Actor Jim Broadbent has talked to New Magazine to promote Mike Leigh’s latest film “Another Year” – and also spoke about the upcoming “The Iron Lady”. Very exciting! The full article and interview can be read at the NYmag’s website. According to Broadbent, shooting of “The Iron Lady” will start on late January.

I think years ago a film about Thatcher was attempted, and they had a phone-in vote on a BBC morning news program: “Who do you think should play Margaret Thatcher?” And Meryl actually came out on top! I think it’s perceived that Thatcher needs a star, really, and she’s perfect casting in many ways. She’s got a good look, and she’ll absolutely do it in a brilliant way. She’s also got an interesting eye on the script: She can bring an outsider’s view on the story, so that it won’t become a lazy, parochial piece that Brits understand but where nobody else really knows what’s going on. She can ask the questions that foreign audiences will ask.

In a recent article with The Times, actor Richard E. Grant mentioned his involvement with the upcoming “The Iron Lady”. Shooting is stated to begin January 2011.

When I’m back from Africa I start filming The Iron Lady – I’m playing Michael Heseltine and Meryl Streep is playing Margaret Thatcher – and the good news is that it’s being made here in Britain.

Here’s an early Christmas present to you. On December 05, British ITV1 had a 90 minutes television special on “The Nation’s Favourite ABBA song”, a countdown of the Swedish group’s music hits, as voted by the British public. The programme was accompanied by interviews with Bjorn and Frida, collaborators, celebrity fans – as well as Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Julie Walters, reflecting on shooting the movie version of the musical “Mamma Mia” (Meryl’s remarks were filmed back in 2008 for “The South Bank Show”). With many thanks to the great Alvaro, a video excerpt as well as captures from the programme have been added to the site. Enjoy watching!

Article courtesy The Family Kitchen blog: Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and accompanying TV shows inspired a new perspective toward cooking in the sixties. In book and hit movie, Julie & Julia, Meryl Streep reintroduced Julia Child to the masses, reminding us how much we love her. But as with any well-known public figure, there’s the on-air persona everyone gets to see, and presumably the personal life everyone wants a peek into. “As Always, Julia”, a collection of around 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent (introduced in the movie) allow us a peek into Julia’s thoughts and feelings. Their correspondence, in print for the first time, reminds me of a time when letters were a key means of communication, pre- cell phones, email, facebook and twitter. I do miss letters.

In As Always, Julia we get to follow the bringing to life of Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a frank, funny, agonizing way as Julia, beginning as a new bride in Paris, follows her diplomat husband as he is transferred between Nice, Germany, and Norway. There are wonderful, real photos of Julia in her home and on holiday. There’s commentary by the famed food historian Joan Reardon, addressing political, social and gastronomic issues throughout. For those who love to curl up in bed with a good cookbook, this read will go further – like a good novel, reality TV and a cookbook rolled into one. The book has been released on December 1, 2010 and can be ordered – at Amazon – and other know sources.

Various British sources have reported on current funding news for “The Iron Lady”, sounding quite negative, most probably due to the original negative statements by the Daily Telegraph. According to the Guardian, the UK Film Council’s last large-scale donations has been to the forthcoming Margaret Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady, which was awarded £1m in October. Some see the move as an 11th-hour snook cocked at the Conservatives who, if rumours surrounding the script are to believed, may not welcome the project. Tim Walker of the Daily Telegraph reports that Thatcher’s family were “appalled” by the sound of the film, which apparently involves the former prime minister reassessing her career with some regret after the death of her husband, Denis, and while she is suffering from dementia. “They think it sounds like some left-wing fantasy,” Walker quotes a friend of the family as saying. Pathé, who are producing the film, insist it will be made with “appropriate sensitivity”. Meryl Streep plays Thatcher, and will be reunited with her Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd. Jim Broadbent is Denis, while Olivia Colman takes on the role of their daughter, Carol. To be fair, these quotations were published some time back by the Telegraph, quoting “a friend of the family” at a state when the script was probably not seen by anyone except those who were working on it, so let’s see if the negative press will keep up on “The Iron Lady” once it goes into production in early 2011.

The three episodes of “Web Therapy” with Meryl can be now watched at the show’s official website.

Some UT theater students got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Friday. They got acting tips from two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep. Streep visited the Forty Acres at the invitation of the University’s department of theatre and dance. Streep says her best advice to students is to set priorities. “You have to get your life right before you can get your art going. At least for me, as an actor, the things that really have mattered most are peripheral to your awards or the parts I’ve played,” Streep said. She continued, “Really the goal of your life is to be a good human being, and the more you know about everything, a little bit of everything, the more you understand the world around you.” According to KVUE Austin News, Streep says in her next film she will portray former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Their website has a video report on the evening, which can be watched below.

Deadline has been a frontrunner lately with exclusive news on upcoming collaborations, such as the planned “August: Osage County” and Michael Patrick King’s untitled comedy. Now, they reporting on a possible appearance on Lisa Kudrow’s web series (!): It seems like the great Meryl Streep is heading to the Web with a stint on Lisa Kudrow’s popular Internet series Web Therapy. I hear that the Oscar-winning actress quietly shot a three-episode arc on the series’ upcoming batch of fresh episodes, which LStudio is expected to launch soon. Details about her character are sketchy but word is she is playing a counselor. Streep has been in such great demand in features (she recently signed to do Michael Patrick King’s new comedy at Universal) that she rarely does anything else, with the exception of an occasional prestige longform TV project such as HBO’s Angels in America. The Webby-winning improv comedy series Web Therapy, created by Kudrow, her producing partner Dan Bucatinsky and writer-director Don Roos, stars Kudrow as Fiona Wallice, a therapist of unspecified credentials. In April, Showtime picked up the produced webisodes of Web Therapy to air as a half-hour series on the pay cable network.

Add another project to the already extensive list of possible new projects, according exclusively to Deadline: In one of the more exceptional cast-attached movie packages to come along in awhile, Universal Pictures has acquired an untitled comedy that will be written and directed by Michael Patrick King and star Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock and Oprah Winfrey. It’s an ensemble comedy set in the world of a Home Shopping-type network, where characters make their way through the maze of mania that surrounds marketing, marriages and the media. King, who wrote and directed two Sex and the City films after he exec produced the HBO series, told me that as he was looking to create his next vehicle, met with Stuber and they sparked to the idea for a comedy with well-drawn relationships that could draw a top-notch female cast. King decided to aim high. “I came up with the idea of writing for Meryl, Sandy and Oprah, and it became so specific to them that I wanted to be sure I had interest from these ladies,” King told me. “I put it in front of each of them and they all said yes. To have access to these women, tell them this story and hear yes was almost like a Greek mythological journey, with me going from one goddess to the next. It was humbling. They’re all unique, and the idea of writing parts that three strong women will play is such a challenge. Their body of work is beyond reproach. It’s also appealing to craft a character for Oprah to come back and play that’s not Oprah.” King said he will begin writing immediately, and expects to have the script done by January. Availability of the actresses will be an issue, but the hope is to get this into production as King’s next directing effort by next summer or fall. The talent-laden package was put together by CAA, which reps King and the actresses. Universal got first shot at it because Stuber’s based at the studio, and Donna Langley and Adam Fogelson took it off the table before it went elsewhere.

Following the unexpected global success of “Words For You”, a unique album of classic poems, read by British actors and set to classical music, Universal Records imprint label 1st Rule Records announce today that a host of Oscar winning Hollywood actors will feature on “Words For You The Next Chapter” to be released on 8 November 2010. Once again featuring the greatest poems, set to the greatest classical music, “Words For You The Next Chapter” draws on the vocal brilliance of some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Helena Bonham Carter, Jim Broadbent, James Earl Jones, Terence Stamp and Meryl Streep, plus the cream of British acting establishment and new talent Peter Capaldi, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dervla Kirwan, Maureen Lipman, and Rupert Penry Jones. Proportion of proceeds from sales of “Words For You” goes to I CAN, a UK charity that helps children who have difficulties speaking and understanding. www.ican.org.uk. Meryl reads “On Marriage” by Kahill Gibran and “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson. “Words For You The Next Chapter” can be pre-ordered on Amazon UK. Thanks to Doug for contributing these news.