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.

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.

Article courtesy the New York Daily News. Mayor Bloomberg will team up next Monday with Meryl Streep to co-host the Mayor’s Awards for Arts & Culture at Alice Tully Hall. Bloomberg said he’s “excited” but also a little intimidated by the “Devil Wears Prada” star. “She is one of the greatest actresses of our time, so I’ve got a lot of rehearsing to do before next Monday,” said Bloomberg. “The awards give us a chance to recognize the achievements of some of the people who make extraordinary contributions to culture in the five boroughs and help keep the city a vibrant place for artists and audiences,” Bloomberg said. New York City’s highest award for achievement in the arts, the Handel Medallion, will go to dance great and outgoing Alvin Ailey Artistic Director Judith Jamison. Other honorees will include photographer Bill Cunningham, Bronx Theatre High School Principal Deborah Effinger and Amy Fischetti-Boncardo, executive director of the Queens County Farm Museum. The Brooklyn Community Foundation and Staten Island’s Sandy Ground Historical Society are also slated to be honored.

Indiana University announces a free event featuring Meryl Streep and Jane Pauley on Friday, Nov. 12 at 4:30 p.m. at Indiana University Auditorium. Entitled “An Evening of Conversation with Jane Pauley and Meryl Streep at Indiana University,” the event is free and open to the public. On Nov. 1 at 10 a.m., tickets will be available in person at the IU Auditorium box office for IU Bloomington students, faculty and staff with valid ID; tickets will be available for the general public on Nov. 3 at 10 a.m. The program will feature an introduction by IU’s first lady Laurie Burns McRobbie followed by a discussion between Pauley and Streep. The evening will conclude with a question and answer session with questions submitted by audience members. More information can be found at the University’s official website.

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.

Meryl has attended yesterday’s celebration for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. In 1988, Paul Newman founded the camp in Connecticut, which every year serves 800 seriously ill children. Meryl has been a supporter to it ever since, appearing last time in 2001 in the one-night-only play “The World of Nick Adams” alongside Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman to pay tribute to Paul Newman’s efforts. Pictures from yesterday’s event can be found in the Image Library.

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.

Many thanks to John for sharing this: Academy Award winner Meryl Streep and Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday have contributed their considerable talents to Sky Island, a new film on Bandelier National Monument and the Jemez Mountains. The film was written, produced and directed by environmental filmmaker John Grabowska. Participation in the film production was, in a way, a health issue for Streep, relating to open spaces and wild places: “Our personal health depends on the health of the environment,” she said. “Preserving national parks and wildlands is an exercise in long-term thinking about the sustainability of the planet, and it directly impacts each one of us. I hope viewers are inspired by the mood and method of Sky Island. I know I was which is why I wanted to be a part of it.” “It’s such a pleasure to work with artists who are the best in their field,” Grabowska said. “Meryl is charming and down to earth but very dedicated to getting the performance exactly right, even for – or perhaps especially for – a project like this, which addresses dramatic climate change effects in Bandelier and the Jemez. Sky Island is currently on the film festival circuit and will air on PBS in 2011.

The National Women’s History Museum has posted Meryl’s entire speech, which can be now watched in the video archive. Additionally, three pictures from the event have been added to the Image Library.