The Public Theater announced today that Public Theater alumna and Academy Award winner Meryl Streep and Sir Howard Stringer will honor their friend and colleague, the late Nora Ephron, a long-time Public Theater board member, at The Public’s Gala on Monday, June 10 at the Delacorte Theater, where the benefit evening will culminate in a concert performance of “The Pirates of the Penzance”. In collaboration with The Central Park Conservancy and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, The Public Theater will plant a flowering cherry tree in Central Park across from the Delacorte Theater in honor of Ephron, who was a consummate lover of The Public’s free Shakespeare in the Park. A plaque will be mounted outside the Delacorte to memorialize the occasion and Ephron’s dedication to The Public. “Meryl Streep and Howard Stringer will share their history and bond with Nora Ephron,” said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “And the flowering cherry tree will be a beautiful reminder, for generations to come, of Nora’s generosity of spirit.” Meryl Streep and Nora Ephron have a long history of collaboration together, beginning in 1983 when Streep was featured in Nora Ephron’s Silkwood, directed by Mike Nichols, and most recently the 2009 feature film Julie & Julia, written and directed by Ephron.

Yesterday, Meryl took to the stage in New York to honour the careers of fellow actresses Lois Smith and Frances Sternhagen with the Obie’s Lifetime Achievement Award. A first batch of pictures have been added to the image library with more to come.

The Wrap has a nice article on the Weinstein Company’s recent presentation of upcoming films at Cannes: The Weinstein Company unveiled its slate for the year at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, giving a glimpse of their game plan for Oscar season, which includes an intriguing documentary-style feature about the elusive writer J.D. Salinger, a biopic on Nelson Mandela and a southern vehicle for A-list Actresses, “August: Osage County.” The most obvious Oscar bait – at least in the acting category – was a first look at “August: Osage County,” based on the play, starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor and Juliette Lewis. It also includes Abigail Breslin and my how Little Miss Sunshine has grown! The film delves into the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, starting with Streep, in a frowsy black wig (Weinstein told TheWrap this week that Streep went wandering through Wal-Marts late at night to prepare for the role), Roberts as her daughter returning during a family crisis and Lewis as her sister. Looks like Streep gets in lots of zingers and embodies the tagline for the movie: “Misery loves family.” The complete article can be read here.

“Into the Woods” could become even more familiar territory for Meryl, as two previous co-stars have been recently announced to be possible additions. According to Variety, Emily Blunt is finalizing a deal to join the Disney’s musical playing the Baker’s wife, while The Wrap reports that Christine Baranski could be joining the cast as well. Baranski participated in a reading of the script back in October where she played Cinderella’s mean-spirited and demanding stepmother. As with Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal, who are circling the princely roles of Cinderella and Rapunzel’s self-absorbed love interests, Baranski has not received an offer yet. However, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap she’s in talks to join the cast, though a scheduling conflict with “The Good Wife” is one obstacle that must be overcome. Thanks to Frank and Glenn for the heads-up!

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is currently making the rounds to talk about “Star Trek Into Darkness,” and has mentioned working with Meryl Streep on the upcoming “August: Osage County” in an interview with New York Magazine. The complete interview can be read here with his quote being snipped out below.

Cumberbatch prefers the hows to the whys of acting, and he found a kindred spirit in Meryl Streep, his co-star in this fall’s August: Osage County. “I asked her how she approached the multiple layers of her part,” says Cumberbatch. “And she said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t have a process. It changes with every job, doesn’t it?’ And I thought, Oh, thank God, to hear her say it. This whole thing about technique or method? It’s bullshit. People say, ‘Oh, you’re so precise.’ But within that I work very hard to give every part a heartbeat. I learned a lot from just watching Meryl in repose. It was a bit like a Sherlock deduction actually.”

Since the announcement of Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp leading Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods”, more famous names have surfaced for parts in the film. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine are in talks to join the Disney musical. Deal-making hasn’t quite begun but the two actors met and even sang for director Rob Marshall for their respective parts and are expected to receive offers to join the star-studded cast. If deals close, Gyllenhaal and Pine would play their first on-screen singing roles. And according to BroadwayWorld, singer Jewel is about to audition as well. She has taken to Twitter to muse on a particularly intriguing topic – singing the music of Stephen Sondheim, specifically the tricky “On The Steps Of The Palace” and followed with “Been working hard all weekend on an audition for a movie. Fingers crossed.” Why exactly is Jewel singing Sondheim’s “On The Steps Of The Palace”? What movie could she be auditioning for soon? She is not necessarily known for her musical theatre covers done in concert, after all. Indeed, the singer and sometimes actress has not been announced to be taking part in any upcoming production of “Into the Woods”, nor even scheduled to be a guest at a concert of Sondheim’s material as of this writing, so could she possibly be participating in the forthcoming feature film adaptation? Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

According to BroadwayWorld, a new casting notice for Disney confirms the commitment of Streep and Depp in the film’s pivotal roles, along with the addition of James Corden playing the Baker: “Starring in “Into The Woods” is three-time Academy Award nominee and Disney favorite Johnny Depp, who is playing a hungry and sexy vicissitude of the fairy tale Wolf. Also starring as the vain and charismatic Witch is three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep. Rounding out the first three roles Disney has cast is Tony Award winner James Corden playing the role of The Baker. Corden, who is hugely popular in England, recently played the role of “Britain’s Got Talent” sensation Paul Potts in the film “One Chance”.” The casting notice is available here. Thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

The buzz for the November releasing “August: Osage County” starts earlier than expected. Today, ABC News has launched the film’s theatrical trailer, which you can watch below. Hopefully a HD version will follow the next couple of days.

The trailer’s release comes with a nice summary by Entertainment Weekly. August: Osage County (out Nov. 8) may well become the year’s fanciest movie about a trashy family. It’s based on Tracy Letts’ hours-long, Pulitizer prize-winning play (which we said was, “horrifyingly, deliciously mesmerizing”) and is directed by John Wells from Letts’ adaptation. The cast is stuffed from every angles with talent: Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard, Abigail Breslin, Juliette Lewis, Chris Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Julia Roberts (as the favorite daughter), and Meryl Streep (as the hated mother). As the film’s first trailer makes clear, Osage County is a Jenga-like drama of family dysfunction, with funerals and divorces piling atop dinner-table conflicts. Roberts is weary. Streep, with a frizz of black hair, has the juiciest role in the play. Edward Sharpe plays in the background.

The public appearances have been sorted a bit and new pictures have been added, including television appearances that Meryl did in the late 1980s, including Entertainment Tonight and ABC’s The Home Show. Additionally, some already added pictures have been identified for the correct events, such as this one or this one. All last added pictures can be launched by clicking below. And while we’re at it, some additional early work pictures from The Deadliest Season, The Cherry Orchard and Taken in Marriage have been added as well. Enjoy.

Misery loves family! The Weinstein Company has released a first poster for “August: Osage County” today via Yahoo Movies, giving a first glance at the November releasing family drama starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Julianne Nicholson, Abigail Breslin and Sam Shepard. When the family patriarch vanishes, the Westons return to rural Oklahoma to care for their afflicted, manipulative mother Violet. Armed with prescription drugs and paranoid mood swings, Violet reigns over the home as family secrets unfold.