Since there was no new film in 2010, the year started with four new projects on the horizon – two being realised, two being still in development, “Mommy and Me” and “August: Osage County”. The latter hasn’t been in the news since January when director John Wells said he was working with the play’s author, Tracey Wells, on the screenplay. Regarding “Mommy and Me”, Meryl mentioned in an interview herself later this year, that Tina Fey is currently writing the script. So we’ll have to wait until next year to see how and when these projects come to life.

Much of 2011 was dominated by “The Iron Lady“. The much anticipated biopic started shooting in early 2011, wrapped in Summer and released in Winter. The film’s making mirrored the still immense interest in Margaret Thatcher’s years as a politician – and judging by the amount of news reports one can say that Mrs Thatcher still divides the United Kingdom and the Western World like no other British politician – either she’s loved wholeheartedly or hated wholeheartedly, there’s nothing in between. And with British magazines being politically split into left and right, it was at times difficult to read between the lines – will this be a masterpiece or the worst film ever to be made? There was not one day of shooting that wasn’t covered by the press, and probably every former colleague of Mrs. Thatcher shared his or her opinion on the film – when it wasn’t even released. News from the filmmakers themselves came in bits and pieces, mostly quotes of Meryl’s co-stars, who praised her transformation and work ethics. Olivia Colman, who plays Carol Thatcher in the film, said, “It’s spooky, its proper spine-chilling spooky, it’s brilliant. Within moments I forgot that she was stratospherically wonderful… she’s a funny woman, who is very close to giggles at all times”. And Richard E. Grant, who plays Michael Heseltine, shared his experience of working with Meryl in a Daily Mailarticle. “We were doing a scene in which Mrs Thatcher walks down a corridor with a group of ministers. Between shots, Meryl, still suited and bewigged as Mrs T, sang the Abba hits. It was so incongruous and hilarious and it sums up her humour and sense of mischief. It’s naff to say it, but Meryl makes you feel better about yourself. As an actress, she’s the best of the best. But she’s also unbelievably down-to-earth. She knew everyone on the set by name. She’s appreciative of what other actors do. She has no entourage. It’s like working with a British theatre actress: very unexpected and disarming in someone who has 16 Oscar nominations and two Academy Awards in the bag”. Filming ended in March 2011 – but it would take until the end of the year until audiences would be able to see the film.

The marketing of “The Iron Lady” was particularly interesting. The British distributor, Pathé, released a first promotional picture of Meryl in costume, shortly after the shooting had started, on February 8 (thanks for the birthday gift). One may think that a single picture doesn’t draw much attention, but this one found its way on the cover of virtually every British newspaper, television programme and internet blog. In March, the US film rights were aquired by the Weinstein Company after first scenes were shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Being famous – or infamous – for their marketing strategies to push films towards box office success and awards glory, “The Iron Lady” was kept under wraps until the last moment – in fact it’s the last film of 2011 that releases theaters (December 30 in New York City) and qualifies for awards season. On July 07, 2011, a first teaser trailer was released, gaining as much attention as the previously released picture. Running for roughly a minute, it’s a teaser in the truest meaning of the word, revealing pretty much nothing about the film, instead it gives a short glimpse of Meryl as Mrs Thatcher, uttering the sentence “I may be persuaded to surrender the hat. The pearls, however, are absolutely non-negotiable” to her political advisers. Other than that, promotion on the film would be unsettingly low until the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Meryl started working on the second project for 2011 – the comedy “Great Hope Springs“. In the early stages of development, Mike Nichols was in talks to helm the project, the job however was handed to David Frankel, who has previously directed Meryl in “The Devil Wears Prada”. The leading man had a share of names as well, as Jeff Bridges was considered first, followed by James Gandolfini. In May 2011, The Hollywood Reporterconfirmed Tommy Lee Jones joining the project as Meryl’s husband in the story of an elderly couple to tries to save their marriage by attending an intense counseling weekend with a therapist, played by Steve Carrell. Shooting took place in August 2011 at various locations in Connecticut, including Norwalk and Mystic. Many of the local websites extensively reported on the making of the film and the presence of Meryl and Tommy in their city, providing lots of on-set pictures throughout the days of filming. “Great Hope Springs” is currently stated to release in December 2012.

Besides her film work, Meryl kept a low profile in 2011. She attended a couple of events in the year’s first half – including the 150th anniversary of Vassar College (she even dressed up as Vassar’s founder, Matthew Vassar, for a Sesquicentennial Issue of the Vassar Quarterly), the Shine On Awards by Good Housekeeping, and the MindUp Gala by Goldie Hawn’s foundation. She gave speeches at the Margo Jones Awards – honoring her Anne Cattaneo (the director of the Playworks Program at the Phoenix Theater during the late 1970′s), spoke about the need of the Women’s National History Museum at the Women in the World Foundation Launch, and presented the Director’s Guild Award to screenwriter Nora Ephron.

But the real “public work” began in November 2011 with a marathon of appearances. On November 14, Meryl and director Phyllida Lloyd met with the press in London to unveil the poster for “The Iron Lady”. Meryl jokingly called it “a preview of what you’ll be so sick of looking at all over London soon enough – which is my face”. Two days later, she was in New York, speaking at the De Pizan Honors Gala hosted by National Women’s History Museum. And another two days later, Meryl was in Beijing, China, to participate in the US-China Forum on the Arts and Culture. Here, she attended two panels to discuss the art of acting, one paired with Chinese filmmakers, including her “Dark Matter” co-star Liu Ye, the other paired with US director Joel Coen. Meryl further participated with Yo-Yo Ma in a Musical Dialogue and attended a screening of “The Iron Lady”. She returned to London to host a screening of the film for women journalists in Phyllida Lloyd’s house. Liz Hoggard of the London Evening Standard wrote, “Arguably what united us was our antipathy towards Thatcher. In many ways The Iron Lady is a feminist re-evaluation of Thatcher’s life – and the price she paid for power. It is hard to remain unmoved at the sheer scale of the challenges she overcame to reach the highest office in the land.” And “it’s not every day that Meryl Streep bakes you a cake. [She] knows a political biopic of an “old lady” will be a hard sell at the box office. The film, she tells us, is about how this divisive pioneer, who was monstrous in some ways, broke through in a way I couldn’t have imagined when I was that age. Streep’s performance is disturbing. Just like Helen Mirren in The Queen, she makes Maggie a radiant figure. I found myself rooting for the brainy grocer’s daughter as she battled through the snooty Tory ranks”. Back in the USA, she attended a screening for “The Iron Lady” in Washington on November 29 and attended the “A Magical Evening Gala” a day later.

The promotion of “The Iron Lady” was in full force in December. There was a lenghty interview with Meryl on the BBC, two special conversation panels on the film, one at the DGA Theater in New York City after the film’s screening on December 6, the second at the SoHo Apple Store on December 14. The US trailer for “The Iron Lady” was released on December 7. Critics and the press started to praise Meryl’s performance after the first screenings. While the majority found the film medicore, everyone agreed that Meryl’s performance is a standout – for “The Iron Lady” and for her career. Time Magazine called her characterization the “performance of the year”. She received the New York Film Critics Circle Award as Best Actress, and nominations for the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics Choice Award, all to be handed out in early 2012. A 17th Academy Award nomination, this can be said, is inevitable.

The biggest attention of late 2011, however, did not come for her film or an award – but for a magazine cover. On December 11, Vogue published their January 2012 cover with Meryl Streep on front, stunningly photographed by Annie Leibovitz. In a world where media attention has become equal with creative success for actors, Meryl became Vogue’s oldest cover girl (although she has covered the French issue of Vogue in 1989 and the Italian issue in 2010). The media, once again, went nuts and you could catch the cover on every entertainment website and programme around the globe. Another fantastic cover came from Newsweek magazine, showing Meryl in uncanny Margaret Thatcher resemblance. The year came to an end with 60 Minutes running a special programme on Meryl’s career and her latest film on December 18, featuring a new interview on the stage at the Delacorte Theatre. On December 23, Meryl and Phyllida Lloyd promoted the film on The View. And on December 27, CBS broadcast the December 4 taping of The Kennedy Center Honors. Her colleagues, including Tracey Ullman, Robert De Niro, Mike Nichols, Kevin Kline, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Anne Hathaway and Nora Ephron (whose appearance was unfortunately cut from the broadcast), paid heartfelt tributes to her acting chops and friendship.

As you can see, 2011 has brought us a lot to cheer about. What was your favorite moment of this year? Share it in the comments!

As Meryl Streep will be honored tonight at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, let’s take a look back at her previous appearances. Meryl has attended the annual awards ceremony three times as a speaker. In 1981, actors Donald Sutherland, Richard Chamberlain and Meryl Streep joined on the stage to honor actress Helen Hayes, the First Lady of the American Theatre. They read quotes of famous filmmakers about acting while the last quote, as read by Meryl, was from Miss Hayes herself.

One actress expressed best what all actors feel – Helen Hayes. “I think in acting as in everything else one has to find one’s own center of gravity. But more and more I have come to believe that there are only two styles of acting: Good and bad. A little talent doesn’t hurt, but talent is no good without the discipline. And nothing is any good without endurance. What is talent for an actress? Perhaps it is an instinct for understanding the human heart”. Miss Hayes, for the understanding you have given us, and for the inspiration you offer, we thank you.

In 2003, when Mike Nichols was honored, Meryl and actress Candice Bergen paid tribute to the director of “Silkwood”, “Heartburn”, “Postcards from the Edge” and “Angels in America”, with a poem by Willa Cather – and Mr Nichols’ own “five rules for filmmaking”:

One: The careful application of terror is an important form of communication. Two: Anything worth fighting for is worth fighting dirty for. Three: There’s absolutely no substitute for genuine lack of preparation. Four: If you think there’s good in everybody, you haven’t met everybody. Five: Friends may come and go, but enemies will certainly become studio heads.

In 2009, Meryl’s co-star Robert De Niro, with whom she worked together on “The Deer Hunter”, “Falling in Love” and “Marvin’s Room”, was honored. Meryl talked about his acting craft and recalled a moment of watching his process to find the right detail for his character while working on “Falling in Love”.

Actors love Bob’s work because it’s unfailingly honest and it’s uncluttered. He’s relentless in his desire to find just the right detail, the little thing that’s gonna tell you everything about a man. After “The Deer Hunter”, he and I made “Falling in Love”, and I had the privilege of watching his process – in a wardrobe test. For three hours, he tried on 37 identical little boxy jackets. Windbreakers. To me, they looked identical. But, he’s checking the cuff, the color, the zip – up, no, down, down, yeah, no, yeah, down. Until he found the right one. And the right one was the right one because it’s signified, it told you everything about this guy’s socioeconomic status. It showed you his modesty and his precision. It was just tan, it was ignorable. But that’s different from unimportant. Details are important, and Bob knows that.

So, let’s see who will speak on Meryl’s tribute tonight! The awards ceremony will be broadcast on CBS December 27, so in the meantime – check out the video clips of her past appearances.

For the first time in about ten years, there hasn’t been a new movie with Meryl in 2010. Luckily, the year started with the benefits from 2009. Her performance as Julia Child in “Julie & Julia” had put Meryl in the awards race’s Best Actress category for virtually every movie award America hands out. In January, Meryl was awarded with the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the Critics Choice Award. At the latter ceremony, the Best Actress category was a tie between Meryl and Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side”. It would be impossible for the coming days not to stumble upon a picture in magazines and blogs of the two sharing a smooch while accepting their awards. Only two days later, Meryl won the Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for “Julie & Julia” (a double nominee this year, receiving a second nod for “It’s Complicated” in the same category). In a funny and touching acceptance speech, Meryl said that, “in my long career, I played so many extraordinary women that basically I’m getting mistaken for one. I’m very clear about the fact that I’m the vessel for other people’s stories and other women’s lifes.” Later this month, Meryl was seen attending the amfAR New York Gala in honor of the late Natasha Richardson, whom she shared the screen with in “Evening”. In another moving speech, Meryl dedicated the Irish song “The Parting Glass” in tribute to Richardson. Also in January, Meryl appeared on Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s “Faces of America“, a history series that traces back the family roots of a selected group of season guests, Meryl being one of them.

The remaining awards season was, as always, taken over by another actress. Sandra Bullock went on to win both the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Oscar in March 2010 for “The Blind Side”. With the Oscars and awards season coming to an end, Meryl dedicated herself to the causes she supports – and to art. On March 14th, she was part of the Daily Beast’s Women in the World summit, portraying Northern Irish civil rights leader Inez McCormack on the stage. At the DVF Awards later this month, she presented the award to former kidnapped activist Íngrid Betancourt. In April 2010, Meryl was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters as an honorary member. The elite society boasts an exclusive roster of 250 members who are the crème de la crème of art, literature, and music. In May, Meryl was joined by Marcia Gay Harden, Stanley Tucci, Elias Koteas and Viggo Mortensen for a concert reading of Ariel Dorfman’s “Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark” to benefit Habitat for Humanity’s earthquake relief efforts in Chile. And by the end of the month, Meryl did not only receive a honorary degree at Harvard, she delivered the commencement speech at Barnard College.

My success has depending wholly on my putting things over on people, so I’m not sure that parents think I’m that great a role model anyway. I am however an expert in pretending to be an expert in various areas. Just randomly, like everything else in this speech, I am an expert in kissing … river rafting, miming the effects of radiation poisoning, knowing which shoes go with which bag, coffee plantationing, Polish, German, French, I-talian – that’s Iowa-talian, from “the Bridges of Madison Country,” bit of a brogue, bit of the Bronx – Aramaic, Yiddish, Irish clog dancing, cooking, singing, horse riding, knitting, playing the violin and simulating steamy sexual encounters. These are some of the areas in which I have pretended quite [successfully to be proficient in] … as have many women here, I’m sure.

In July, Meryl was awarded with the Rodolfo Valentino Award in Poltu Quatu, Sardegna, joining a selected group of past recipients, including Robert Altman, Bernardo Berolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Bette Davis and Sophia Loren. Once the year hit June, news were mostly dominated by announcements of new movie roles. As of now, only one has been confirmed. First, there was “Great Hope Springs”, a drama about an estranged couple, to be played by Meryl and Jeff Bridges, and to be directed by Mike Nichols. In the meantime, news on Bridges were replaced by James Gandolfini, since then it has been quite. Next in line was “Mommy and Me”, a planned film by Stanley Tucci with Meryl and Tina Fey starring. Although this project was heavily promoted to be happening, at the time of its announcement, there wasn’t even a script for it. And as it seems, there still isn’t one. But movie news kept coming, with the announcement of “August: Osage County”, an adaptation of the stage play with Meryl and Julia Roberts, not to mention the news on her starring with Sandra Bullock and Oprah Winfrey in an untitled comedy for Michael Patrick King. Finally, the one project that eventually got confirmed – maybe the biggest challenge of all – was “The Iron Lady”. With a script by Abi Morgan and under the direction of Phyllida Lloyd, Meryl will portray the British Prime Minister in the days leading up to the Falklands War in 1982.

The last quarter of 2010 had some nice appearances for Meryl fans. She paid a visit to Washington to call for the creation of a National Women’s History Museum on the National Mall and attended the celebration for Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. In November, she joined Jane Pauly for “An Evening of Conversation with Jane Pauley and Meryl Streep” at Indiana University, a free event where both talked about life and work. Meryl attended a similiar event at Texas Univerity the same month. She also spoke – and sang – at the Mayor’s Awards for Arts & Culture. And what might be the most suprising – and unexpted – appearance of 2010, Meryl did a three episodes stint on Lisa Kudrow’s online series “Web Therapy” as sexual orientation therapist Camilla Bowner. What’s left for 2011 is the expectation of “The Iron Lady” and that any of the previously mentioned films will be made as well. It has been a fun year to see Meryl doing the awards circuit once again deservingly, and learn more about the causes and actions that she cares about as a private person.

Best of 2010?

My personal favorite news of 2010 was the announcement of “The Iron Lady”. It was the project that I thought would be happening the least, but fortunately it does. Since I like political movies and biopics a lot, this will be a great film to look forward to. What has been your favorite moment in 2010? Feel free to share your thoughts with others.

Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1986 > US (USA, January 1986)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1986 > US (USA, January 1986)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1980 > 7 Heurs (Canada, April 1992)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1982 > 7 Heurs (Canada, September 1992)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1983 > 7 Heurs (Canada, October 1994)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1983 > New York Magazine (USA, October 1994)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1984 > Ditjes & Datjes (Netherlands, January 2010)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1990 > Sky Movies (United Kingdom, November 2010)

Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1977 > After Dark Magagazine (USA, May 1977)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1980 > Photoplay (Spain, March 1980)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1980 > Sight and Sound (UK, December 1980)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1982 > Dunia Magazine (Spain, May 1982)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1983 > Correio de Domingo (Portugal, April 1983)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1984 > Veronica (Netherlands, November 1984)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1990 > Imagenes de Actualidad (Spain, March 1990)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1991 > Dunia Magazine (Spain, February 1991)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 1993 > Video World (UK, August 1993)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 2009 > Vanity Fair (Italy, October 2009)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 2009 > Gioia Magazine (Italy, October 2009)
Image Library > Magazine Scans > 2010 > Gioia Magazine (Italy, February 2010)