The Daily Mail has published a brand new production still from “The Iron Lady” as well as some more background information on the upcoming release.

Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent show their true – blue – colours as they portray former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis. It’s a recreation of the 1980 Conservative Party conference at Brighton, when the Fighting Lady (as Time magazine dubbed her that year) put the country on alert over battles with unions regarding pay and jobs. It was also the time when she made her famous ‘You turn if you want to: the Lady is not for turning!’ speech, although the speech itself is not included in the segment.

Director Lloyd and the picture’s writer Abi Morgan use the conference to demonstrate Mrs Thatcher’s dominance of, and popularity within, her party – as well as her deep unpopularity in the other half of the nation. Outside the Grand Hotel and the all-blue iron curtain of the Tory Party faithful, thousands of protesters had marched on Brighton to express their anger at Mrs Thatcher’s policies, many of which were seen as Draconian. Some within her party were a bit wobbly, too, but Mrs Thatcher would not stand for any dissent. The film shows many high (and low) points of her life and career but overall, it is a portrait of a woman whose steely resolve dominated the British political landscape. “The film covers a big spectrum of her life in order to sum up the kind of person she was, and why she has this iconic status,’ an executive on the picture told me. Alexandra Roach portrays the young Margaret; Harry Lloyd is the young Denis; and Olivia Colman (brilliant in forthcoming film Tyrannosaur) plays Mrs Thatcher’s daughter Carol. As I mentioned before, Meryl buried herself in research on her subject, and was also advised by a line-up of Tory insiders. A friend who visited the set said there was a scary moment when Meryl was spotted with prosthetic make-up as the former PM in later retirement. ‘I thought I was staring at Maggie for real! Meryl’s not impersonating Maggie – she is the very essence of her,’ I was told.

Meryl has been helped in achieving the full Maggie look by hair and make-up expert J. Roy Halland, while Consolata Boyle, who created the clothes for The Queen, has designed costumes for The Iron Lady. She and her team tirelessly researched the six decades of Mrs Thatcher’s political career. For instance, Ms Boyle tracked down the creators of Mrs T’s iconic blue blouse with the pussy-bow collar (the one Meryl is seen wearing in Alex Bailey’s photograph) and recreated it, as she did her blue suit. And Meryl’s dresser Jane Law studied newsreel footage so she could recreate Mrs T’s look to a T. The movie, produced by Damian Jones, Pathe and Film 4, may not be ready for any of the autumn film festivals such as Toronto and Venice – although in order to qualify for the Oscars it will have to open in Los Angeles and New York by the end of December. At the moment, Pathe is provisionally set to release it here in the UK on January 6, 2012.

Here’s another fantastic treasure from the past. In December 1981, Meryl Streep, Donald Sutherland and Richard Chamberlain honored actress Helen Hayes at the Kennedy Center Honors. The appearance can be now watched in the video archive with captures being added to the image libary. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Elmira for submitting a scan of Total Film’s May issue, featuring a brief article on “The Iron Lady”.

Yesterday, Meryl has attended Good Housekeeping’s Annual Shine on Awards, as earlier reported. Pictures from the event have been added to the image library.

I’m sure this will make your Sunday. On her first cover for 2011, you’ll have a hard time figuring out that it’s indeed Meryl Streep. For the Alumnae/i Quarterly magazine, Meryl transformed, with the help and stunning photography by Brigitte Lacombe, into Vassar founder Matthew Vassar. She helps to recreate the painting “Matthew Vassar, 1861“, commissioned by Vassar’s nascent Board of Trustees and executed by the distinguished artist Charles Loring Elliott, upon the founding of the college.

“Still of the Night”, the 1982 psychologial thriller directed by Robert Benton, has been one of the last remaining films of Meryl’s career that had yet to be released on DVD. Since January, a demand version if available on DVD in the USA (means it’s manufactured on demand when ordered) and since yesterday, a DVD was released in Germany. So finally, there are great quality captures from this lesser known – or let’s say, less successful, Meryl film. The captures contain spoilers, so be aware when viewing them. Enjoy!

A new picture from yesterday’s filming of “The Iron Lady” has been added. It’s a case of BIN there, done that for the Iron Lady… as these latest pictures from the filming of her life story show. Trademark handbag by her side, Mrs T, played by a ­spookily similar-looking Meryl Streep, has to fight her way past vast piles of rubbish bags in a ­recreation of 1979’s ­Winter of Discontent. Shortly after, Thatcher led the Tories to victory – and 11 years in Downing Street. The Iron Lady, due in cinemas at the end of the year, tells how Britain’s only female Prime Minister rose to power.

Meryl Streep has attend the 150th anniversary of Vassar College, yesterday. Pictures can be found in the image library.

Brand new pictures from the “Iron Lady” set, taken on February 15, 2011, have been added to the image library. In the scenes currently being shot in South London, Mrs Thatcher is seen confronting protesters in the 1980s who are angry about job cuts and the introduction of the controversial poll tax.

Pictures from the set of “The Iron Lady”, taken on February 11 2011, have been added to the image library.