If you have watched “Let Them All Talk” and “The Prom” back to back, you’ve been in for a treat, haven’t you? Ryan Murphy has put every bit of color, singing, glitter and joy into “The Prom” that “Let Them All Talk” has been missing (rightly so). While musicals are not my genre, it was impossible not to be charmed by Meryl Stree’s comedic timing and, of course, her singing, but we knew about that. Everybody in the cast seemed to have great fun, and it shows in the film. So, if you haven’t watched it yet – or didn’t rewatch it today – you’ll find it on Netflix. Once again, many thanks to Ali for the screencaptures. Please make sure to visit her Nicole Kidman fansite as well. Also, some very funny screencaptures from the making of have been added as well. Enjoy the updates.

I hope you have all enjoyed your weekend with one or two new Meryl Streep films. “Let Them All Talk” has been released last Thursday and “The Prom” last Friday – two films and two characters that couldn’t be more different. Steven Soderbergh’s “Let Them All Talk” has been compared by critics to the good work by Woody Allen and Robert Altman – it’s a long, very talky, almost meditative stream (literally), featuring outstanding performances by Streep, Lucas Hedges, Dianne Wiest and especially Candice Bergen. I will add a longer review of the film to its career page later. For now, enjoy the screencaptures – and please be aware that they feature spoilers to the story, so please watch it first on HBO Max. Many thanks to Ali and Claudia for helping out, very appreciated.

A super big batch of magazines scans and reviews from around the globe have been added to the photo gallery – giving us a wonderful overview on how the world press has received this week’s releases of “The Prom” and “Let Them All Talk”. Among the additions are some fantastic cover stories from Variety, the Spanish SuperTele and the British Yours Magazine. A complete list of all aded scans can be found below the previews. Many thanks to Alvaro for sending them all in, very appreciated. Enjoy reading.

In interviews on both Stephen Colbert’s and James Corden’s talkshows this week, Meryl Streep spilled the tea on returning to the movie set in a year, as filming of Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” has started last Friday. “It’s about a global catastrophe but it’s sort of funny like Dr. Strangelove for 2020 about global warming, a metaphor of that,” she said. “I play the president of the United States.” Streep said Jonah Hill played her son and chief of staff in the upcoming comedy. “We had our first scene on Friday and I was so bad,” the Oscar-winning actress said while shaking her head. “I’ve been in this quarantine because they have to be very careful and I’m totally alone.” “My first scene was entering a stadium full of 20,000 people as the president, my big face on the jumbotron in front of me,” she continued. “And I completely lost it, I couldn’t remember anything.” That scene uneased Streep as she described that it was “not at all” normal. “First of all, there weren’t 20,000 people obviously,” she said. “They’ll duplicate them [in editing]. There were extras all around the stadium. Lonely people separated by 20 feet of air, wearing masks and visors that are clear.” The extras were meant to have a “huzzah” moment where they cheered for her character, but while wearing masks their cheers ended up sounding muffled. “The whole thing is so eerie and odd and disconcerting,” she said of filming during a pandemic. “I have to pull myself together for Monday.” The film follows two astronomers who set out on a media tour to warn the public that a meteor will destroy Earth in just six months. The Netflix movie is also set to star Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Ariana Grande, Timothée Chalamet, Matthew Perry, Himesh Patel, Cate Blanchett, Kid Cudi, Rob Morgan and Tomer Sisley.

We’re getting the full Streep treatment for the past week with dual (virtual) promotional tours for both “Let Them All Talk” (releasing today) and “The Prom” (releasing tomorrow). On Tuesday, Meryl Streep was a guest on her co-star’s talkshow “The Late Late Show with James Corden” while yesterday she was joined by Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen on “The Today Show” to promote “Let Them All Talk”. Both appearances can be watched in the video archive, with screencaptures being added to the photo gallery.

Three new video clips have been added to the video archive. Yesterday, Meryl Streep attended “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote both “The Prom” and “Let Them All Talk”. In the interview, she remembered a particular story from one of her own prom visits and pointed out the error that Barack Obama wrote about her in his memoir. Additonally, clips from Entertainment Tonight and the segment from the Equality Now virtual gala have been added as well. Enjo the new videos. Screencaptures from all recent virtual appearances have been added to the photo gallery.

This Summer, I have challenged myself to research Meryl Streep’s theatre performances during her time at Vassar and Yale, since information on this topic has always been limited. We have all read about her celebrated debut as “Miss Julie” at Vassar and then countless performances at Yale – but in order to understand her theatrical training, or awakening if you will, I wanted to find all the roles and playwrights that have shaped her acting in her forming years and made her such a sought-after talent during her training years that made her an instant star at the New York stages after her graduation. I’m happy to announce that I have succeeded with a comprehensive list of 46 plays that Meryl Streep participated in between 1969 and 1975, accompanied by cast lists, reviews and pictures. Among the great finds is the fact that “Miss Julie” was indeed a celebrated performance at Vassar, but not her only one. She performed in two plays at Dartmouth College during her exchange program in 1971, and we have even more information from her Summer stock jobs with the Green Mountain Guild and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Also, did you know Meryl participated in a Wendy Wasserstein play in 1984? You’re about to find out on the career pages. Many thanks to Michael for his generous help and contributions. Below is a complete list of pictures that I have found during my research. Enjoy all the new additions.

Hello and welcome to the latest version of Simply Streep. I have used most of this year’s unexpected free time to work behind the scenes and make the site easier to access with all the material we have been able to collect and archive over the years. I must say it doesn’t feel like I’m fullly done with all the new changes – but then, the site has never felt finished, it probably never will be. But I wanted to present you all the new look in time for next week’s releases of “Let Them All Talk” and “The Prom”. I have come close to present “the archives” in the best possible way to include all essential information on Meryl Streep’s work with easy-to-browse links to related articles and appearances. And there have been lots of additions to the career pages, with much new material to be added within the next updates. There are also many new articles waiting to be added, so look forward to more updates this weekend. Until then, enjoy your stay on the new and improved Simply Streep.

A couple of new videos have been added to the archive, including virtual appearances on “Good Morning America” alongside James Corden to promote “The Prom”, a first news segment from Extra TV and a lenghty press junket with the cast and crew of the film. More videos will be added as they arrive.

As we’re simultaneously covering “Let Them All Talk” and “The Prom” for their December 10 and 11 releases, reviews for the latter have been released as well, and so far the Steven Soderbergh dramedy is sitting relaxed on a 100% at Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s a collection of top critics reviews:

Anthony Lane, The New Yorker: The first half of “Let Them All Talk” is barely there as a movie. Soderbergh seems to be sketching out ideas for a plot, and gingerly feeling his way into its moral possibilities, as if he were clinging to a rail, beside a heaving sea. And yet the Atlantic stays calm. Most of the action was filmed on the Queen Mary 2, during a crossing in August, 2019, and you’re never entirely sure to what extent the resident mortals are aware of the stars who have descended among them. Does the helpful member of the ship’s crew, giving directions to a lost and elegant lady, even realize that she is in the frame with Meryl Streep? “Let Them All Talk” belongs to the gang of speedy, shot-from-the-hip movies—like “Bubble” (2005), “Unsane” (2018), and “High Flying Bird” (2019) – that Soderbergh likes to fire off now and then, using the lightest and least obtrusive tools for the job. One of his legacies will be the encouragement of younger filmmakers, who will watch his no-frills ventures and say to themselves, “We may not have a Streep, but we’ve got a coffee machine, a script, and an iPhone 12. Let’s do it.”

Peter Debruge, Varity: As everyone from Robert Altman to Judd Apatow to the Duplass brothers have shown, some actors respond better to the demands of improvisation than others: That invitation to invention can make a film come alive, but it can also create a kind of pressure to be “on” — to do or say something memorable in the moment — and this cast is hugely variable in its aptitude for off-the-cuff brilliance. Streep is always a pleasure to watch, and her character is so much in her own head that her somewhat distracted-sounding delivery seems entirely plausible coming from a woman who overthinks everything.

Alonso Duralde, The Wrap: It’s a fascinating performance from Streep, even though Alice is the hardest character to get to know, between the secrets she’s keeping and the hauteur she has developed over the years. (“When did she start talking like that?” wonders Susan.) Even with all the walls the character throws up around her, Streep always lets the audience into the core of this woman, whether she’s relaxing around Tyler or trying to interpret Roberta’s mixed signals.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: Always the intrepid storyteller, Steven Soderbergh proves an excellent match for brilliant short fiction writer Deborah Eisenberg in her first produced screenplay, Let Them All Talk. Much like the author, the main character here is a celebrated novelist who publishes infrequently and pays punctilious attention to every word, providing a succulent role for Meryl Streep. Her interplay with Candice Bergen and Dianne Wiest as the college friends she hasn’t seen in 35 years is enlivened by extensive improvisation, which gives this HBO Max original the enthralling spontaneity of vintage Robert Altman.

David Ehrlich, Indie Wire: This story, like the people in it, wouldn’t have held together on dry land, and there’s something wonderfully indulgent about surrendering to the undercurrents that swirl beneath Alice’s friendships. But the run-and-gun approach that makes this movie possible is also what ends up shooting it in the foot, as the clock is always ticking and Soderbergh never has time to get out of the shallows. There are moments where this threatens to crystallize into a shrewd portrait of how people ebb and flow out of each other’s lives over the years, but the film always falls back on its more frivolous pleasures, and the cringe-inducing “romance” between Tyler and Karen ends up becoming the sturdiest of its subplots.