According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The Post” has been doing quite well during its limited release so far: Among new specialty offerings, director Steven Spielberg’s The Post, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, is soaring in its holiday debut in nine theaters. Now in its second weekend, the Pentagon Papers drama – up for six Globes – is tipped to post a stellar location average of $86,111 for a cume of $2 million through Monday. Fox expands The Post nationwide on January 12. Before its wide release, the Golden Globes take place on Sunday, January 07 – earlier than usually – and the Critics Choice Awards are handed out a week later on January 11. Meryl is nominated for both awards as Best Actress. Also, as the Desert Sun reports, Steven Spielberg, Streep and Tom Hanks will be in the audience for an upcoming local screening of their film “The Post” on Thursday, January 04, which kicks off the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The screening is Thursday evening at Palm Springs High School. Spielberg, Streep and Hanks, along with the film’s screenwriters and producers, will participate in a 20-minute on-stage discussion before the start of the film, according to an announcement from the festival. Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

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.

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.

More awards news for “The Post” today. The Detroit Film Critics Society has honored the films cast as Best Ensemble, while the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association has nominated both the ensemble and Streep as Best Actress, alongside Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird). “The Post is expected to be included in AFI’s Top 10 List, which will be announced later today. Next week, we can look forward to the nomination announcements by the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Many thanks to Frank for the heads-up.

Also, a first batch of scans from press reviews and magazines have been added, with many thanks to Alvaro!

Congratulations to “The Post” and its makers for receiving 8 BFCA Critics’ Choice Awards today. The film was nominated in the categories Best Picture, Best Actor (Tom Hanks), Best Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Acting Ensemble, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Original Screenplay (Liz Hannah and Josh Singer), Best Editing (Michael Kahn, Sarah Broshar) and Best Score (John Williams). The film “The Shape of Water” scored the most nomination with 14 nods. Streep shares the Best Actress category with Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird). The ensemble category also includes Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Mudbound and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The 23rd Annual Critics’ Choice Awards show will be produced by Bob Bain Productions and Berlin Entertainment. The BFCA and BTJA are represented by Dan Black of Greenberg Traurig and WME. Meryl Streep won the Critics Choice Award last year for Florence Foster Jenkins and in recent years for Julie & Julia and Doubt. Congratulations to all.

With the notable absence of President Donald Trump, the Kennedy Center on Sunday celebrated singers Lionel Richie and Gloria Estefan, rapper LL Cool J, television producer Norman Lear and dancer Carmen de Lavallade with honors for the arts. The Kennedy Center Honors are considered the highest recognition in the country for artists across many fields, and the importance of the annual event is usually underscored by a White House reception with the president and the first lady. Not this year. The White House said in August that Trump and his wife, Melania, would not attend, so that those honored could enjoy the event “without any political distraction.” The White House reception was also canceled after some honorees said they would boycott it. De Lavallade, 86, said she decided she could not attend such an event after Trump said both right- and left-wing extremists were at fault in a white supremacist rally in Virginia where one woman died. “Something in my soul … said no,” she told reporters. Meryl Streep kicked off a tribute to her one-time teacher De Lavallade, an actress and a dancer, who wiped tears from her eyes at the end of a powerful dance and musical performance of an American spiritual with a twist: “She’s Got the Whole World in Her Hands.” You can read more about the event over at Yahoo.com. CBS will broadcast the 40th Kennedy Center Honors show on Dec. 26. No official pictures of Streep’s appearance have been published so far.

The National Board of Review today announced their 2017 honorees, with top honors including “The Post” as Best Film of the Year, Greta Gerwig as Best Director of the Year for “Lady Bird”, Tom Hanks as Best Actor of the Year for his performance in “The Post” and Meryl Streep as Best Actress of the Year for her performance in “The Post”. NBR President Annie Schulhof said, “The Post” is a beautifully crafted film that deeply resonates at this moment in time. We are so thrilled to award it our best film as well as to honor the wonderfully talented Greta Gerwig as our Best Director.” These awards are the latest citation of excellence by the National Board of Review, a tradition going back 108 years. This year 265 films were viewed by this select group of film enthusiasts, filmmakers, professionals, academics, students, many of which were followed by in-depth discussions with directors, actors, producers, and screenwriters. The National Board of Review’s awards celebrate excellence in filmmaking with categories that include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, Best Original and Adapted Screenplay, Breakthrough Performance, and Directorial Debut, as well as signature honors such as the Freedom of Expression and the NBR Spotlight Award. The honorees will be feted at the National Board of Review Awards Gala, hosted by Willie Geist, on Tuesday, January 09, 2018 at Cipriani 42nd Street. This is Meryl Streep’s fifth honor by the National Board of Review. She has won Best Supporting Actress in 1979 for Manhattan, The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Kramer vs. Kramer, Best Actress in 1982 for Sophie’s Choice and two Ensemble awards in 2008 for Doubt and in 2009 for It’s Complicated”.

Meryl Streep made a surprise appearance at the annual awards for the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday night to claim that reporters were navigating a “dangerous” and “poisonous” climate in order to protect the U.S. from demagoguery. She said her own brushes with violent men – including an occasion when she said she had to play dead – had taught her about the bravery and brilliance of women who stand up to powerful men. “I get to meet my heroes,” she said, speaking at the Grand Hyatt in New York. “I really came here tonight to thank you—that’s all. Really, thank you. Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. You are the Fourth Estate. You are our first line of defense against tyranny and state-sanctioned news.” Streep admitted that journalism was currently damaging her industry almost as much as some politicians, but she paid tribute in particular to female investigative journalists exposing abuse. “You are the enemy of the people, yeah! Just the bad people. And I, on behalf of a grateful nation, thank you,” she said. “Thank you, you intrepid, underpaid, over-extended, trolled, and un-extolled, young and old, battered and bold, bought and sold, hyper-alert crack-caffeine fiends. You’re gorgeous, ambitious, contrarian, fiery, dogged and determined bullshit detectives. You’re persevering, cool, objective, indefatigable, chronically fatigued, pharmaceutically soothed, chocolate-comforted Twitter clickers.” Streep said there had never been a more dangerous time to be a female investigative journalist. “We do recognize the special cocktail of venom and ridicule which is always tinged with sexual threat that’s served up online for women—any woman in any profession—that stands up to tell the truth. I revere the people who do this because I am not a naturally brave person,” she said. Pictures have been added to the photo gallery, with many thanks to Mélissa for the heads-up!

Meryl Streep will be attending tonight’s American Cinematheque Gala honoring Amy Adams, so check back in the evening for Simply Streep’s coverage of the event. For The Hollywood Reporter, she has penned a tribute to her two-time co-star: “The toughest act in show business is how to maintain your core central living self while submitting yourself to not only the (sometimes) alien persona of a fictional character but to the relentless forensics that is modern showbiz promotional flogging. Amy has cannily managed this better than most, partly because of her unflagging, good-natured work ethic, but mostly because of a level-headed, uninflated sense of herself, her priorities and what is real and what is bullshit. She has a geiger counter of a bullshit meter, and for such a polite person is not afraid to hold it up to the bloated face of this business and let us all hear the ticking as loud as she does. She won’t perform what is not real, and she won’t say what is not true. I have seen her hold back so as not to hurt feelings, and I have seen her curtail her tongue when it could (should?) give a lashing, but she makes her point as much with what she doesn’t as what she does say. She is a sturdy girl, and a woman of many imaginative gifts: The combo should take her to as long, long, long a career as she can stand to give us.”