A fantastic batch of new production stills from “The Post” have been added to the photo gallery. Also, with many thanks to Frank, here’s an update on the recent critics awards announcements: “The Post” has won Best Picture and Best Ensemble by the North Texas Film Critics Association Meryl Streep is Runners-up as Best Actress (2nd Place), Tom Hanks comes 3rd place as Best Actor and Steven Spielberg landed in 4th place as Best Director. The ensemble of “The Post” was Runners-up by the Southeastern Film Critics Association and the Indiana Film Critics Assosiation and is nominated by The Online Film Critics Society. Meryl and Tom are both Runners-up by the Dallas Fort Worth Film Critics Association (both on the 5th Place), the film came in 2nd place for Best Picture and Spielberg once again 4th place for Best Director”. Additionally, “The Post” has been included in the Top 10 lists by the Indiana and Southeastern critics. Congratulations and thanks to Frank for the heads-up.

As a regular visitor to Simply Streep, you may know that I never post anything that is not related to Meryl Streep’s work. It’s the base on which I maintain this site, because its focus has always been the work, and since Miss Streep herself is fiercely private, I feel it is something to honor, even more today when nothing is private anymore. I have stayed away from commenting any of the Harvey Weinstein stories, the false accusations and countless vile emails and comments I receive from people who don’t bother to read beyond a headline, even after actress Rose McGowan singled out Meryl Streep in a now-deleted tweet, calling her a liar for not speaking out against Weinstein. But today, Meryl Streep did something that really surprised me, something I’d like to re-post here to put speculations to a rest. In a statement to the Huffington Post, Streep said that it hurt that McGowan believed she knew about the mogul’s alleged behavior. The full statement can be read below in its entirity:

It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this weekend, but I want to let her know I did not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others.

I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know. I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was happening.

“I don’t know where Harvey lives, nor has he ever been to my home.

I have never in my life been invited to his hotel room.

I have been to his office once, for a meeting with Wes Craven for “Music of the Heart” in 1998.

HW distributed movies I made with other people.

HW was not a filmmaker; he was often a producer, primarily a marketer of films made by other people- some of them great, some not great. But not every actor, actress, and director who made films that HW distributed knew he abused women, or that he raped Rose in the 90s, other women before and others after, until they told us. We did not know that women’s silence was purchased by him and his enablers.

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Lots of additional pictures, videos and press conferences have been added from this and last week’s quite extensive promotion for “The Post” in New York and Washington D.C. Many thanks to Mouza and Maria for submitting pictures. If anyone knows where exactly the NYC screening and Q&A has taken place, the one with Sarah Paulson, please drop me a line. There are also many new pictures in the video archive from a new press junket, the Washington Post Q&A and premiere.

The Washington D.C. screening, held at the Newseum, was the ultimate mash-up of Fictional Washington and Real Washington: boldface actors who play Posties and government types on the big screen jostled alongside real-life Washington journalists and officials. Jeffrey P. Bezos, the Amazon founder and chief executive who owns the Post, and Post publisher Fred Ryan passed by with smiles and nods, as did other locals, including CBS’s Major Garrett, Chris Wallace of Fox News, and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Spielberg says that shouldn’t be interpreted as explicitly partisan, even though President Trump is waging a daily Twitter war against the mainstream media. “It’s a patriotic film,” Spielberg says. “I don’t think patriotism is partisan.” Pictures have been added to the photo gallery, with many thanks to Maria for submitting some of them. More coverage of the Washington promotion follows tomorrow.

News courtesy Digital Spy: The Graham Norton Show is really rolling out the red carpet and inviting Hollywood royalty onto its sofa. On Friday, January 19, the late night chat show will welcome Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. Both actors will be promoting their forthcoming Steven Spielberg movie The Post, which has already picked up awards season buzz and nominations And… that’s it! Yes, apart from musical guests in the form of band First Aid Kit, Tom and Meryl will be the ONLY celebrity guests; which, if you think about it, actually makes a lot of sense. We mean, any more star power put on the sofa and it would FOR SURE crumble to dust. The Post tells the true story of Katharine Graham (Streep); the first female publisher of The Washington Post. With help from editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks), she races to catch up with The New York Times to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets that spans three decades and four US presidents. The movie was actually on last year’s ‘Black List’ (best movie scripts without a deal), and was rushed to cinemas in an incredibly quick – and practically unheard of – turnaround. It’s now primed to dominate the awards season. The Post has already been nominated for six Golden Globes; with both Streep and Hanks up for the best actress and actor in a a motion picture gongs respectively. Spielberg was nominated for best director, while the film has also secured nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score. The Post is in cinemas on January 19. The Graham Norton Show featuring Hanks and Streep will air at 10.35 pm on Friday, January 19 on BBC One.

New article by The Washington Post: A little less than a year ago, just before the inauguration of Donald Trump, Meryl Streep accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles, using her speech to castigate the president-elect for his treatment of the press during the presidential campaign, especially a disabled New York Times reporter. “This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing,” she said to a crowd of her largely supportive peers. “Disrespect invites disrespect; violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.” She concluded by rallying support for the Committee to Protect Journalists. Streep’s remarks — the first widely publicized criticism of Trump by a world-famous figure since his election — became a fulcrum moment, especially in Hollywood. “It felt like [she] was finally letting the air out of the room,” producer Kristie Mocosko Krieger recalls. “We were all just keeping our mouths shut for so long, and [Meryl was] like, ‘[Forget] it — I’m not keeping my mouth shut anymore.’” The screenwriter Liz Hannah remembers the Golden Globes speech just as vividly. At the time, her script for “The Post,” about Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham confronting the perilous decision to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971, was making the rounds in Hollywood. Immediately after Streep spoke, one of “The Post’s” producers, Tim White, texted Hannah and fellow producer Amy Pascal. “He said, ‘Did you see Meryl give her speech?’” Hannah recalls. “And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘That’s Kay.’”. The complete article can be read over at The Washington Post. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

Combined, award-winning actors Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks have appeared in more than 100 films. But “The Post” marks the first time they are on screen together. In the movie, Streep plays Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post, and Hanks portrays legendary editor Ben Bradlee. The plot centers on the paper’s famous and difficult decision to publish top secret government information from the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Streep and Hanks join “CBS This Morning” to discuss how the film resonates today.

The promotion for “The Post” is on a roll with the official b-roll footage and interviews with the cast and crew being launched. Hopefully, a couple of insightful featurettes will follow. Both clips can be watched below and in the video archive.

This morning, “The Post was among the leading motion pictures to receive Golden Globe nominations, earning 6 in total. Steven Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers drama received nominations as Best Picture (Drama), Best Director for Spielberg, Best Actor (Drama) for Tom Hanks, Best Actress (Drama) for Meryl Streep, Best Screenplay for Liz Hannah and Josh Singer and Best Original Score – Motion Picture for John Williams . “The Shape of Water” leads with seven nominations. “The Post” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” received six each. “Lady Bird” has four nominations, and “I, Tonya”, “The Greatest Showman” and “Dunkirk” each have three. This is Meryl Streep’s 31st nomination for a Golden Globe! She has won nine, eight for her fim work (for “Kramer vs. Kramer”, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, “Sophie’s Choice”, “Adaptation”, “Angels in America”, “The Devil Wears Prada”, “Julie & Julia” and “The Iron Lady”) as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award last year. The Golden Globes will be handed out quite early next year during a live ceremony on January 07, 2018.

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Jessica Chastain, Molly’s Game
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards
Meryl Streep, The Post
Michelle Williams, All the Money in the World

More and more critics circles announce their annual winners or nominations for the season, and both “The Post” and Meryl Streep are featured. The St. Louis Film Critics association has nominated “The Post” for 6 awards: Best Picture, Lead Actress, Lead Actor, Director, Editing and Score. Their winners (and runners-up) will be tweeted next Sunday, December 17th around 3pm CST. The North Texas Film Critics Association has nominated “The Post” for five awards: Best Picture, Lead Actress, Lead Actor, Director and Cinematography. The San Diego Film Critics Society has 2 nominations for “The Post”: Best Ensemble and Best Editing. And the Seattle Film Critics Society closes today with 3 nominations: Best Picture, Lead Actress and Ensemble. Be sure and check back at 9:00 am PST on Monday, December 18 when they begin announcing the winners for this year on Twitter. Many thanks to Frank for the heads-up. Much appreciated.