Hillary Clinton, Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Diane von Furstenberg and Tom Hanks will be featured speakers at Newsweek and The Daily Beast’s Women in the World Summit in New York on April 4 and 5, The Daily Beast announced Thursday. The summit highlights global women’s issues and features activists, CEOs and artists. “We tell the stories of the courageous and intelligent women who are battling the status quo in their countries, picking up the pieces in the aftermath of war and shattering glass ceilings in every sector,” The Daily Beast announced. Update: According to this source, Meryl Streep will pay tribute to Inez McCormack at the Women in the World Summit on April 4. Streep has portrayed Inez in the documentary play “Seven”, which tells the personal stories of Inez and six other women who triumphed over enormous obstacles to create major positive change in their home countries, at the same event three years ago.

Meryl Streep narrates Wings of Life, an eye-popping, hi-def nature documentary from Disney that zooms in to examine the pollination partnerships between flowers and the butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, and bats that make our quality of life possible. Using amazing high-speed camera equipment that can shoot up to 1,500 frames per second, Wings of Life will open your eyes to the majestic beauty and mystery of nature, both exotic and familiar. “Wings of Life” becomes available on Blu-ray, Digital and On Demand on April 16, just in time for Earth Day. Click on the left to watch the trailer.

There’s one reason I’m posting this, rather speculative, news: The last time Meryl was mentioned to appear in a cameo, I thought, yes sure, that never happens. But since it was “Stuck on You” and really happened, I’ve kind of learned from it. So here we go: In a recent interview with Shortlist, Steve Carell dished on the upcoming sequel of “Anchorman” and mentioned he could imagine Meryl having a cameo in it. “Meryl Streep told me she was a huge Anchorman fan and she’d love to have a cameo in the sequel. That could be really funny. There are going to be plenty of great cameos in this movie.” “Anchorman 2” already boasts big names: in addition to original cast members Carell, Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Christina Applegate, “The Legend Continues” will also feature appearances from Kristen Wiig, James Marsden and Harrison Ford. So, if “Anchorman 2” happens with Streep, I’ll have my fingers crossed she’ll share the screen with Kristen Wiig, which would be worth its ticket alone.

Update: Well it has taken just one day for Carell to deny his words again :-) He told Access Hollywood that Meryl won’t be able to fit the film into her schedule. “When I did ‘Hope Springs,’ [Meryl] mentioned she was a fan and she said, ‘Oh, I’d love to be in it,'” Steve told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Friday’s Access Hollywood Live. “But that’s not gonna [happen] – that’s not a thing. “She’s actually busy – she can’t do it,” he added, with a laugh.”

In new Screen for Life television and radio public service announcements (PSAs), Meryl Streep says, “There is so much in life we can’t control. But here’s something we can: colorectal cancer.” She talks about getting screened herself and urges others to do all they can to prevent colorectal cancer and get screened. Streep, who filmed the PSA in June 2012, joins an outstanding group of celebrities who have participated in CDC’s Screen for Life campaign, including actors Terrence Howard, Jimmy Smits, Diane Keaton, and Morgan Freeman, as well as journalist Katie Couric. PSAs featuring these celebrities were created in partnership with the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (NCCRA), cofounded by Ms. Couric. NCCRA is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. To learn more about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visit their official website.

According to The Playlist, “August: Osage County” has finally received a theatrical release date for the USA – November 8, 2013. The picture is an adaptation of Tracy Letts’ dark comedic play (a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and centers on a troubled family that tries to overcome their differences when their alcoholic patriarch goes missing. Letts wrote the deeply acidic play “Killer Joe” that William Friedkin adapted to fantastically bonkers effect last year and also penned the screenplay to both films. Directed by John Wells, it’s his follow-up effort to “The Company Men,” which starred Ben Affleck, after spending almost three decades in TV writing, producing and directing (notable credits include “Shameless,” and “E.R.” among many). The cast is unstoppable. The mother and father are played by Meryl Streep and Sam Shepard and the adult daughters are played by Julia Roberts, Juliette Lewis and Julianne Nicholson from “Boardwalk Empire.” The cast also includes Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Abigail Breslin and Dermot Mulroney. Unless there is something botched in the execution, expect this picture to be a big awards player.

While they may raise children, cook, clean and honor their spouses, the women celebrated in the PBS-AOL collaboration “Makers” are the daring ones who ventured out of the house to lead the women’s liberation movement, who broke barriers and became emblems in the fight for equality. “Makers: Women Who Make America” is a broadcast and digital effort, already online and premiering as a three-hour documentary narrated by Meryl Streep on PBS on Feb. 26. Bra burning? Yes, that’s part of the story, along with Supreme Court appointments, the first female astronaut, anchorwomen, congresswomen, corporate executives, coal miners, Boston marathoners and more. From the victory of Roe v. Wade to the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, from consciousness-raising about advertising imagery to the admission of women in sports, it has been a long, not always winning slog. The complete article on the documentary can be read here.

Today, the AMPAS made an announcement that Meryl Streep, Jean Dujardin, Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer will return to present on this year’s telecast. “We are honored to have Meryl, Octavia, Christopher and Jean, last year’s Oscar winners in each of the acting categories, return to the Oscar stage,” said Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. Streep, who is the most nominated actor with 17 nominations, has won three Academy Awards, including last year’s lead actress award for her performance in The Iron Lady. Plummer, who has twice been nominated, won the award for his supporting role in Beginners and Spencer took home the award for her supporting role in Best Picture nominee The Help. Dujardin, who received his first nomination last year, won the Oscar for his lead performance in the Best Picture winner The Artist. Oscars for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and will be hosted by Seth MacFarlane live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Back in October, there were news about a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Into the Woods” with Meryl in talks to play the Witch. Now, according to Broadway World, the casting seems to be announced. In a new interview with the Litchfield County Times with arranger David Krane confirms, telling the paper that: “I am coming into an exciting time,” said Mr. Krane in a telephone interview from New York City. “My show, “The Road to Qatar,’ is being presented in London next month and then I am doing a revival of an old show, ‘Good News’ at the Goodspeed Opera House. And then the biggest news-they are doing a movie of the musical ‘Into the Woods.’ Disney is going to make the movie and I will do the arrangements. Meryl Streep will be the witch and it will be the first time I have worked with her since 1977 when we did ‘Happy End.’ For one, a new project would make sense since “August: Osage County” is wrapped, but as always I’d consider a project official once the film studio makes an announcement or Meryl mentions it in an interview. The same can be said about recent news of Tommy Lee Jones’ next film “The Horseman”, which has been announced some time back as a vehicle for Meryl – so far, there hasn’t been an official confirmation. Let’s see what happens…

Airing on January 31 at 9pm, Meryl Streep will be narrating “The ‘70s: Bold and Fearless”, the second of PBS’s four-part Pioneers of Thirteen documentary series that goes decade by decade to celebrate the station’s 50 years of programming. Ms. Streep was an up-and-coming actress when she played Leila in PBS’s 1977 production of Wendy Wasserstein’s Uncommon Women and Others. Clips of this performance will be included in the documentary, in addition to clips from several other productions whose all-star casts include Tony Award winners Blythe Danner (Nice Work If You Can Get It), James Earl Jones (Driving Miss Daisy), and Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), to name a few. The complete article on PBS’ anniversary can be read here.

Meryl Streep has won the 2013 People’s Choice Award as Movie Icon. She shared the category with Emma Thompson, Maggie Smith, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon. She was also nominated in the Best Dramatic Movie Actess category, for which Emma Watson was voted. As expected, Meryl didn’t attend the ceremony and in case I didn’t miss it, the Movie Icon category wasn’t even broadcast (if it was, let me know :-), but a clip from the Dramatic Actress segment has been added to the video archive.