This week’s spotlight is “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events”, the 2004 children’s books adapation starring Jim Carrey, including a very funny supporting turn by Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine. New DVD screencaptures have been added to the gallery, the video archive has been updated with three new clips, deleted scenes and an interview. Production notes and my review can be found after the cut. As always, please share your thoughts on “Lemony Snicket” in the comments.

Meryl Streep, Edward Sorel and MC Lars will share the spotlight at Carnegie Hall with the nation’s future in creativity – the talented and ambitious teens who have achieved national honors in the 89th annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. More than 800 teens and their families and teachers, representing 46 states, are expected to attend the celebration, including 15 graduating seniors who will receive Portfolio Gold Medals and $10,000 scholarships. Presented by the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is the country’s longest-running, most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for creative teenagers. The celebration will kick-off on the night of May 31 when the Empire State Building will be lit in gold to honor student winners. At the June 1 ceremony at Carnegie Hall, Ms. Streep will congratulate the students and provide wisdom for them to take on their creative paths, Mr. Sorel will be presented with the 2012 Alumni Achievement Award, and MC Lars will perform. More on the event can be read here. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up!

Christopher Walken, Raúl Esparza, Jeffrey Wright, Jesse L. Martin, Jerry Stiller and Sam Waterston will join previously announced stars Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline for the Public Theater’s one-night-only benefit reading of Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the June 18 gala celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. Jeanine Tesori will compose original music for the performance, which also honors Shakespeare in the Park veteran Al Pacino. The Delacorte Theater in Central Park officially opened on June 18, 1962 with a production of The Merchant of Venice. Directed by Public Theater founder Joe Papp and Gladys Vaughn, the production featured then-unknown actors George C. Scott and James Earl Jones. Over the past 50 years more than five million people have enjoyed more than 100 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at the Delacorte. This year’s Shakespeare in the Park season will include productions of As You Like It and Into the Woods.

AFI Life Achievement Award honoree Meryl Streep will present Shirley MacLaine with the American Film Institute’s 40th Life Achievement Award – America’s highest honor for a career in film. The private black tie gala will be held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City on June 7 and will air on TV Land on Sunday, June 24 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. “The world loves Shirley MacLaine,” said Bob Gazzale, President and CEO of AFI. “AFI’s challenge will be how to fit it all into one evening because hers is a life that spans from movies to television to Broadway, books and beyond. Perhaps more than any other recipient, with Shirley I would underline the word life in Life Achievement Award,” he said. “Hers is a story more than just movies. It’s an epic journey, and she has invited all of us to come along for the ride.” “It is sure to be a magical evening celebrating Shirley’s career, especially with Meryl Streep and many other stars who will be on hand,” remarked Larry W. Jones, President, TV Land. “Shirley’s storied film and television career is so rich and colorful, it will be an unforgettable tribute.” Thanks to Glenn and Frederique for the heads-up.

Artists Meryl Streep, Sting, Joan Baez, Cynthia Nixon, Yoko Ono and Patrick Stewart signed an Amnesty International Letter to Presidents Obama and Karzai on Afghan Women’s Rights. The open letter was released Sunday to President Obama and President Karzai, calling on them to give women a voice in the conversation about Afghanistan’s future. The letter was released by Amnesty International as it staged a “Shadow Summit for Afghan Women” hours before the NATO Summit got underway in Chicago. Signatories included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, feminist Gloria Steinem, Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi, along with a roster of leading Afghan women’s rights advocates.

Read the open letter: http://amnestyusa.org/obamaandkarzailetter
Read the list of signatories: http://amnestyusa.org/afghanwomensignatories

“The women of Afghanistan have come too far to see their rights vanish,” said Frank Januzzi, head of Amnesty International USA’s Washington office. “They must be part of the conversation about the future of Afghanistan or that future will look very bleak indeed. No one wants a return to the days when the Taliban banned women and girls from schools and work, and held them as virtual prisoners in their own country. This would be the ultimate catastrophe after a decade of gains for women. We hope the voices of these notable signatories will add to the pressure on Presidents Obama and Karzai to follow through on the promise of human rights for all women in Afghanistan.” Amnesty International urged Presidents Obama and Karzai to adopt eight key steps to make sure Afghan woman can continue the progress they have made on rights and freedoms after the troops leave in 2014. Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up

This week’s spotlight is “Before and After”, Barbet Schroeder’s 1996 drama about a family’s struggle after their son is being accused of murdering his girlfriend. If you would like to add this to your collection, “Before and After” has been released on Blu-Ray this week in the USA. The media pages for the film have been updated with Blu-Ray screencaptures, a couple of new production stills, on-set pictures as well as three new video clips. Production notes and my review can be found after the cut. As always, share your thoughts on “Before and After” in the comments section.

Another change has been made to Simply Streep that I had in mind for quite some time now – subsections for international articles. The aim is to provide foreign language articles as well. And to keep a better overview, each country receives its own subcategory. If you have collected non-english articles and would like to share them with the visitors of Simply Streep, please drop me a line. For now, subcategories for Germany, Italy and France have been created – you can already find some (translated) articles, which were kindly contributed by Simona and Soukup. You can find the subcategories on the left in the magazine archive, simply click the flags. Also added to the image library are two French articles from 1983 and 1986, sent in by Alvaro. Enjoy!

These days, lots of panels and parties are held to raise interest in the Broadway shows nominated for a Tony. Among them is Mike Nichols’ “Death of a Salesman”, produced by Scott Rudin and starring Philip Seymour Hofman. A discussion panel on the play, which has held yesterday, was hosted by Meryl Streep. Here’s more informtion courtesy the New York Post: The press wasn’t admitted. The Broadway League has some silly bugaboo about press coverage of the roadies. I suppose the League fears we might find out just how shaky the road is these days, what with so many mediocre shows flying around out there. Ted Chapin, chairman of the American Theatre Wing, was announced as the moderator. But – surprise, surprise! – Meryl Streep came onstage to a five-minute standing ovation. (Rudin’s produced several of her movies, including “Doubt” and “The Hours.”) Streep moderated the panel and asked some pointed and insightful questions. She wondered, for instance, if any of the actors ever “steal” from other actors, adding: “I do all the time, but only from men!” Of Nichols she said: “There have been many times, Mike, in our working relationship when I wished I were Diane Sawyer. But never more so than now.” Hoffman admitted that playing a role such as Willy Loman takes over your life. “You wake up, you’re Willy Loman,” he said. “You go to lunch, you’re Willy Loman. You go to dinner, you’re Willy Loman. You’re Willy Loman all the time.” To prevent the play from taking over their lives completely, Garfield told the crowd, the cast goes out every night after the show to “reconnect.” Nichols said he swings by the theater at least once a week to see the play. “Very often you have to do what I call ‘killing babies,’” he said. “You have to take an actor aside and say, ‘You know that part where you come in and say, “Hello,” and then pirouette around the stage? I think you should go back to just saying “Hello.”’ I don’t have to do that with this cast.” I’m told every single road voter attended the “Salesman” event, which should sew it up nicely for the show on Tony night. Many thanks to Glenn and Holly for the heads-up.

Forbes has released its annualy Celebrity 100 List of the world’s most powerful celebrities, and Meryl is among them. The full list can be found on their website. Here’s what they wrote about Meryl: The most nominated actress of all time, Streep won her third Academy Award this year for The Iron Lady a biopic about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. At the age of 62, Streep has an enviable career. She works consistently and balances smaller, award-worthy films with more mainstream fare like Hope Springs. Thanks to Christopher for the heads-up.

It’s Mother’s Days, so what better film to cover than “Postcards from the Edge”, Mike Nichols’ 1990 drama comedy of a disfunctional mother-daughter relationship. New DVD screencaptures from the film have been added to the image library, three clips from the film can be found in the video archive – with a bonus clip of Meryl performing “I’m Checking Out“. Also, be sure to have a look at this 1991 segment from E! Entertainment, featuring an interview with Meryl and on-set footage from the film. Production notes and my review after the cut. As always, share your thoughts on “Postcards from the Edge” in the comments.