It’s been a busy Tuesday for Meryl Streep, having attended both the Women for Women Luncheon and the 100th Anniversary of Planned Parenthood. At the luncheon, Hillary Clinton was the featured speaker and was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent and anchor of “Amanpour.” Streep, Donna Karan, Billie Jean King and Sophie Turner were among the 650 women who attended the luncheon at 583 Park Avenue. The event succeeded in raising $1.2 million for the programs that improve women’s lives in countries affected by conflict and war. Later in the evening, Meryl was joined by Tina Fey and Scarlett Johansson to support Planned Parenthood at its centennial celebration, and to hear Clinton urge continued activism on behalf of women and girls around the world, and access to services like pregnancy and maternity care. Advancing women’s rights and opportunities, Clinton said at the event Tuesday evening — during which she received an award — “remains the great unfinished business of the 21st century. And some days, it seems like it may be even more unfinished than we’d hoped.” Pictures from both events have been added to the photo gallery, alongside some new pictures from the PEN America Gala.

Meryl Streep, has called for the freeing of Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker sentenced to 20 years in jail after being subjected to a sham trial in Russia. Streep was pictured alongside Ukrainian lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem with a “Free Sentsov” sign in a photograph taken during the PEN America Annual Literary Gala on April 25, at which Sentsov was honoured with a 2017 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write award. Nayyem, who posted the photograph on his Facebook account on April 30, said that the actress was genuinely interested in Sentsov’s case, and eager to help. “She was already aware of the fact that one of the nominees is an imprisoned filmmaker, but didn’t know (Sentsov’s) entire story,” Nayyem wrote, “I told her about the case, (Sentsov’s) family, Crimea, (Russian) nationality being forced upon him, and his two children stuck in the annexed territory.” Nayyem said that Streep asked him how she could help, which is when the lawmaker told her about the Pen America campaign for freeing Sentsov and suggested they take a photograph with a “Free Sentsov” sign to raise awareness. “She agreed without hesitating,” Nayyem says, adding that she also asked Nayyem to be in the photograph too. “Who will believe that I came up with this sign myself?” Nayyem quoted Streep as saying.The complete article can be read over at Kyiv Post, with many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

On May 29, Meryl Streep and Robin Wright will participate in a special conversation panel in São Paulo, which will analyze the position of women in the current labor world and their empowerment in society, Banco Santander Brasil reported Wednesday. “We will have a conversation about women, the position of women and women’s leadership in today’s fast-paced world,” the president of the institution’s Brazilian branch, Sergio Rial, told at a meeting with journalists. Not much more info has been announced as of now. Thanks to everybody for the heads-up. Edit: Unfortunately, the São Paulo appearance has been canceled, so neither Streep nor Wright will be in attendance.

Also, just today, Meryl is attending the Women for Women International Luncheon in New York City. The event features Hillary Clinton as a speaker for an intimate conversation moderated by Christiane Amanpour, Chief International Correspondent, CNN. Secretary Clinton has said in the past and still believes that the only way to reduce the number of conflicts around the world, to eliminate rape as a weapon of war, to combat sexual violence, and to build sustainable peace is to draw on the full contributions of women. In her work as First Lady, as a U.S. Senator, as Secretary of State, and as the first female candidate nominated for President of the United States by a major party, Secretary Clinton has led the fight to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, to end child and forced marriage, and to usher in the voices of women in every aspect of peacebuilding and conflict resolution. It is not known if Meryl is just attending as a guest, but make sure to check later in case there are pictures.

Yesterday in New York, Meryl Streep presented the 2017 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award to composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim at the PEN America Literary Gala, at the American Museum of Natural History. Sondheim has delighted audiences worldwide for more than six decades with witty lyrics, contagious melodies, and unforgettable characters that comprise some of America’s most beloved and timeless musicals such as West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park with George, which just completed its Broadway revival starring Jake Gyllenhaal. He is also the winner of at least 60 individual and collaborative Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Pictures can be found in the photo gallery and Meryl’s introduction can be watched below and in the video archive.

Sad news today. Jonathan Demme, best known for directed “The Silence of the Lambs”, for which he won a Best Director Academy Award, has died at 73. Meryl Streep has spoken out on the passing of filmmaker Jonathan Demme, who directed the Oscar winner in 2015’s rocker comedy, “Ricki and the Flash.” In a statement provided to TheWrap, Streep praised Demme as: “A big hearted, big tent, compassionate man- in full embrace in his life of people in need- and of the potential of art, music, poetry and film to fill that need- a big loss to the caring world.” Demme died Wednesday in New York of esophageal cancer and complications from heart disease. He was originally treated for the disease in 2010, but suffered from a recurrence in 2015. His condition deteriorated in recent weeks leading to his passing. In “Ricki and the Flash,” Streep played an aging rocker coming to terms and dealing with the reconciliation of her music life and her family life. “Juno” Oscar winner Diablo Cody wrote the screenplay. Streep sung and played guitar live for the role. Her and Demme were friends prior to making “Ricki the Flash.” Demme’s other credits include “Philadelphia,” “Rachel Getting Married,” “Melvin and Howard,” “Swing Shift” and “Something Wild.”

Steven Spielberg’s upcoming “The Post” (which seems to be a working title) hasn’t even started filming, but has already snagged the most prominent release date for the 2018 awards season. Here’s news on the film courtesy Sascha Stone’s AwardsDaily: This election year is reminiscent of both the 1968-1972 political atmosphere, and it is also similar to WWII – where there was global upheaval like we’re seeing here and all over Europe. Nixon was a secretive president – on the level of Donald Trump, which was probably why it took Deep Throat (Mark Felt) to blow the whistle on his illegal activities. Felt was a republican. Both Edward Snowden and Julian Assange fancy themselves on the level of Daniel Ellsberg but indeed both are great pretenders out of notoriety, with little or no care for consequences. Ellsberg, however, helped reveal to the American people information they needed to know about the Vietnam war. Spielberg’s film stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks and is going to cause Breitbart Generation to flip out. Expect much backlash. Variety reported the story, saying the film is getting a December 22 release date. It will likely be screened well before then – I hope it goes to Telluride. Then it has a better shot at winning Best Picture. The heavyweights this year are already starting to stack up – with Dunkirk, of course, right at the top of the list. Steven Spielberg’s untitled Pentagon Papers drama announced itself as a major awards season contender in this year’s Oscars race.

Since yesterday’s update on the video archive (and lamenting on how long it may take to have it completed), I’ve been on a good roll, thanks in particular to the bad weather, and have finished all remaining categories. The news segments are now done with all clips from 2010 to 2017, including lots of entertainment shows interviews and red carpets bits. The public appearances feature all kind of press conferences, conversation panels and premieres and the miscellaneous section boasts a great collection of vintage and recent public service announcements, and basically everything that doesn’t fit into the other categories. I’m sure there are still some clips missing, and some waiting to be discovered. But for now, that big part of Simply Streep is back and ready to be discovered. Enjoy!

As previously announced, Meryl Streep was among the guests of the Academy of American Poets’ 15th Annual Poetry and the Creative Mind on Thursday, and the Literary Hub has a nice article on the evening and the poems that were read. The sweeping Alice Tully Hall was full, the lobby had been swarmed for almost an hour before, and tickets had sold out in about three minutes. The state of our world is precarious, and it’s hard not to feel uncertain or desperate; the poems chosen for the night seemed to speak precisely to that. As the final speaker of the evening, Meryl Streep said that she was thinking about what Uzo Aduba said about the first poem she ever loved; hers was the lullaby her mother used to sing to her. “It’s not on the program, but I think I have to sing it.” And she did. After the song, she read Gary Snyder’s “Mother Earth: Her Whales,” and then, to cheer us up, “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith. “Life is short and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,” a mother begins, before saying she will keep it from her children: I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful. Would it be too sentimental to say that a large room of poets, singing their childhood memories and pleas for resistance, reading poems that enriched and inspired and devastated them, felt like it had filled in the bones of Lincoln Center and New York and the world for just one evening? When Meryl Streep reads poetry to you, it’s hard to resist romance. Pictures from the evening have been added to the photo gallery.

The video archive takes longer to be completed than I have expected, simply because there are so many videos left to be added. But at least I’m making progress. Today, clips from news segments, ranging from 2006 to 2010 have been added. Within these 5 short years, Meryl’s career blossomed from “the star of the old days” to a global superstar, thanks to the successes of “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Mamma Mia”, not to mention the releases of “Doubt”, “Julie & Julia” and “Its Complicated” within a year. It has been great to revive all these clips from international promotion tours and red carpets, and to be reminded that HD isn’t that old fashioned – most of these clips are in a rather bad quality – but Simply Streep wouldn’t be a proper archive without this “old stuff”. I’ll do my best to finish the news segments and also the other remaining categories to have the video archive finished in time. Until then, enjoy the new old additions.

Viola Davis is among TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2017. She appears on the cover and inside the magazine, with written words by her friend and co-star Meryl Streep: When you spend your life embodying other lives, if you are successful, the one that belongs to you can silently slip behind. But Viola Davis’ hard-won, midlife rise to the very top of her profession has not led her to forget the rough trip she took getting there. And that is why she embodies for all women, but especially for women of color, the high-wire rewards of hard work and a dream, risk and faith. Viola has carved a place for herself on the Mount Rushmore of the 21st century – new faces emerging from a neglected mountain. And when she tells the story of how she got from where she was to where she is, it is as if she is on a pilgrimage, following her own footsteps and honoring that journey. Her gifts as an artist are unassailable, undeniable, deep and rich and true. But her importance in the culture – her ability to identify it, her willingness to speak about it and take on responsibility for it—is what marks her for greatness.