According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has nabbed Stephen Frear’s Florence Foster Jenkins starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant. The project was shopped to buyers at TIFF. The film is a Pathe and BBC Films presentation with the participation of Canal Plus and Cine Plus of a Qwerty Films Production. Paramount will distribute the film in the U.S., and Pathe will release the film in the U.K. and France. The film is the true story Foster Jenkins (Streep), a New York heiress and socialite who pursued her dream of becoming a great opera singer. The voice she heard in her head was beautiful, but to everyone else it was hilariously awful. Her “husband” and manager, St. Clair Bayfield (Grant), an aristocratic English actor, was determined to protect his beloved Florence from the truth. But when Florence decided to give a public concert at Carnegie Hall in 1944, St. Clair knew he faced his greatest challenge.

A big batch of additional scans for the international Ricki and the Flash promotion have been added to the photo gallery. These recent scans come from the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, France and Italy and have been contributed by Alvaro, Tereza, Marcela and Luciana. My most sincere thanks to all of you for providing such an extensive press coverage on Ricki and the Flash. Enjoy the new scans.

Meryl’s still at the Telluride Film Festival after Friday’s first showing of “Suffragette”. On Saturday, a second screening for the film took place, which was attended by Streep, director Sarah Gavron, writer Abi Morgan, and producers Alison Owen and Faye Ward. Also that day, Gavron and Streep joined director Tom McCarthy, actress Rachel McAdams, actor Geza Rohrig and director Laszlo Nemes for a seminar at Elks Park. Pictures from both events have been added to the photo gallery, with additional information after the cut.

Edit: Pictures from Telluride’s “Suffragette” premiere have been added to the photo gallery. According to IndieWire, Meryl Streep has attended the first showing of Fox Searchlight’s “Suffragette,” in which Streep delivers a brief but potent cameo as wealthy Emmeline Pankhurst, who led scores of turn-of-the-century British women to fight for the right to vote. “We have been ridiculed and ignored,” Pankhurst cries. “Deeds and sacrifice must be the order of the day.” Carey Mulligan carries this movie as ably as she did “Far from the Madding Crowd.” She plays Maud, a 24-year-old workhorse laundry drudge who is drawn into the suffragette cause by a co-worker (the excellent Anne-Marie Duff) and local pharmacist (Helena Bonham Carter). The harshness of Maud’s daily work life (her shoulder is scarred from past burns), where the factory boss hits on the younger women, contrasts with her cozy life at home with her husband (Ben Whishaw) and young son. But as Mrs. Pankhurst and her well-to-do colleagues urge working women to join the cause as foot soldiers willing to make sacrifices, these women are beaten and harassed by police and husbands alike. Maud’s husband can’t take the neighborhood heat when his wife keeps clocking jail time. (1000 women were imprisoned during the long fight for women’s suffrage.) You can read the complete article here.

Meryl Streep, Harrison Ford, Jon Hamm and America Ferrera lead a public service announcement for the California Teachers Summit’s Better Together campaign. On July 31, more than 20,000 teachers from across the state will gather for Better Together: California Teachers Summit, a one-of-a-kind event designed to help teachers build a powerful network of peers across regions, share best practices and access effective resources to implement the new California Standards. You can view the PSA in the video archive and find screencaptures in the photo gallery.

This has to be one of the funniest things in a longtime. After a string of unsuccessful and unauthorized films on the lives of Whitney Houston and Elizabeth Taylor, FunnyOrDie.com gives us the trailer we have all been waiting for: Christina Applegate stars as Meryl Streep in this fake preview for Lifetime’s “Meryl”. As the narrator says, “Honestly, it’s like she’s not even trying”. Applegate is hilarious as Susan Orlean, Karen Blixen, the French Lieutenant’s Woman and an array of other classic performances. Hats off! Enjoy the video.

As you can see, Simply Streep has a new look. It’s been a couple of years since I worked on a new look, because the site has become quite familiar with how it looked, so my sole goal was to make it even easier to browse and cleaner looking, with all content in sight. There’s also a new comment system for the news, which you can access through your own social media. All pages are still where they’ve been, and most of the content pages, such as the filmography pages, will receive a special treatment in the coming weeks. The new layout comes just in time for the early October release of “Suffragette”, which is going to be something. I hope you like the new look, feel free to browse around and check back soon for more updates.

Even more scans from various magazines, featuring articles, interviews and reviews for “Ricki and the Flash”, have been added to the photo gallery, including cover stories from the Sunday Times Magazine and the Australian Yours Magazine. As always, many thanks to Alvaro for sending them in. Also, many thanks to Simona for sending in the Grazia scans. Very appreciated. Enjoy reading.

During its two weeks at the American box office, “Ricki and the Flash” has been a modest success, earning 17,3 million on its 18 million budget. The comedy will expand its run to most European countries during September. Critics have been favorable for the performances, but mixed on the rather predictable storyline. Variety wrote, that Streep’s character “compiles a wealth of impressive actorly attributes without ever really finding a center for the character. She brings plenty of salt, but not nearly enough grit.” Peter Travers wrote in Rolling Stone, “It’s a kick watching Meryl Streep rock out on guitar and vocals. Too bad the rest of the movie, with a script by Diablo Cody, is dime-a-dozen family soap opera.” And the New York Times concluded, “It’s not Mr. Demme’s fault that things didn’t quite work out that way. But “Ricki and the Flash” seems like a squandered opportunity for this humane, curious and liberal-minded filmmaker to reflect on some uncomfortable realities. This isn’t really rock ’n’ roll. It’s easy listening.” Have you seen “Ricki and the Flash”? Feel free to share your comments.

A new batch of magazines scans, all related to the August release of “Ricki and the Flash”, have been added to the photo gallery. The new additions come from various Entertainment Weekly’s, Variety, Time Out and the Sunday Times Culture (great cover, if anyone has the article, think of me :-) There’s also an article on the upcoming “Suffragette” in the latest Entertainment Weekly, which has been added as well. Many thanks to Alvaro for sending these in. Enjoy reading.