In conjunction with the award presentation, Streep is expected to deliver a talk to the Vassar community in April 2022. Details are forthcoming.

Great news according to The Hollywood Reporter: Apple TV+ has lined up a star-studded cast for a climate change anthology series. Meryl Streep, Kit Harington and Matthew Rhys will head the ensemble for Extrapolations, an eight-episode drama from writer Scott Z. Burns and The Morning Show production company Media Res. The cast also includes Sienna Miller, Gemma Chan, Tahar Rahim, Daveed Diggs, David Schwimmer and Adarsh Gourav, with additional actors to be announced. Extrapolations, which is currently in production, will tell interconnected stories about how the upcoming changes to the planet will affect love, faith work and family. “The only thing we know for sure about the future is that we are all going there together — and we’re taking with us our hopes, our fears, our appetites, our creativity, our capacity for love and our predilection to cause pain,” said Burns. “These are the same tools that storytellers have been using since the beginning of time. Our show is just using them to keep time from running out.” Miller will play a marine biologist. Harington plays the CEO of an industrial giant. Rahim plays a man struggling with memory loss. Rhys will play a real estate developer. Diggs (Snowpiercer) plays a rabbi in South Florida. Chan plays a single mother and micro-finance banker. Schwimmer plays the father of a teenage daughter. Gourav plays a driver for hire. Details of Streep’s role, her first series work since HBO’s Big Little Lies in 2019, are being kept under wraps.