Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Rihanna and other pop superstars will touch down on the National Mall on Nov. 11 to perform in honor of American veterans and their families. Dubbed “the Concert for Valor,” the Veterans Day celebration is being hosted by Starbucks and HBO, which will open up their signal to cable subscribers nationwide during a live telecast. For those hoping to see it in three dimensions, the concert will be free and open to the public. The concert will also include performances from Dave Grohl, Metallica, Carrie Underwood and Zac Brown Band, as well as appearances from Jamie Foxx, John Oliver, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who is co-producing the event. Scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on the Mall grounds between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, the event is expected to draw a quarter million attendees. Organizers will host dedicated seating for military families, with tickets being distributed through various veterans assistance organizations. More information can be found courtesy the Washington Post and at the concert’s official website. Many thanks to Frank for the heads-up.

Two new video clips from 1997 have been added to the archives. First, a video of Meryl Streep hosting a series of portraits for the Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children. The second video is a television trailer for “First Do No Harm”, which aired on ABC in 1997. Enjoy.

News by the Boston Globe. Meryl Streep plans to establish two scholarship funds for students at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, UMass Lowell said Wednesday. The scholarships will be endowed with all net proceeds from her Streep’s scheduled appearance Feb. 5 at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell. Streep is expected to discuss her acting career during the event. The new Meryl Streep Endowed Scholarship Fund will assist outstanding UMass Lowell English majors with the cost of their education, the university said. The Joan Hertzberg Endowed Scholarship, also to be established by Streep, will support students who excel in math as Hertzberg did. Hertzberg was a former classmate of Streep’s at Vassar College. Hertzberg transferred to Williams College, where she was the valedictorian of the college’s first graduating class that included women. She had a successful career as a therapist, author and teacher in the San Francisco area before her death in 2013, the university’s press release said. A Feb. 5 event at the university is set to feature Streep and Andre Dubus III, a UMass Lowell faculty member and author. The event is titled “A Conversation with Meryl Streep.” At the event, Steep is expected to discuss her acting career. Tickets can may be purchased through the Tsongas Center box office, whose website is www.tsongascenter.com. Streep’s appearance is expected to raise in more than $100,000 for her two scholarship funds, the university said.

Members of the Wilmington Fund VT are celebrating the success of last Saturday evening’s fundraising events. The evening kicked off at the Hermitage Club with an exclusive dinner with special guest, actress Meryl Streep. Also in attendance were Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and Congressman Peter Welch. The fundraising dinner was sold out, with 115 guests paying between $1,000 and $5,000 per plate. Donors paying for the $2,500 and $5,000 plates also had their photos taken with Streep.

Streep was at the event at the behest of her friend, Wilmington Fund VT founder and president Dan Kilmurray. Kilmurray says he has known Streep’s family for years. “Her brother and I met and became dear friends when I was about 18,” Kilmurray said. “I met her when she graduated from Vassar. When I was in the process of launching this fundraising event, I asked her if she would help.” During an after-dinner chat hosted by Kilmurray’s wife and co-founder of Wilmington Fund VT, Tamara Kilmurray, Streep said that one of the reasons she was willing to help the Wilmington Fund was because she was familiar with the town. After she left Dartmouth College for Vassar, she said, she continued to travel between the two colleges on trips to visit her boyfriend at Dartmouth. “Wilmington was my halfway point,” she said. “I used to stop at a little ice cream place on Route 9 that isn’t there anymore (Gene’s KreeMee).” Streep also found an unexpected connection to the area. Rep. Ann Manwaring told her that the bottles of Vermont maple syrup on the tables were donated by local business owner Ed Metcalfe, who had attended elementary school with Streep. “Oh, little Eddie Metcalfe?” Streep said. “Is he here?” But Metcalfe wasn’t in attendance. More information on the event can be found here and at their official website.

In new Screen for Life television and radio public service announcements (PSAs), Meryl Streep says, “There is so much in life we can’t control. But here’s something we can: colorectal cancer.” She talks about getting screened herself and urges others to do all they can to prevent colorectal cancer and get screened. Streep, who filmed the PSA in June 2012, joins an outstanding group of celebrities who have participated in CDC’s Screen for Life campaign, including actors Terrence Howard, Jimmy Smits, Diane Keaton, and Morgan Freeman, as well as journalist Katie Couric. PSAs featuring these celebrities were created in partnership with the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (NCCRA), cofounded by Ms. Couric. NCCRA is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. To learn more about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visit their official website.

The “A Magical Evening” gala, in honor of the late Christopher and Dana Reeve has become an event that Meryl attends annually since its launch. So it’s no surprise she has been on hand at yesterday’s event. Picutres have been added to the image library with more to come.

Some additional notes courtesy of CBS News: Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep was the speaker at the annual benefit gala for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation Wednesday night at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. The actress, who was dressed in black slacks and a black tunic, is a supporter of the foundation, which seeks treatments and cures for paralysis and looks for ways to improve the quality of life for those with disabilities. The annual “A Magical Evening Gala” helps raise money for the foundation. The event’s hosts were Matthew Reeve and Alexandra Reeve Givens, children of the organization’s founder. “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve, who was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident, started the organization with his wife, Dana. Reeve was 52 when he died in October 2004. Dana, then 42, continued his work with the foundation until she was diagnosed with lung cancer eight months later. She died in March of 2006.

According to the New York Times, at a reception on Thursday night to mark the completion of the Public Theater’s $40 million renovation of its Astor Place home, the theater was scheduled to announce another reason to celebrate: the actress Meryl Streep has donated $1 million to be put toward the cost of the reconfiguration. “I give this gift, “ Ms. Streep said in a statement, “in honor of the founder of the Public Theater, my friend and mentor Joseph Papp, and in remembrance of one of the theater’s Board members and greatest supporters, my friend Nora Ephron.” (Papp died in 1991; Ephron died in June.) Ms. Streep’s association with the company goes back to her 1975 Broadway debut in Papp’s staging of “Trelawny of the Wells” (the cast also included Mandy Patinkin and John Lithgow). She has also appeared in Shakespeare in the Park productions of “Henry V” and “Measure for Measure,” and more recently, “The Seagull” and “Mother Courage and Her Children.” The Public Theater’s renovation includes an expanded lobby, a new mezzanine-level cocktail lounge called the Library, a lobby snack bar meant to encourage theatergoers to congregate, a new entrance to Joe’s Pub and an expanded box office. Many thanks to Glenn for the news.

Meryl Streep has narrated a new feature film, “Girl Rising”, for the organization 10×10. The film tells the extraordinary stories of girls from around the globe fighting to overcome impossible odds to realize their dreams. The film is directed by Academy Award nominee Richard Robbins and features the voices of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez. 10×10 was founded by award-winning journalists at the Documentary Group and Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions. 10×10 is built on a foundation of partnerships with NGOs, corporations, policy makers, and grassroots organizations – all working to change minds, lives, and policy. These organizations provide life-changing services to girls every day, and are among the best practitioners of their kind. The trailer for “Girl Rising” will premiere at the organization’s official launch event to take place on October 10, 2012. You can learn more about 10×10 at their official website. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

“One More Voice” captures people all over the world asking viewers to add their voice to Amnesty International’s fight against torture, the death penalty, unjust imprisonment, violence against women and other human rights abuses. This short compelling video — featuring an activist in Egypt’s Tahrir Square and the late Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis, who was executed by the state of Georgia in 2011, despite serious doubts about his guilt — is narrated by three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep with an anthem specially written for Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary by Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer and composer Lorne Balfe. The International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers and photographers at Magnum Photos contributed their talents to encourage people to unite around the cause of freedom, human rights and dignity around the world. The trailer for One More Voice can be watched at Youtube and AmnestyUSA.org.

Then, there have been news about a possible second new narration job – “A Fierce Green Fire” explores how the issues of conservation, saving whales and stopping dams built into an international movement, from grassroots to global activism. It chronicles the growth of the environmentalism over five decades, including the Love Canal pollution scandals, the proposed dams in the Grand Canyon, Chico Mendes fighting the deforestation in the Amazon, the Greenpeace movement and other signature moments and movements in environmental activism. In a recent interview with the Petaluma Patch, director Mark Kitchell points out that the film is not quite ready for general release. “There are three main tasks to do,” he said. “We have to finish licensing the archival footage and music, which can be quite expensive. We plan on having five narrators, from Robert Redford to Meryl Streep. And we’re working on an ending that’s a call to action for today’s activists.”

Artists Meryl Streep, Sting, Joan Baez, Cynthia Nixon, Yoko Ono and Patrick Stewart signed an Amnesty International Letter to Presidents Obama and Karzai on Afghan Women’s Rights. The open letter was released Sunday to President Obama and President Karzai, calling on them to give women a voice in the conversation about Afghanistan’s future. The letter was released by Amnesty International as it staged a “Shadow Summit for Afghan Women” hours before the NATO Summit got underway in Chicago. Signatories included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, feminist Gloria Steinem, Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi, along with a roster of leading Afghan women’s rights advocates.

Read the open letter: http://amnestyusa.org/obamaandkarzailetter
Read the list of signatories: http://amnestyusa.org/afghanwomensignatories

“The women of Afghanistan have come too far to see their rights vanish,” said Frank Januzzi, head of Amnesty International USA’s Washington office. “They must be part of the conversation about the future of Afghanistan or that future will look very bleak indeed. No one wants a return to the days when the Taliban banned women and girls from schools and work, and held them as virtual prisoners in their own country. This would be the ultimate catastrophe after a decade of gains for women. We hope the voices of these notable signatories will add to the pressure on Presidents Obama and Karzai to follow through on the promise of human rights for all women in Afghanistan.” Amnesty International urged Presidents Obama and Karzai to adopt eight key steps to make sure Afghan woman can continue the progress they have made on rights and freedoms after the troops leave in 2014. Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up