According to Variety, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation is set to break ground next month on a 15,000-square-foot facility at the union’s mid-Wilshire headquarters that will be a central hub for the foundation’s educational, career development and event activities in the Los Angeles area. The Meryl Streep Center for Performing Artists will be built on the 10th floor of SAG-AFTRA’s longtime home in the famed Museum Square building. It’s expected to open its doors early next year, thanks to support from its namesake, the three-time Oscar winner who is one of the most renowned actors of all time. The facility will also feature the Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson Screening Room, equipped with high-end technology to host screenings, panels and educational programs. “We’re thrilled to name our new Center for Performing Artists in honor of Meryl Streep, a lionhearted leader and longtime supporter of our foundation whose commitment to her craft and her community is befitting of this recognition,” SAG-AFTRA Foundation president Courtney B. Vance said. “We are also excited to announce our new screening room will be named in honor of two additional champions of our foundation, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, whose key support, especially during times of crisis in our industry, has meant we never missed a beat when our members needed us.”

I’ve always thought that actors should have more places to go where they can not only fully express themselves – but grow professionally. The pandemic shook up our industry as we knew it, and the SAG-AFTRA Foundation was vital in assisting performers. That’s why I’m honored to have my name attached to a center where performing artists can come together to collaborate while getting the support and services they need. This exciting new space at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation will be a tremendous benefit to any performer who is looking to hone their craft and find community. (Meryl Streep)

Since its formation in 1985, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation has distributed more than $18.6 million in emergency financial and health assistance to actors as well as disaster relief. It has also given out more than $9.2 million in scholarship funds. The complete article can be read at Variety.

What better way to start the new year with a new project for Meryl Streep, who is checking into “Only Murders in the Building”. As The Hollywood Reporter writes, Streep will appear in the third season of Hulu’s murder-mystery comedy. Star Selena Gomez revealed Streep’s casting in an Instagram post Tuesday. Details of Streep’s role – and how extensive it may be – are being kept under wraps for now. She joins a cast led by Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short; Paul Rudd – who had a cameo in the second-season finale – and former Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams are also joining the cast, which also includes Tina Fey, Vanessa Aspillaga, Adina Verson, Ryan Broussard and Andrea Martin. Hulu has said the show is its most popular original comedy; it spent nine weeks on Nielsen’s top 10 streaming series chart in 2022, drawing 3.67 billion minutes of viewing time in that span. Steve Martin also posted a group photo with Streep and announced that filming on season three of the series began. Both pictures have been added to the photo gallery.

According to Broadway World, the 92NY Unterberg Poetry Center’s 84th season will continue with a Winter/Spring lineup featuring beloved playwrights and actors, critically-acclaimed novelists and poets – and tribute events centered on Gwendolyn Brooks, John Guare and Philip Roth, among others. Details on Meryl Streep’s appearance be found below. For more information, visit www.92y.org/poetry

A CELEBRATION OF JOHN GUARE: Mon, Feb 6, 7:30 pm, From $40

An evening of words and music in celebration of playwright John Guare, whose theatrical works include Two Gentlemen of Verona, Lydie Breeze, Six Degrees of Separation, The House of Blue Leaves and Landscape of the Body . Tony Kushner cobbled together the lineup for this event, and he will produce it. Kushner wrote: “So enormous is the esteem in which I hold the Great Guare and his monumentally important body of work. Like Williams, he figured out a way for Americans to do a kind of stage poetry. There are astonishingly beautiful things in his plays.” Other performers and participants include: Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller, Ariana DeBose, Paul Dano, Suzan-Lori Parks, Linda Lavin, Dylan Baker, Kenneth Lonergan, Edie Falco, Zoe Kazan, Elizabeth Marvel, Stephen Adly Giurgis, Bill Camp, Camryn Manheim, Becky Ann Baker, Corey Hawkins, Linda Emond and Ato Blankson-Wood.

According to Deadline, Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman have renewed their support for The Writers Lab, which will return to its in-person format for script development in 2022, supporting women screenwriters over the age of 40. The Lab has re-doubled its efforts to amplify the voices of women writers, calling for greater inclusion of their stories in film and television, in response to growing threats to women’s rights, with genre scripts (particularly comedies) and historical stories about pioneering women being seen most commonly amongst its pool of submissions. This year’s Lab will focus on building the tools and strategies for talented writers to develop their projects and navigate the ever-shifting landscape of professional opportunities, with the 12 screenwriters selected to gather in Saugerties, NY in early November. The Writers Lab also today announced that its work is being recognized by AdvancingDiversity.org, a collective of more than 40 advertising and media companies and organizations, which last week unveiled its 2022 inductees into the Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors. “The Writers Lab is thrilled to be inducted into AdvancingDiversity.org’s Hall of Honors with these illustrious Honorees,” said co-founder Elizabeth Kaiden. “Advancing diversity is crucial to our mission of spotlighting an unexplored commodity: Cinematic stories that 50% of the population are clamoring to see.” Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

In response to the overturning of Roe V. Wade, Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative of the University of Southern California have announced a project which “will monitor popular entertainment content for issues related to reproductive rights, marriage equality, interracial relationships, and gun violence, and offer insights to create change.” According to the AV Club, the initiative comes with the support of many high-profile actors and producers, including Meryl Streep, Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, Julianne Moore, Tessa Thompson, Amy Schumer, Laura Dern, and more. The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative works as an academic think tank out of USC Annenberg focusing on inequality in the entertainment industry, in front of and behind the camera. Those involved with study will not only use the research finding to offer solutions, but will also launch a “reproductive rights Accelerator program” to offer financial support to undergraduate film work on the subject. “The entertainment community plays a critical role in educating people about their sexual and reproductive health and rights, including abortion. With Roe v. Wade overturned and birth control, LGBQT+ and other rights threatened, this new Annenberg Inclusion Initiative research project will provide an invaluable tool to ensure audiences are reached with medically and legislatively accurate storytelling about these issues,” Planned Parenthood’s Caren Spruch says. “As we fight for every person’s right to bodily autonomy, working together with the Initiative and its supporters will be essential to changing the culture to achieve this goal.” Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

On April 19, Vassar College announced that renowned actress Meryl Streep ’71 would be unable to attend the Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College (AAVC) Distinguished Achievement Award Ceremony, due to pneumonia. Streep was in line to become the sixth alumna/us to receive the award in this ceremony. A series of statements were released by the College in relation to the ceremony and its postponement. AAVC President Steve Hankins ’85 and Chair of Alumnae/i Recognition Committee Amy Pullman ’71 released an email to the Vassar student body, addressed to the registrants of the ceremony, the Class of ’71 and AAVC board members.

“[Streep] wishes to convey that a bout of pneumonia is keeping her from the festivities, but she is so honored to be included in the day’s commemorations from the College that ordered her thinking, ignited her creative imagination, and gave her friends for life,” the email stated. “We are therefore postponing the bestowal of the award to a time when Ms. Streep can join us and we can properly celebrate her many accomplishments. As we look for a new date, please join us in wishing Ms. Streep a speedy recovery.”

As of now, the AAVC board has yet to release a date for the rescheduled ceremony. However, festivities will continue for the Class of ’71 to celebrate their 50th reunion. Thanks to Alvaro and Glenn for the heads-up.

Great news according to The Hollywood Reporter: Apple TV+ has lined up a star-studded cast for a climate change anthology series. Meryl Streep, Kit Harington and Matthew Rhys will head the ensemble for Extrapolations, an eight-episode drama from writer Scott Z. Burns and The Morning Show production company Media Res. The cast also includes Sienna Miller, Gemma Chan, Tahar Rahim, Daveed Diggs, David Schwimmer and Adarsh Gourav, with additional actors to be announced. Extrapolations, which is currently in production, will tell interconnected stories about how the upcoming changes to the planet will affect love, faith work and family. “The only thing we know for sure about the future is that we are all going there together — and we’re taking with us our hopes, our fears, our appetites, our creativity, our capacity for love and our predilection to cause pain,” said Burns. “These are the same tools that storytellers have been using since the beginning of time. Our show is just using them to keep time from running out.” Miller will play a marine biologist. Harington plays the CEO of an industrial giant. Rahim plays a man struggling with memory loss. Rhys will play a real estate developer. Diggs (Snowpiercer) plays a rabbi in South Florida. Chan plays a single mother and micro-finance banker. Schwimmer plays the father of a teenage daughter. Gourav plays a driver for hire. Details of Streep’s role, her first series work since HBO’s Big Little Lies in 2019, are being kept under wraps.

Update: Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline will perform “Dear Elizabeth” at the Spotlight on Plays virtual benefit series from June 17 to June 21, 2021. Based on the compiled letters between poets Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, Dear Elizabeth maps the relationship of the two poets from first meeting to an abbreviated affair – and the turmoil of their lives in between. Directed by Kate Whoriskey. Here’s the original press release from March: According to Deadline, Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker and Carla Gugino have joined the line-up of actors taking part in this year’s virtual Spotlight on Plays series benefitting The Actors Fund, with Streep reuniting with her Sophie’s Choice co-star Kevin Kline on Sarah Ruhl’s Dear Elizabeth. Parker is set to perform in Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz. Gugino will be teamed with the previously announced Ellen Burstyn in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine. Others previously announced, in addition to Kline and Burstyn, are Kathryn Hahn, Keanu Reeves, Debbie Allen, Bobby Cannavale, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, Heidi Schreck, Alia Shawkat, Heather Alicia Simms and Alicia Stith. The Spotlight on Plays series, launched last year on the Broadway’s Best Shows website, features actors performing the works remotely, with the readings pre-recorded and edited. The series, which begins Thursday, benefits The Actors Fund. The series begins Thursday, March 25, with Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play at 8pm ET/5pm PT, and continues wit Pearl Cleage’s Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous on Thursday, April 8 at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Additional casting and dates will be announced soon. The Spotlight on Plays events are livestreamed on Stellar and available for a strictly limited amount of time. Season subscriptions and individual ticket information is available on the Broadway’s Best Shows website. Many thanks to Glenn and Alvaro for the heads-up.

According to Playbill, Stage and screen favorites will team up this spring for a second annual virtual concert to benefit homeless youth around the world. Night of Covenant House Stars will be co-hosted by Audra McDonald and John Dickerson, with a lineup including Meryl Streep, Vanessa Williams, Ariana DeBose, Kelli O’Hara, and Sara Bareilles. Also slated to appear are Dolly Parton, Ryan Reynolds, Robin Roberts, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Brosnahan, Capathia Jenkins, Jo Ellen Pellman, John Dickerson, Darius De Haas, Daniel Yearwood, Ames Mcnamara, Laurie Metcalf, and more. The stars will be joined by Covenant House youth as well. “These stars have stepped up because they recognize that our young people don’t have the option to shelter at home without a home,” says Covenant House President Kevin Ryan. “For thousands of young people in this past year and for 2,000 young people tonight, Covenant House is their home. Night of Covenant House Stars will help us keep our doors open, 24/7, when youth experiencing homelessness need us more than ever.” The Broadway community became involved with Covenant House on a large scale after Stephanie J. Block first performed at a benefit years ago. She teamed up with board member (and fellow Broadway performer) Capathia Jenkins to found the Broadway Sleep Out, now expanded to the Stage and Screen Sleep Out. The connections continue to grow, even when shifted to a digital landscape. McDonald and Dickerson hosted a virtual benefit last year as well. The theme of the gala this year is “Stand Up, Stand Strong,” recognizing and celebrating the resilience of young people experiencing homelessness and the heroism of frontline staff working to keep them safe during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Funds raised will go directly to food, clothing, healthcare, education, job training, and short and long-term housing for youth overcoming homelessness at Covenant House across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. The evening, sponsored by Kia, is produced by Jeff Calhoun with musical supervision by Jason Howland. McDonald, Dickerson, and Calhoun are all members on the Covenant House board of directors. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

On February 2, Penguin Books releases “Mike Nichols: A Life“, written by Mark Harris and featurig lots of remarks by Nichols’ former colleagues and friends, including Meryl Streep. Vulture has posted an exerpt from the book, and – luckily for us – it’s a lengthy, very insightful chapter on the makig of “Heartburn”, including the complete story of Mandy Patinkin’s original casting as Mark Foreman, and Nichols firing him a week into shooting scenes. It’s a very ineresting read, especially considering that “Heartburn” wasn’t a chosen star vehicle for Nicholson and Streep, but rather a casting choice out of the blue that got Streep by surprise, as she remembers in the book.

[After Nicholson’s casting], suddenly, there were a lot of ideas about how we were going to enhance the part,” says Streep. “The man’s part. This was a movie about a woman, which was even more unusual in those days than it is now. It was a unique opportunity to explore things from her perspective, from Nora’s perspective.” Nicholson’s hiring “was the first time in my life that I got mad at Mike. Jack Nicholson was a movie star, and it was intimidating to have him come in, and maybe a little piece of that made me go, ‘Hey, don’t lose me in this just because you bring your friend in,’ ” says Streep. “I went to Mike and said, ‘This movie is about the person who got hit by the bus. It’s not about the bus.’ He heard me – he really did hear me on that. And all the nonsense about new scenes stopped.”

The full article can be read over at Vulture, the book releases on February 2. Hopefully, it will feature many more details on the makings of “Silkwood”, “Postcards from the Edge” and “Angels in America”.