According to The Hollywood Reporter, quality Now is mounting the Make Equality Reality Gala, a virtual event scheduled for Dec. 3 to support the organization’s mission of fighting for an equal world for women and girls. The event’s program will feature a tribute written by Gloria Steinem and read by Meryl Streep in honor of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose work for legal equality has inspired Equality Now’s global work, per the organization. Other honors include the activists and filmmakers of On the Record, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s documentary exploring the sexual assault allegations against Russell Simmons, and a third annual Changemaker Award presented by Gucci and Chime for Change that will be accepted by Egypt #MeToo activist Nadeen Ashraf. Confirmed to appear during the gala are Jane Fonda, Kate Hudson, Jameela Jamil, Karamo Brown, Margaret Atwood, Marisa Tomei, Alicia Vikander, Paul Reiser, AnnaSophia Robb, Rob Reiner, Carmen Ejogo, Aasif Mandvi, Karen Robinson, Jess Glynne, Heather McMahon, Linda Perry, Christine Lahti, Scarlett Curtis and V, who was formerly known as Eve Ensler. “This has been an incredibly challenging year for women and girls worldwide — from the clampdown on reproductive rights in Poland and the United States to the rising rates of child marriage in Kenya and India, 2020 has had a profound impact on the status of gender equality,” said Yasmeen Hassan, global executive director of Equality Now. “These setbacks mean the work of human rights advocates and activists around the world is more crucial than ever. Equality Now is inspired by the incredible cohort that is participating in our first-ever virtual gala, and look forward to working with them to help ensure that women and girls have access to justice regardless of what stands in their way.” More information about the event can be found here. Many thanks to Alvaro for the heads-up.

According to Yahoo, Meryl Streep is showing her support for the freedom of the press by honoring Amal Clooney at the prestigious CPJ International Press Freedom Awards. The Oscar-winning actress, 71, will present the human rights lawyer, 42, with the 2020 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award during an online award ceremony on Nov. 19. The award ceremony will showcase the work of this year’s awardees — which include four journalists from Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria and Russia who have faced arrest or prosecution for their work. Streep will highlight Clooney’s work as counsel for many journalists under threat.

In times of unprecedented uncertainty, it’s journalists who are out there, gathering the facts and trying to help us make sense of it all. By asking tough questions, and pursuing the truth at any cost, they are essential workers – serving the public and protecting democracy. That’s why I’m proud to take part in this year’s International Press Freedom Awards and to continue supporting the vital work of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Clooney will also be interviewed by reporter and 2018 Gwen Ifill Awardee Maria Ressa. The lawyer previously defended Ressa when she was persecuted in her home country of the Philippines for reporting on government corruption. The award ceremony will be hosted by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt. He’ll be joined by several other notable journalists such as Christiane Amanpour, Margaret Brennan, David Muir, Yamiche Alcindor and others. Rosamund Pike, Samantha Bee and journalist Ronan Farrow will be included in calls to support press freedom. The 2020 International Press Freedom Awards will be broadcast online at www.ipfa2020.org as well as NBC News, CBS News and ABC News on Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. EST.

The full line up for The Royal Conservatory’s season gala has been announced. As one of Toronto’s most exclusive and star-studded annual galas, The Resounding Concert is accessible to everyone this year on October 17 via livestream. The event is a benefit in support of the Fund for Koerner Hall. Appearances will include artists who have performed at Koerner Hall from around the world: Buffy Sainte-Marie, Lang Lang, Meryl Streep, Sondra Radvanovsky, Jan Lisiecki, Zakir Hussain, James Ehnes, Alex Cuba, Daniel Hope, k.d. lang, Lighthouse, Rhiannon Giddens, Danilo Pérez, Brian Blade, John Patitucci, Gerald Clayton (playing Oscar Peterson), Barbara Hannigan, Chilly Gonzales, and Skratch Bastid with Afiara Quartet. Although the livestream is free for everyone, The Royal Conservatory are asking for donations in support of the Fund for Koerner Hall in order to keep bringing live music to audiences and keep artists working. More information on the concert and ticket prizes can be found here. Many thanks to Alvaro for the heads-up.

According to Playbill, a re-imagined virtual gala from The Public Theater will be a star-studded affair as the institution looks to the future following the year’s reckoning around racism in the country. “Forever. Togehter.”, directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon, will take place October 20 at 8 PM ET. The event will be live streamed on The Public’s website, YouTube, and Facebook. While free to watch, donations are encouraged to support the Off-Broadway institution. The lineup includes Jelani Alladin, Jacqueline Antaramian, Antonio Banderas, Laura Benanti, Kim Blanck, Ally Bonino, Danielle Brooks, Jenn Colella, Elvis Costello, Daniel Craig, Alysha Deslorieux, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Holly Gould, Danai Gurira, Stephanie Hsu, David Henry Hwang, Oscar Isaac, Nikki M. James, Alicia Keys, John Leguizamo, John Lithgow, Audra McDonald, Grace McLean, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kelli O’Hara, Mia Pak, Suzan-Lori Parks, David Hyde Pierce, Phylicia Rashad, Liev Schreiber, Martin Sheen, Phillipa Soo, Meryl Streep, Sting and Trudie Styler, Will Swenson, Shaina Taub, Kuhoo Verma, Ada Westfall, and Kate Wetherhead. As previously planned for the June 1 ceremony, the gala includes a special tribute to this year’s honorees Sam Waterston and Audrey and Zygi Wilf. “Before the world was stilled, we were set to celebrate the institution of theater as we knew it,” said Leon. “What we now know is that we have much to learn and much to do to earn our sacred place in our community. We take this time to celebrate our artists, and as we move forward with our virtual event, we understand that these are precious moments. We must strive to build institutions worthy of the beauty of our artists, and we will meet the moment with the seriousness and attention it deserves.” The evening will feature stories from Public Theater alumni, songs from Public Theater musicals (including a performance by Alladin of a new song written just for Public Works’ production of Hercules), and a preview of “Say Their Names,” a visual installation to be projected on the facade of The Public’s Cooper Square home dedicated to the Black lives lost to police brutality and white violence. Anne McPherson will serve as the gala’s production stage manager with music direction by Ted Sperling. Many thanks to Glenn and Alvaro for the heads-up.

Meryl Streep may not have an Instagram account, but she is mugging on the platform for a cause with Kageno. Streep is among the more than two dozen stars and notable names who posed in vibrant aprons as part of a social media campaign on behalf of nonprofit Kageno as a way to spotlight its upcoming event. The organization — founded in 2003 and focused on transforming communities in need in Kenya and Rwanda — is hosting a virtual gathering Sept. 23, an annual Harambee, which has been reimagined to be a fundraiser-meets-cooking celebration. Streep, a longtime supporter of Kageno, will deliver the keynote address as part of a program that also features Minnie Driver and Dylan McDermott addressing attendees, pop star Anastacia performing, and celebrity chef Todd English spearheading a cooking demo that guests can follow along with at home (ingredients can even be delivered in advance). The event also includes a silent auction featuring items modeled by Lydia Hearst and Chris Hardwick. The aprons featured in the social media campaign were designed and made by the African villages supported by Kageno. All shoots were conducted via FaceTime and photographed by Scott Buccheit. In addition to Streep, those who participated include Anne Dexter-Jones, Allie Rizzo, Omar Shariff, Jr., Gillian Hearst, Naeem Delbridge, Daniela Lopez, Alex and Keytt Lundqvist, Scott Cullens, Maggie Rizer, Mia Moretti, Selita Ebanks, Robin Roberts and Amber Laign, Johnny Bananas, Sam Champion, Marc Forgione, Buster Skrine and many others. More information about the event can be found here. The article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter with many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

According to Deadline, Meryl Streep, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald are set to join an all-star line-up in a special virtual concert to celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday. Take Me To The World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration, hosted by Raúl Esparza, will take place this Sunday, April 26, the 50th anniversary of the opening night of Sondheim’s groundbreaking musical Company. The concert kicks off at 8 pm ET, and will be available for free at Broadway.com and the Broadway.com YouTube channel. In addition to Streep, Peters, LuPone and McDonald, artists performing songs from the Sondheim catalog will include Mandy Patinkin, Christine Baranski, Donna Murphy, Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara, Aaron Tveit, Maria Friedman, Iain Armitage, Katrina Lenk, Michael Cerveris, Brandon Uranowitz, Stephen Schwartz, Elizabeth Stanley, Chip Zien, Alexander Gemignani and, from the cast of Pacific Overtures at Classic Stage Company, Ann Harada, Austin Ku, Kelvin Moon Loh and Thom Sesma. Host Esparza starred as Bobby in the 2006 Tony Award-winning revival of Company and in the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Sunday in the Park With George and Merrily We Roll Along in 2002, as well as the City Center Encores! production of Anyone Can Whistle and in last year’s Road Show. “The world is in a hard place,” Esparza said in a statement, “and we are all searching for something great. Well, Stephen Sondheim is greatness personified.” Mary-Mitchell Campbell will be the music director, with Paul Wontorek serving as director. This online event will act as a fundraiser for ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty), the organization conceived by Campbell and Juilliard students to transform the lives of youth through art. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up!

In more Coronavirus-related news, Meryl Streep’s hosting gig at this year’s Met Gala has been suspended as well. In compliance with the CDC’s recommendations, the Met Museum announced yesterday that all scheduled events and programs will be postponed or cancelled through May 15. The museum’s unfortunate decision comes after a slew of cancellations across America as the government asks that all gatherings of 50 people or more be shut down for the next eight weeks. Additionally, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York prohibited all events of more than 500 people on March 12 and highly encouraged that people start practicing social distancing. Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour was scheduled to host the annual Met Gala, themed “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” on May 4 alongside composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, actresses Emma Stone and Meryl Streep, and Louis Vuitton’s creative director Nicolas Ghesquière. As of now, there is no new date for the Ball’s 150th anniversary, and the publication hasn’t shared any plans for the future.

Meryl Streep, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Emma Stone will host the 2020 Met Gala, marking Streep’s first time attending the fashion-focused event. Louis Vuitton creative director Nicolas Ghesquière will co-chair alongside the trio. Additionally, the designer brand will be sponsoring the event, taking place May 4. The theme of next year’s gala, “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” will implore attendees to “explore how clothes generate temporal associations that conflate past, present and future” by utilizing Henri Bergson’s concept of la duree, per the Met’s official statement. “Virginia Woolf will serve as the ‘ghost narrator’ of the exhibition.” With fashion aficionados like Billy Porter, Lady Gaga and Zendaya (who rocked a Cinderella ensemble for this year’s Camp theme), next year’s event will likely make for some interesting grayscale looks as the exhibition attempts to detail the “linear chronology of fashion” and focus on “the fast, fleeting rhythm of fashion.” Juxtaposed against the black ensembles will be a cluster of white outfits and accessories that “predate or postdate those in black, but relate to one another through shape, motif, material, pattern, technique, or decoration,” said the Met’s statement. The exhibition will close with a section on the future of fashion to explore the topic of longevity and sustainability.

On Monday, Meryl Streep, Greta Gerwig, Florence Pugh and Laura Dern, alongside her mother Diane Ladd, attended a screening for “Little Women” in Los Angeles. During a luncheon on Saturday, Gerwig talked about working with Streep on the film. In the director’s upcoming film, Amy March (Florence Pugh) delivers a powerful monologue to explain to Theodore “Laurie” Laurence (Timothee Chalamet) how she is hindered by a woman’s place in society. She tells him that when she marries, her husband would own any money she has and he would own her children. Gerwig told the crowd at the Teen Vogue Summit in Los Angeles that she wants to give credit where credit is due, confessing that she took the dialogue “basically verbatim” from a conversation with Streep. “When I started working on this project, Meryl Streep did just tell me that she was going to be in it. Because she loves the book and she told me … ‘I’ll be Aunt March.’ She said, ‘Write me some good lines.’ I was like, ‘I will,’” Gerwig said. “We had a lunch and she said, ‘This is what you have to communicate to the audience about the position of women, that they don’t even own their own children. It’s not just that they couldn’t vote, it’s not just that they didn’t have jobs. They didn’t own anything. If you wanted to leave a marriage, you could leave but you would leave with nothing, not even your kids. So it is the decision.’ So I basically verbatim took that and gave that to Florence.”

Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated directorial follow-up to Lady Bird reunites the filmmaker with Ronan and fellow Lady Bird co-star Timothée Chalamet to tell one of literature’s most beloved stories. Meryl Streep represented the film yesterday at a New York screening accompanied by her friends, playwright Tracy Letts and author of “One True Thing”, Anna Quindlen. Here’s what the critics are saying so far about Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, as compiled by Looper: Entertainment Weekly columnist David Canfield tweeted that Little Women was one of his “very favorite movies of the year,” furter noting, “Greta Gerwig delivers a both passionately faithful and gorgeously original take” and going on to praise several of the film’s leading performances.Kara Warner from PEOPLE Magazine wrote, “Greta Gerwig’s @LittleWomen is wonderful. A loving, meticulously-crafted adaptation that exceeded my expectations. Heartfelt, moving and a terrific showcase for its extremely talented cast and beloved source material.” New York Magazine’s Kyle Buchanan enjoyed the film, but felt there were some caveats. In a Twitter thread, he wrote, “Greta Gerwig takes the straightforward story of Little Women and boldly scrambles it, starting two-thirds of the way through and retelling most of what you remember via flashbacks and cross-cutting. Call it Louisa May Alcott meets 21 Grams[…] At best, it’s a fresh approach that makes you rethink familiar material. But it can also make simple plot and character developments a bit harder to locate.” He also singled out the performances, particularly Pugh’s: For my money, the MVP in Little Women is Florence Pugh. Hot off of Midsomar, Pugh is having a great year, and she’s hilarious and winning as Amy, the character best served by Gerwig’s structural gambits.”