On Wednesday, Tom Brokaw was honored for his continued contributions to the always-anticipated Mostly Mozart Festival each year at Lincoln Center. His introduction was given by Meryl Streep. “As a journalist, Tom has not only reported and delivered the news, but he has represented a certain kind of authority in our culture. Like a dad, he explains stuff to you without talking down to you. Or, when he was younger, a super smart, super straight-shooting, reliable friend. A narrator of our lives,” Ms. Streep said during her introduction. “Although he has received more awards, and more accolades, than anybody in his profession,” she later added in closing with a laugh, just before folding her speech papers into Mr. Brokaw’s breast pocket. “May I say, as someone with deep experience in this area, just one more isn’t going to kill you!” Pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery, with many many thanks to my friend Claudia.

A second UK trailer for “Ricki and the Flash” has been released by Sony, featuring quite a few new scans and adding a lot of pace to the previous’ trailers vibes. Also, a first clip from the film, in which Ricki sings to her family, has been added to the video archive.

A host of Hollywood stars, including Oscar-winning actresses Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson, have lent their support to a petition demanding that Amnesty International reject a proposal to endorse the decriminalization of the sex trade. The global human rights group is set to review an internal policy document on sex work at a meeting in Dublin next month, according to the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW). If the policy is adopted, Amnesty would “in effect advocate the legalization of pimping, brothel owning and sex buying – the pillars of a $99 billion global sex industry”, CATW said. Nearly 2,600 members of the public have signed the petition since it was posted on change.org last week, and endorsed by women’s rights campaigners and celebrities such as actors Emily Blunt, Lena Dunham and Anne Hathaway. US-based CATW said it agreed with Amnesty that sex workers should not be criminalized or brutalized by law enforcement agents and governments. “However, full decriminalization of the sex trade renders pimps “businesspeople” who sell vulnerable individuals, overwhelmingly with histories of poverty, discrimination, homelessness and sexual abuse, to buyers of sex with impunity,” the group said in a statement.The complete article can be read here.

While adding scans from Parade Magazine, I stumbled upon two other scans I have received and forgot to add, my bad. Here’s Meryl in the June 22 issue of the British Hello magazine and a feature from Time Magazine’s July issue. Many thanks to my friend Alvaro for sending them in.

Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline grace the cover of Parade Magazine’s July 26 issue. Scans have been added to the photo gallery. Streep and Kline’s latest collaboration, Ricki and the Flash, is a musically infused rock ’n’ roll drama from Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia). Streep is Ricki, a guitar-strumming bohemian who left her family to pursue musical stardom in a band, while Kline is Pete, her ex-husband, who stayed behind and finished the job of raising their three kids. The film features energetic performances from Ricki and her band, the Flash, in which Streep strums and sings alongside her onscreen lover, played by ’80s pop hit-maker Rick Springfield. The heart of the film, however, is a story about family, which Ricki is unable to reconcile with her rock ’n’ roll dream.

On August 03, 2015, Meryl Streep will be attending both the Today Show as well as Live! with Kelly & Michael to promote the theatrical release of “Ricki and the Flash”. Mamie Gummer and Rick Springfield will be attending both shows as well, on August 5 and 6, respectively. Be sure to find video clips of Meryl’s appearances afterwards. Many thanks to Joan for the heads-up.

Sony has released a first promotional featurette for Ricki and the Flash, including interviews with director Jonathan Demme, writer Diablo Cody and its stars, Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer. While this clip is too brief for an in-depth look at the film, there are new scenes and interview bits that make you interested in more. The clip can be watched in the video archive.

The promotion for Ricki and the Flash is slowly starting (it’s about time for the film’s theatrical release in less than three weeks) with a trio of television spots being released. They feature pretty much of what we have seen before. As many have been asking, there has been no date set for a New York premiere yet, but I will keep you posted. You can watch the tv spots as a compilation in the video archive.

Jonathan Demme’s musical dramedy Ricki and the Flash, which stars Meryl Streep as a musicians seeking to mend her family relationships after a career spent on the road pursuing musical fame, will open the 68th Locarno Film Festival. The film, which Sony is releasing, was written by Diablo Cody (Juno) will world premiere August 5 at the Piazza Grande. The fest, which runs August 5-15, has a strong line-up of American titles, including Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, Catherine Corsini’sLa Belle Saison and Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw. Michael Cimino’s Vietnam classic The Deer Hunter gets an airing to tie in with Cimino being awarded a Pardo D’onore Swisscom. Many thanks to Frank and Glenn for the heads-up!

Today is Emmeline Pankhurst Day in the U.K. Each year, this day pays tribute to the fight for women’s suffrage (the right to vote) and equal rights for women led by activist Emmeline Pankhurst. Beginning in the early 20th century, the tireless work from Mrs. Pankhurst and the thousands of women she rallied as suffragettes had a ripple effect that reached across the globe, helping to eventually gain women equality in numerous other countries, including the U.S. In celebration of Emmeline Pankhurst Day, the official Suffragette advance one-sheet poster art of Ms. Streep, Ms. Mulligan, and Ms. Bonham Carter is being debuted. We are pleased to share this sneak peek with our readers as they remember Emmeline Pankhurst and everything she stood for. Only this talented of a cast could bring forth such a powerful drama about the women who were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality in early-20th-century Britain.