Good news today. Meryl Streep is among this year’s presenters at the Academy Awards. So even if Patricia Arquette, highly likely, will win Best Supporting Actress this year, we will see Meryl on stage, nevertheless. The Oscars take place on Sunday, February 22nd. Also, Meryl will be attending “An Evening of SerioussFun” on March 2nd, celebrating the legacy of Paul Newman. Here, she’s joined by George Clooney and Tom Hanks. To learn more about the event, visit their website. Many thanks to Glenn and Simona for the heads-up.

On February 3rd, Meryl has visited the hit Broadway play “It’s Only A Play” and posed backstage with the cast, including Matthew Broderick, F. Murray Abraham and Stockard Channing. Pictures have been added to the image library.

Here comes the first production still for “Ricki and the Flash”. While a first known picture from the film wasn’t released by Sony and not ready to be published, this is our official first look, courtesy to People Magazine. In Juno writer Diablo Cody’s latest movie, Streep, 65, plays singer-guitarist and Flash band member Ricki, who gave up everything to pursue her dream of rock-‘n’-roll stardom. Then she returns home to make amends with her family. Streep’s real-life daughter, Mamie Gummer, also plays the role on screen, alongside Kevin Kline as Ricki’s ex-husband, and rocker Rick Springfield plays a bandmate who is in love with Ricki.

Yesterday, Meryl has attended the 21th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards as a nominee for “Into the Woods”. As predicted, the Best Supporting Actress trophy went to Patricia Arquette. Pictures from the arrivals and the show have been added to the image library. My biggest thanks to Lindsey for contributing most of these. Thanks.

Image Library – Public Appearances – 2015 – 21th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards – Arrivals
Image Library – Public Appearances – 2015 – 21th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards – Show

Yesterday, Meryl Streep was a presenter at the Casting Society of America’s 30th annual Artios Awards, honoring achievement by casting directors, a decidedly less widely appreciated bunch than actors and directors. A special award, for contributions to the New York entertainment industry, went to Rob Marshall. First his sister, the theater director and choreographer Kathleen went onstage to talk a bit about her brother, then Christine Baranski, who played the wicked stepmother in Mr. Marshall’s latest film, “Into the Woods,” took over. “His actors feel like happy children playing together,” she said, and added later, “When some of the actors heard I had been cast as a presenter, some of them suddenly became available not just to put themselves on tape, but to show up,” Ms. Baranski said before launching into a surprise number. She was quickly joined by Tracey Ullman and Meryl Streep to perform a medley of songs – riffs on numbers from “Into the Woods,” with lyrics like these, to the tune of “Stay With Me:” Work with Rob and John and you will see; Actors who will slave and work for free.” Pictures from the ceremony have been added to the image library with many thanks to Claudia for her help with HQs.

Many thanks to Claudia for sending in scans from the recent Entertainment Weekly (January 30, 2015), covering this year’s Academy Awards, and Interview (February 2015) magazine with a great picture of Meryl and Emily Blunt.

Meryl Streep will perform at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music in the fall. Organizers say the actress will read from Philip Roth’s novel “Everyman,” backed by music from the Takacs Quartet, at the conservatory’s season gala on Oct. 17. The conservatory made the announcement Monday as it unveiled plans for its 2015-2016 season. Other productions in the lineup include a series of jazz and blues concerts commemorating the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.One of the concerts will feature trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who composed the score for Spike Lee’s Hurricane Katrina documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.” Many thanks to Frank, Glenn and Rachel for the heads-up.

“Into the Woods” finally arrived in movie theaters nationwide on Christmas Day, opening at #2, and it continues to remain in the Top 10 in its fourth week of release. As BroadwayWorld previously reported, the musical opened with $31 million, the highest-grossing opening of a Broadway-based movie musical in history. “Into the Woods” added an estimated $19 million more to that figure stateside and nearly $6 million more from international markets the next weekend, bringing the total projected domestic and international gross to over $97 million worldwide for its first 10 days of release. Subsequently, INTO THE WOODS added more than $9 million more domestically last week and more than $6 million this week, bringing its stateside total to an estimated $114 million and international to $140 million for its first four weeks of release. Those who can’t wait to revisit the film won’t have to wait long – it will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United States in March.

Coverage on this year’s Critics Choice Movie Awards falls flat because Meryl wasn’t there and didn’t win (and since the show has been said to be worste than last year in terms, it’s not a big loss). However, I’ve added the Best Supporting Actress segment to the video archive for archival reasons :-) Then, two new featurettes for “Into the Woods” have been posted as well as the London press confernece for the film.

Video Archive – Public Appearances – Into the Woods – London Press Conference (2015)
Video Archive – Award Shows – Critics Choice Movie Awards (2015)
Video Archive – Career – Into the Woods – Featurette – Talking Sondheim
Video Archive – Career – Into the Woods – Featurette – From Stage To Screen

Congratulations to Meryl Streep for receiving an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for “Into the Woods”. She shares the category with Patricia Arquette for “Boyhood”, Laura Dern for “Wild”, Keira Knightley for “The Imitation Game” and Emma Stone for “Birdman”. This is Meryl’s 19th Academy Award nomination and the fourth as Best Supporting Actress (after “Adaptation”, “The Deer Hunter” and winning for “Kramer vs. Kramer”). The Oscars are handed out on February 22, 2015.