According once again to Deadline, Abigail Breslin is set to be Julia Roberts’ daughter in August: Osage County. The Oscar nominee will play Jean Fordham, the 14-year old angry and acerbic pot smoking child of Roberts’ Barbara character in the family drama. Roberts and Meryl Streep have already been cast in the film as has, as Deadline reported, Juliette Lewis. Based on Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play, August: Osage County chronicles several summer weeks in the life of a severely dysfunctional Oklahoma family and the crisis that gathers them back together. John Wells is directing and Letts is writing the adaptation of his play. George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing along with Jean Doumanian and Steve Traxler. The Weinstein Co. is financing and distributing August: Osage County. Filming is scheduled to start in the fall in Oklahoma. Thanks to Holly for the news.

The Inquirer has posted parts of the interview from this week’s “Hope Springs” press conference in Los Angeles. Meryl Streep’s cell phone rang in the middle of our recent interview at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles. Yes, the greatest living film actress is a human being rather like the rest of us, with a cell phone that rings at the most inopportune moments. “Sorry, that’s one of my kids,” Meryl said with a laugh as she searched for the ringing phone in her purse. “I just know the ring. I’m going to turn it off. Sorry.” These displays of vulnerability and artistic bravado make each conversation with the three-time Academy winner memorable. This time around, Meryl—wearing glasses, a long-sleeved white blouse, pants and a necklace accented with pearls—laughed heartily when told about our recent interview with her son-in-law, Benjamin Walker (married to Mamie Gummer, her eldest daughter). Benjamin said, “The only thing more intimidating than an international film star like Meryl Streep is your mother-in-law.” “That’s a very good line,” she remarked with an infectious smile. We asked if Benjamin, a stage and film actor (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) who does stand-up comedy on the side, tries his comic shtick around her and the family. “He does stand up in front of me all the time,” she replied. “He’s very funny and extremely charming. He’s really a good man and that’s all I really wanted for Mamie.” The full article can be read here.

According to Deadline, Juliette Lewis is in negotiations to join “August: Osage County”. The actress would play the role of Karen, the self-deluding youngest daughter, in the dark family comedy being financed and distributed by The Weinstein Company. Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts have already been cast in the film. Based on Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play, August: Osage County tells the tale of a severely dysfunctional Oklahoma clan and the family crisis that brings them back together. Lewis’ involvement would mean Andrea Riseborough’s not playing the role of Karen. John Wells is directing; Letts is writing the adaptation of his play. George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing along with Jean Doumanian and Steve Traxler. Claire Rudnick Polstein is executive producing. The movie is scheduled to start filming in September. Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up!

On July 16, 2012, Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones have participated in the press conference for “Hope Springs” at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. Pictures can be found in the image library.

A first promotional interview with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones has been released to promote the theatrical release of “Hope Springs”. This interview is rather short and I’m sure there’s plenty more to come these following weeks. You can watch the interview in the video archive. In “Hope Springs”, Kay (Streep) and Arnold (Jones) get on a plane for a week of marriage therapy to bring back the spice to their marriage. The film releases in US cinemas on August 10, 2012.

As some of you may know, Lisa Kudrow’s originally based web series “Web Therapy” is running in its second season on Showtime, and the current episodes feature Meryl as therapist Camilla Bowner. These episodes haven’t been newly filmes but are taken from the webisodes that were launched in 2010. To my own surprise, there have never been screencaptures from these episodes on Simply Streep, so here they are, also including captures from outtakes and behind the scenes.

According to Variety, Chris Cooper is joining the cast of the Weinstein Company’s upcoming “August: Osage County”. Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts are already on board to star in the picture, which focuses on the Weston family, a group of people who have to get past their personal differences when the alcoholic husband of Streep’s character goes missing. Cooper has signed on to play Streep’s brother-in-law. With Streep and Roberts on board – and Andrea Riseborough being recently mentioned as well, Cooper’s casting is one more especially talented actor added to the growing list. Factor in the Pulitzer Prize winning source material (the play won the award for drama in 2008) and this project, which is expected to go into production this August, the film certainly has a lot going for it already. Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

According to the Daily Mail, actress Andrea Riseborough is in the final stages of negotiations to star with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in the screen version of Tracy Letts’s prize- winning play August: Osage County. Streep and Roberts, respectively play the pill-popping matriarch Violet and her eldest daughter Barbara. Riseborough, meanwhile, is slated to play Violet’s youngest daughter, Karen, who’s likely being written younger as her stage character is notably 40 years of age. The film adaptation (which will be a condensed version of the original play considering that ran 3.5 hours) follows the women of the Weston family whose lives have splintered in many directions until their alcoholic father’s disappearance brings them back to their childhood home and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. I thoroughly enjoyed Andrea Riseborough in “Brighton Rock”, so if she gets the job, it’ll be fantastic to see her opposite Meryl.

A new theatrical poster as well as a new production still for “Hope Springs” have been released and added to the image library. The film, starring Meryl and Tommy Lee Jones as a couple attending a counseling weekend to decide the fate of their marriage, releases next month. In other film news, locations for the upcoming “August: Osage County” are currently being scouted in Washington and Osage counties, according to here.