Article courtesy the Los Angeles Daily News: Jonathan Demme has won an Oscar and also has directed loads of Academy Award-winning performances. So when another Oscar-winner’s screenplay — Diablo Cody’s Ricki and the Flash — came his way with nomination queen Meryl Streep attached to play the San Fernando Valley cover band frontwoman forced to re-engage with her Midwestern family, it felt about as perfect as movie projects get. “ ‘Ricki’ is a truly original, way-surprising screenplay loaded with emotion, humor, great characters and great gobs of top-rate rock ’n’ roll,” Demme enthuses. “Plus, it didn’t hurt that Meryl Streep was already in line to play Ricki.” Yeah, but did the super actress with the can-do-anything reputation play the music? “You bet she did,” the director reports. “This was a no-playback, in-the-moment shoot. Meryl nailed it. She sings on 10 songs (nine rock covers and one original, written by Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice), while accompanying herself on electric or acoustic guitar. “Meryl is such a versatile and charismatic singer/performer, and her movie band the Flash is kind of an amazing supergroup. A Ricki and the Flash concert film would be a joy to capture and present.”

Yesterday, Meryl Streep joined directors Ava DuVernay and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy in a conversation panel, moderated by Jon Stewart, at the Women in the World Summit. Vanity Fair has summed up the panel, which can be watched in its entirety in the video archive. Streep described the hardest thing for an actress to do—to get anyone but women to identify with them onscreen. As evidenced by everything from the way toys are marketed to which movies win Oscars, the general assumption is that women will identify with female and male characters, while men will only identify with other men. Or, as Streep puts it, “I wanted to be Tom Sawyer, not Becky.” (The way she says “Becky,” by the way, is 19 Oscar nominations worth of talent in two syllables) For Streep, the hardest thing as an actress is “to have a story that men in the audience feel like they know what I feel like.” In the video, you can see DuVernay—who beefed up the role of Coretta Scott King in the script for Selma– and Obaid-Chinoy—who won an Oscar for a 2012 documentary about women attacked with acid in Pakistan—nodding in agreement. Pictures have been added to the image library.

A lot of great production stills and on-set pictures have been added to the galleries, including from films, television and theatre. Some very rare theater pictures from Meryl’s time with the Green Mountain Guild and at Yale’s Repertory Theatre have been added, with many thanks to Joan. Then, some fantastic new on-set pictures from “The Deer Hunter”, “Sophie’s Choice” and “Falling in Love” have been added. Many thanks to Claudia for sending them in. For a complete list, check the previews below.

According to Variety, Meryl Streep has funded a screenwriters lab for women writers over 40, to be run by New York Women in Film and Television and IRIS, a collective of women filmmakers. The creation of the lab, and Streep’s involvement in its founding, was announced Sunday at a panel discussion presented as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. Called the Writers Lab, the screenplay development program aims to increase opportunities for female screenwriters over the age of 40. This year the initiative will accept submissions May 1-June 1, with eight winning scribes named Aug. 1. Among the mentors to participate in the Lab’s inaugural year are writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Beyond the Lights”), producer Caroline Kaplan (“Boyhood”), and writers Kirsten Smith (“Legally Blonde”) and Jessica Bendinger (“Bring It On”). According to NYWIFT, Streep ponied up a “significant” contribution to fully fund the Lab. The actress has been a longtime supporter of NYWIFT. The Writers Lab will take place at a retreat in upstate New York. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

Coinciding with the #VotingMatters campaign, Focus Features has released a trailer (more of a teaser of an upcoming trailer) for director Sarah Gavron’s upcoming historical drama Suffragette starring Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw and Brendan Gleeson. Check it out below after the official synopsis.

“Suffragette” is a moving drama that will empower all who are striving for equal rights in our own day and age. The stirring story, inspired by the early-20th-century campaign by the suffragettes for the right of women to vote, centers on Maud (played by Carey Mulligan), a working wife and mother who comes to realize that she must fight for her dignity both at home and in her workplace. Realizing that she is not alone, she becomes an activist alongside other brave women from all walks of life. The early efforts at resistance were passive but as the women faced increasingly aggressive police action, the suffragettes become galvanized – risking their very lives to ensure that women’s rights would be recognized and respected.

Suffragette is set for release October 23rd in the States and October 30th in the UK.

Meryl Streep may have three Oscars and dozens of Golden Globes on her shelf, but one award has been missing so far (no, not the Tony, the other one). This Sunday, Meryl won the MTV Movie Award as Best Villain for “Into the Woods”. This has been her second nomination in the same category after a first nod in 2007 for “The Devil Wears Prada”. Since Meryl didn’t attend the ceremony, there’s nothing more to report from the ceremony. In other news, actress Nina Arianda has joined the cast of “Florence Foster Jenkins”. Arianda will play Agnes Stark, “a sexy showgirl trying to work her way into the social stratosphere with the help of her husband. When she first hears Florence’s singing, she cannot help but laugh, but eventually she becomes one of her biggest supporters.”

Another nice batch of older appearances pictures have been added to the image library. These additions range from 1994 to 2000 and include Meryl’s footprint ceremony at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre, the Women in Film Crystal Awards in 1998 and some great pictures from the 1999 and 2000 Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Enjoy the new additions.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, director Jonathan Demme revealed that Streep covered songs from artists like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Lady Gaga. Streep performed in front of a live audience and no playback was used to enhance her vocals — Streep is a very talented singer, as many of you are probably already aware. The actress covered Petty’s “American Girl” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” which means a group of lucky people on this planet got to watch Streep perform like a rock goddess and somehow managed to not hyperventilate to death.

Entertainment Weekly’s April 17 issue features a look at the Summer movies to look forward to – including the Jonathan Demme directed “Ricki and the Flash”, starring Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer. Besides a nice article on the film that includes interviews with Demme and Gummer, a new picture of Meryl as Ricki Randazzo is featured as well. Both the magazine page and the production still can be found in the image library, with many thanks to Claudia.

Some fantastic images from the past have been added to the image library, featuring public appearances pictures ranging from 1979 to 1988. Among the new additions is Meryl at a 1979 Broadway opening night of “The 1940s Radio Hour”, promotion for “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” and “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and the 1983 Academy Awards. Many thanks to my friend Claudia for helping me with these wonderful pictures. Scroll down for a complete list. Enjoy the new pictures.