According to Deadline, Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” has added Jeremy Shamos, Linda Emond and Wesley Taylor to its Season 3 cast in recurring roles. The trio joins series stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, as well as Season 3 additions Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, Jesse Williams and Ashley Park. Details regarding their roles are being kept under wraps. Season 3 will step outside the comforts of home as they follow the latest murder, that of Ben Glenroy (Rudd), the lead actor in Oliver Putnam’s (Short) Broadway play who falls dead onstage just as the curtain flew up signaling the show to begin. Just seconds prior to that, Ben had a peculiar interaction with Charles-Haden Savage (Martin) that was intentionally vague. The 20th Television series hails from co-creators and writers Martin and Hoffman, who executive produce along with Short, Gomez, This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal.

Most outlets have released their reviews on “Extrapolations”, which will air on AppleTV+ from March 17. They all range from well-meaning mixed to positive, resulting in 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. There’s not much written about Meryl Streep’s performance throughout these reviews, so we can assume her role as Sienna Miller’s mother (and also voicing the world’s last hunchback whale), is brief. Here’s a compilation of reviews:

The Hollywood Reporter, Angie Han (March 15, 2023)
The series [is] serious, heavy and mostly lacking in nuance. The urgency of its message is self-evidently important enough that no expense has been spared in delivering it. The cast is star-studded, and the production design lavish. But all this gravitas comes at the expense of the human characters who should be at the center of its stories, turning the series into a well-intentioned but mostly dry series of discussions.

The Chicago Tribune, Nina Metz (March 16, 2023)
I like that “Extrapolations” is asking serious questions. It’s not a hectoring approach but one designed to be entertaining, its themes delivered in a gleaming package filled with boldface names: Meryl Streep, Kit Harington, Diane Lane, Gemma Chan, David Schwimmer, Keri Russell and more. The series is conspicuously focused on either the comfortably middle class or the ultrarich, the latter of whom are forever manipulating the levers of power and global resource management. The people who experience the worst effects of these decisions, losing access to water or livable environments, are mostly an abstraction. It makes you wonder who the target audience for this series actually is – and whether it will have its intended effect.

The Telegraph, Jasper Rees (March 10, 2023)
Extrapolations does sometimes compel. But when opposing speechifiers go at it hammer and tongs about causes, effects and solutions, it can drag like a long night at the debating soc. “Is there anything you need?” a young woman is asked as she prepares to speak about the failure of the Paris Agreement in 2015. “For people to listen,” she replies. The inconvenient truth for this valiant, tub-thumping act of the imagination is that it preaches to the silo.

In a first look video clip by Entertainment Weekly, Sienna Miller informs Meryl Streep that she is the last humpback whale on Earth. Miller and Streep’s debut episode, “2046,” presents an abysmal hereafter where animals, including tigers and orangutans, are extinct. Miller portrays Rebecca, an archivist who studies the extinctions and works to preserve the animals’ memories, while Streep – without giving too much away – is not merely a whale per se, but Rebecca’s late mother, Eve. While an email from Burns containing an enticing P.S. that Streep would play her mother was enough for Miller to say yes to the project script unseen, it helped that the source material centered on a topic that she already cares deeply about. “When you’re dealing with such an enormous crisis of climate and also climate change denial – especially having lived in America throughout the last presidential reign, and having seen the documentaries, many of which Scott was involved with – there’s a lot that can be said from watching documentaries and dealing with hard facts,” Miller tells EW. “Extrapolations” debuts March 17 on Apple TV+ with three episodes, followed by weekly episodes on Fridays until April 21. The complete article and video clip can be found over at Entertainment Weekly.

Promotion for “Extrapolations” is slowly starting (it better hurries up, since the first three episodes premiere this Friday) with a featurette: “Extrapolations” is a bracing drama from writer, director and executive producer Scott Z. Burns that introduces a near future where the chaotic effects of climate change have become embedded into our everyday lives. Eight interwoven stories about love, work, faith and family from across the globe will explore the intimate, life-altering choices that must be made when the planet is changing faster than the population. Every story is different, but the fight for our future is universal. And when the fate of humanity is up against a ticking clock, the battle between courage and complacency has never been more urgent. Are we brave enough to become the solution to our own undoing before it’s too late? The series stars Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller, Kit Harington, Daveed Diggs, Edward Norton, Diane Lane, Tahar Rahim, Yara Shahidi, Matthew Rhys, Gemma Chan, David Schwimmer, Adarsh Gourav, Keri Russell, Marion Cotillard, Forest Whitaker, Eiza González, Murray Bartlett, Indira Varma, Tobey Maguire, MaameYaa Boafo, Hari Nef, Heather Graham, Michael Gandolfini, Cherry Jones, Gaz Choudhry, Ben Harper, Judd Hirsch and Neska Rose.

Hulu has released a first teaser trailer for the third season of “Only Murders in the Building”, which gives us a first look at Meryl Streep’s character. Here’s additional info courtesy Vulture, minus the season two spoilers: The season three teaser, newly released by Hulu, suggests a possible answer to that last question. Meryl Streep, who was announced as part of the new season’s cast back in January, stars in the teaser, and appears to be part of the play that Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Paul Rudd are putting on. This makes her a compelling suspect. The teaser will be aired on television during tonight’s Academy Awards broadcast. A premiere date for the series has not yet been set.

Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, announced today that three-time Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep will narrate the audiobook edition of “Big Tree”. The illustrated novel by #1 New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Medal-winning author-artist Brian Selznick, will be released simultaneously in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook on April 4, 2023. A love letter to the natural world with over 300 pages of Selznick’s iconic graphite illustrations, Big Tree is an epic adventure and a breathtaking visual journey through time, nature and love that will thrill the whole family. The story, which began as an original idea from film legend Steven Spielberg, with guidance by Illumination founder Chris Meledandri, is Selznick’s most ambitious work to date. Featuring extensive sound design with natural sound effects, the audiobook edition will feature original music, giving listeners an immersive reading experience. Meryl Streep said, “With Big Tree, Brian Selznick has created a profound and lovely book. His quiet message – that even the smallest among us can do something to save the world, and that we’re all connected – is just what’s needed for the moment in which we find ourselves.” For more about Big Tree and to listen to an audiobook excerpt, visit www.scholastic.com/bigtree.

Apple TV+ today released the trailer for the highly-anticipated, star-studded, climate change-themed limited series “Extrapolations” featuring Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller and an all-star cast. The eight-episode series from writer-director-exec producer Scott Z. Burns premieres globally over the streamer with the first three episodes on March 17, followed by a new streaming episode every Friday through April 21. The massive star power of the series includes Oscar winners Streep, Forest Whitaker and Marion Cotillard along with Miller, Diane Lane, Judd Hirsch, Cherry Jones, David Schwimmer. Heather Graham, Tobey Maguire, Edward Norton, Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Kit Harington and many others. Told over a series of interconnected episodes and produced by Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res, it’s described as a “bracing limited series that introduces a near future where the chaotic effects of climate change have become embedded into our everyday lives. Eight interwoven stories about love love, work, faith and family from across the globe will explore the intimate, life-altering choices that must be made when the planet is changing faster than the population.”

We are blessed this week with news on Meryl Streep’s upcoming productions with not only “Only Murders in the Building”, but also a first look at “Extrapolations”, which will premiere on AppleTV+ on March 17, 2023. While there haven’t been any news on the 8-part miniseries since its press release in November 2021, I was wondering if Meryl was really involved with the project after all. With today’s first look images and synopsis, I’m happily proven wrong. So far, we know that Meryl’s character is named Eve Shearer and that she plays Sienna Miller’s mother. The series boasts a powerhouse cast including Tobey Maguire, Forest Whitaker, Diane Lane, Kit Harrington, Marion Cotillard, Daveed Diggs, Edward Norton, Gemma Chan, David Schwimmer and Matthew Rhys. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

“Extrapolations” is a bracing drama from writer, director and executive producer Scott Z. Burns that introduces a near future where the chaotic effects of climate change have become embedded into our everyday lives. Eight interwoven stories about love, work, faith and family from across the globe will explore the intimate, life-altering choices that must be made when the planet is changing faster than the population. Every story is different, but the fight for our future is universal. And when the fate of humanity is up against a ticking clock, the battle between courage and complacency has never been more urgent. Are we brave enough to become the solution to our own undoing before it’s too late?

What better way to start the new year with a new project for Meryl Streep, who is checking into “Only Murders in the Building”. As The Hollywood Reporter writes, Streep will appear in the third season of Hulu’s murder-mystery comedy. Star Selena Gomez revealed Streep’s casting in an Instagram post Tuesday. Details of Streep’s role – and how extensive it may be – are being kept under wraps for now. She joins a cast led by Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short; Paul Rudd – who had a cameo in the second-season finale – and former Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams are also joining the cast, which also includes Tina Fey, Vanessa Aspillaga, Adina Verson, Ryan Broussard and Andrea Martin. Hulu has said the show is its most popular original comedy; it spent nine weeks on Nielsen’s top 10 streaming series chart in 2022, drawing 3.67 billion minutes of viewing time in that span. Steve Martin also posted a group photo with Streep and announced that filming on season three of the series began. Both pictures have been added to the photo gallery.

“Finale, Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim” is a new book written by D.T. Max and released on the one-year anniversary of Sondheim’s death this November. In an excerpt posted by Playbill, Sondheim and Meryl Streep talk about their very first collaboration in the 1974 production of “The Frogs” at the Yale Repertory Theatre – or, better said, at the University’s swimming pool.

I was in a production of The Frogs, which was at Yale when I was a first-year student. And I was in the chorus. And he was very legendary. I don’t think he even noticed me. But it was really hilarious. There was a lot of vying to get into the chorus from the women in the drama school because most of the cast were young men in bathing suits. Everybody wanted to be in the chorus! (Meryl Streep, Finale, Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim)

They also talk about the new song recorded for “Into the Woods”, which was eventually cut from the final version, and possible plans to work together in London, although nothing specific is revealed by Sondheim. The full article can be read over at Playbill.