The following article comes from CNN with many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up: There’s a golden rule in Hollywood: Meryl Streep can star in whatever project she wants to star in. So, when writing “Big Little Lies” Season 2, Liane Moriarty, who wrote the novel the series was based on and is a producer on the show, had a trick up her sleeve. She created a new character – the grieving mother of deceased Perry (played in season 1 by Alexander Skarsgård) – and named her Mary Louise. “Mary Louise is my actual legal name,” Streep said during a panel discussion at The Wing SoHo on Wednesday.
Streep said she joined the project without reading a script and thought the first season of the show “was the greatest thing on TV.” 
Nicole Kidman, who was also on the panel, first revealed Moriarty’s “secret” to landing Streep back in February. “That was Liane Moriarty. That was her telepathic message to you Meryl, because [the cast] did not know that. We did not know that that was your name,” Kidman said. “Liane wrote the novella and said, ‘Get me Meryl Streep.'” Streep praised the complex portrayal of the women in the series and said that “Big Little Lies” viewers will see her character head into a “dark place” following the murder of her son.

Her son is dead. I thank God I don’t have that experience, but imagining it, just going into the dark place of imagining it. That feeling of protecting him while he’s gone is still there. The motherhood never stops.

Streep also thanked Kidman and co-star Reese Witherspoon for having the foresight to option the book rights for the screen in 2014. “I was of a generation that waited to be asked to dance and I’m so admiring of you for getting on the balls of your feet and looking for material,” Streep told Witherspoon, who also sat on the panel. A giddy Witherspoon then asked for whoever filmed that to send it to her so she could “post it to Instagram tomorrow” for proof that it actually happened. “Big Little Lies” premieres June 9 on HBO.

Most of the “Big Little Lies” actors are currently busy promoting the series’ second season, which will premiere on HBO next Sunday, June 9. Unfortuantely, Meryl is not among those doing the talkshow circuit right now. Maybe she will be seen next week since not all late night shows have announced their guests yet. In Reese Witherspoon’s appearance on Good Morning America earlier today, a clip was shown which seems to be the first meeting between Madeline and Celeste’s mother-in-law, Celeste. While we’ve already read that Mary-Louise is up to no good, the clip gives us a better understanding of what to look forward to – and judging from the brief scene, there’s a lot! You can watch the clip below, in the video archive or catch Reese’s full appearance on GMA here. Additionally, a couple of new production stills have been added to the photo gallery.

Meryl Streep will be narrating a new audiobook edition of “Charlotte’s Web” and is the first person to narrate the classic since the author’s own performance, recorded nearly 50 years ago. According to People, which has an exclusive first look at its cover-art, the classic story will also be narrated by an ensemble cast and features cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor-winning artist Melissa Sweet. “E.B. White wrote that Charlotte’s Web is a story of life, death, and friendship,” said Sweet, who is also a White biographer. “For the audiobook cover, I chose to illustrate the quintessential moment when Wilbur first meets Charlotte on a perfect spring day in Maine. I am deeply honored.” White’s story of the friendship between Charlotte, a barn spider, and Wilbur, a pig who was the runt of the litter, has moved generations of readers and inspired two film adaptations. “As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done,” wrote Eudora Welty in her 1952 New York Times review of the book. “What it all proves – in the words of the minister in the story which he hands down to his congregation after Charlotte writes ‘Some Pig’ in her web – is ‘that human beings must always be on the watch for the coming of wonders.’ ” The new Charlotte’s Web audiobook will be published by Listening Library on Oct. 29. The full story can be read over at People. Many thanks to Alvaro for the heads-up.

HBO has released the full trailer for the series’ second season. While the trailer gives great insight into what happens in Monterey after the faithful night, Meryl’s character is still only shown in short bits. It might be a good sign that they keep all the powerful scenes for its airing, starting June 09 in the United States on June 10 in United Kingdom and other European countries. Additionally, the UK poster as well as Meryl’s character poster have been released and added. Screencaptures from the trailer have been added to the photo gallery as well.

Yesterday, Meryl Streep has made a rare public appearance (hopefully not that rare anymore with the promotion of “Big Little Lies” coming up) alongside friend Emma Thompson on Broadway. They visited a performance of “What the Constitution Means to Me” by Heidi Schreck, which is currently a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Pictures from their backstage visit have been added to the photo gallery.

The headline should be the other way around, since Nicole Kidman is the cover star of the latest Vanity Fair, including an in-depth interview. However, Krista Smith’s article features interviews with her “Big Little Lies” co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep as well, giving a wonderful insight into the show’s second season: Meryl Streep says that camaraderie is why she didn’t hesitate when the call came to join the cast for the second season. “The fans wanted more, I wanted more. I signed on without even knowing what the part was because I had such confidence in this group and just how smart they all are and how high the bar was going to be.” Kidman nods to the prototypical happy ensemble. “Look at the Friends cast, they spent all that time together—they’re different because there are no men in our equation. I mean, there are, but they’re not on the group chat, let’s put it that way.” Wait. Nicole, Reese, Laura, Zoë, and Shailene have a group chat?! What about Meryl?! “Yes,” says Kidman. “And she’s very funny.” Witherspoon describes the ultimate girls’ night. “Can you imagine that we got to go to dinner with Meryl every week? And hear her stories!? It’s like years and years of actresses being siloed off, and finally they let us intermingle. You can only imagine the conversations that we had. It was a really amazing experience of sharing our indignities and our triumphs, and just every rainbow of the female experience in our business.”

HBO released the official first look and premiere date for the second season of the Emmy-winning drama on Sunday. The seven-episode season premieres June 9. The second season picks up where the first left off and, according to the HBO description, will focus on how the tragic events of the finale fundraiser impact the main characters’ seemingly picture-perfect lives. The season description reads: On the surface, in the tranquil seaside town of Monterey, California, everything seems the same. The mothers continue to dote, the husbands support, the children remain adorable and the houses are just as beautiful. But the night of the school fundraiser changed all that, leaving the community reeling as the “Monterey Five” bond together to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. In a major casting scoop, Meryl Streep adds to the already impressive ensemble cast. She plays the role of Mary Louise Wright, who is described as a woman concerned for the well-being of her grandchildren following her son Perry’s (Alexander Skasrgard) death and who arrives in Monterey searching for answers. At one point in the season two trailer, she confronts Witherspoon’s character, Madeline. The new season will explore the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and, of course, and the vicious ferocity of sound parenting. Relationships will fray, loyalties will erode — and the potential for emotional and bodily injury shall loom, HBO warns. The teaser trailer can be watched above. Screencaptures have been added to the photo gallery.

“Mary Poppins Returns” has been released on DVD, Blu-Ray and on-demand earlier this week in the United States. The Blu-Ray is filled with special features, outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage. Screencaptures from the film, its making of featurettes and the outtakes have been added to the photo gallery.

On March 10th at 4pm, WHQR will be broadcasting “A Change of World”, which tells the story of how poets who were swept up in the Women’s Movement of the 1960s and 70s radically changed American poetry. As poet Alicia Ostriker says, “For the first time in the history of writing, which is about 4000 years or so, women could write without fear, without constantly looking over their shoulder to see if they were going to be approved of by men.” How did this come about? Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” was a primary catalyst of The Women’s Movement. In poetry, it was Sylvia Plath’s posthumous book “Ariel,” which electrified a generation of women poets. We’ll hear from Plath herself and from women poets who were coming up during the 1960s. We’ll also hear about the radical sexual and psychological candor of Plath’s friend, Anne Sexton. By the 1970s women poets were publishing a huge variety of poetry that simply was not imaginable a decade earlier. Yet they still didn’t have mainstream literary approval. When Adrienne Rich won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1974, she accepted on behalf of her fellow nominees Audre Lorde and Alice Walker. This was a watershed moment. As Honor Moore says, :It was shocking. Feminism had no standing in the culture. It was courageous in the sense that none of these three poets would ever be accepted or considered in the same way again.” In the face of continuing sexism in the literary establishment, women poets began forming their own informal communities, with readings, magazines, bookstores, workshops and mentorships. We’ll hear about this movement from poets who participated, like Sharon Olds, Judy Grahn, Sonia Sanchez, Susan Griffin, as well as archival audio from some of the leading poets of the time. You can listen to the programme in its entirety on the Poetry Foundation’s official website. Many thanks to Alvaro for the heads-up.

In Interview Magazine‘s latest issue, Meryl Streep takes over a rare job – that of the interviewer – talking to Glenda Jackson about acting, politics and everything in between. Their conversation can be read in full on Interview’s website. Here’s a sneak peek: It’s the morning after the Golden Globes and Glenda Jackson is sitting next to a crackling fire, a warm drink in her hands, at The Greenwich Hotel in downtown New York. The night before on most Americans’ televisions, a parade of sleepwalking celebrities, disingenuous E! correspondents, and models burdened with trays of Fiji Water trampled the red carpet in borrowed gowns and heavy-seeming jewels. The 82-year-old, steely-eyed Brit across from me is a much-needed salve, a reminder that beneath the pageantry and the preening—and the branding—there is still the craft. Jackson is in town preparing for the New York leg of her gender-blind performance as King Lear. The production, which opens in April, comes to America from London, where a critic for The Guardian described her as “one of the most powerful Lears I have seen.” It is yet another indelible personal best for Jackson, and a welcome return to Broadway following her Tony Award–winning turn last year as a corrosive widow in Three Tall Women.