UMass Lowell announced Thursday that Meryl Streep will be the latest guest for the Chancellor’s Speaker Series. The Academy Award-winning actress will appear at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell on Wednesday, Feb. 5. The event will benefit student scholarships and will be co-sponsored by the UML English Department’s Theatre Arts Program and the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Streep follows in the footsteps of author Steven King, who drew a crowd of 3,000 to the Tsongas Center at the inaugural Speaker Series event last December. Ticket and program information have not been released yet. For more information, visit their official website.

The Toronto International Film Festival is rolling out the red carpet for the slew of stars scheduled to attend next month’s extravaganza. Hollywood heavyweights Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Hugh Jackman will all appear during the 38th annual film festival from Sept. 5 to 15, organizers said Tuesday, and they’ll be joined by homegrown talent like Taylor Kitsch, Mike Myers and Bruce McDonald. The world-premiere of “August: Osage County” takes place on September 09, 2013. Here’s some more buzz from the festival’s website: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts has spent the past two decades telling stories that are audacious and inventive, hilarious and harrowing, deeply disturbing and, in their own wicked way, heartfelt. When the movies finally discovered Letts a few years back, they brought his singularly bleak and insightful vision of the American family to a broader audience. Bug and the highly controversial Killer Joe, both directed by William Friedkin, were pitched so as to incite maximum discomfort. The star-studded August: Osage County, based on the play for which Letts received the Pulitzer as well as a Tony Award, is no less bracing a tale of life, death, and familial strife, but let’s just say it’s a crowd-pleaser by comparison – and one of this year’s must-see films.

Members of the Wilmington Fund VT are celebrating the success of last Saturday evening’s fundraising events. The evening kicked off at the Hermitage Club with an exclusive dinner with special guest, actress Meryl Streep. Also in attendance were Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and Congressman Peter Welch. The fundraising dinner was sold out, with 115 guests paying between $1,000 and $5,000 per plate. Donors paying for the $2,500 and $5,000 plates also had their photos taken with Streep.

Streep was at the event at the behest of her friend, Wilmington Fund VT founder and president Dan Kilmurray. Kilmurray says he has known Streep’s family for years. “Her brother and I met and became dear friends when I was about 18,” Kilmurray said. “I met her when she graduated from Vassar. When I was in the process of launching this fundraising event, I asked her if she would help.” During an after-dinner chat hosted by Kilmurray’s wife and co-founder of Wilmington Fund VT, Tamara Kilmurray, Streep said that one of the reasons she was willing to help the Wilmington Fund was because she was familiar with the town. After she left Dartmouth College for Vassar, she said, she continued to travel between the two colleges on trips to visit her boyfriend at Dartmouth. “Wilmington was my halfway point,” she said. “I used to stop at a little ice cream place on Route 9 that isn’t there anymore (Gene’s KreeMee).” Streep also found an unexpected connection to the area. Rep. Ann Manwaring told her that the bottles of Vermont maple syrup on the tables were donated by local business owner Ed Metcalfe, who had attended elementary school with Streep. “Oh, little Eddie Metcalfe?” Streep said. “Is he here?” But Metcalfe wasn’t in attendance. More information on the event can be found here and at their official website.

At the Public Theater’s 2013 gala at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park last night, Sting, Steve Martin and Meryl Streep had prime seats for a one-night-only performance of “The Pirates of Penzance,” starring Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and Martin Short as Major-General Stanley, a sure recipe for hilarity. Streep took the stage before the performance to say a few words about her friend Nora Ephron. Streep recalled a dinner with Ephron. “I bubbled to our tablemates, ’Bon Appetit,’” Streep said, doing a perfect imitation of Julia Child. “And she gave me a sideways look and said, ’I have a thought.’”

The Public Theater announced today that Public Theater alumna and Academy Award winner Meryl Streep and Sir Howard Stringer will honor their friend and colleague, the late Nora Ephron, a long-time Public Theater board member, at The Public’s Gala on Monday, June 10 at the Delacorte Theater, where the benefit evening will culminate in a concert performance of “The Pirates of the Penzance”. In collaboration with The Central Park Conservancy and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, The Public Theater will plant a flowering cherry tree in Central Park across from the Delacorte Theater in honor of Ephron, who was a consummate lover of The Public’s free Shakespeare in the Park. A plaque will be mounted outside the Delacorte to memorialize the occasion and Ephron’s dedication to The Public. “Meryl Streep and Howard Stringer will share their history and bond with Nora Ephron,” said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “And the flowering cherry tree will be a beautiful reminder, for generations to come, of Nora’s generosity of spirit.” Meryl Streep and Nora Ephron have a long history of collaboration together, beginning in 1983 when Streep was featured in Nora Ephron’s Silkwood, directed by Mike Nichols, and most recently the 2009 feature film Julie & Julia, written and directed by Ephron.

Yesterday, Meryl took to the stage in New York to honour the careers of fellow actresses Lois Smith and Frances Sternhagen with the Obie’s Lifetime Achievement Award. A first batch of pictures have been added to the image library with more to come.

And another event update. On April 22, Meryl Streep and husband Don Gummer have attended the the 50th anniversary gala of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, an organization founded in the early 1960s on the model of artists supporting one another’s creative efforts. It started as visual artists supporting performing artists, but since 1993 artists working in just about any medium have been eligible for a grant. More information can be found here. A picture from the anniversary gala has been added to the image library with many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

As previously reported, Meryl has attended yesterday’s Women in the World Summit to pay tribute to activist Inez McCormack. Pictures from the event have been added to the image library. Scroll down for more information and video.

Meryl Streep wore mourning black as she spoke of Inez McCormack, the great Irish human-rights and peace activist who died of cancer just 10 weeks ago at the age of 69. “A tall woman and a towering figure,” Streep said. The magnitude of the loss mounted as Streep spoke of all McCormack had done. McCormack had ensured that human rights—and in particular the rights of the people she called “the invisibles”—became part of the 1998 Good Friday accord in Northern Ireland. McCormack had also become the first woman to head a trade union there. “Well, there’s no fun in being the first woman in anything,” Streep quoted McCormack saying. You can read more on Meryl’s speech over at The Daily Beast. A video of her speech has been added to the video archive.

Hillary Clinton, Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Diane von Furstenberg and Tom Hanks will be featured speakers at Newsweek and The Daily Beast’s Women in the World Summit in New York on April 4 and 5, The Daily Beast announced Thursday. The summit highlights global women’s issues and features activists, CEOs and artists. “We tell the stories of the courageous and intelligent women who are battling the status quo in their countries, picking up the pieces in the aftermath of war and shattering glass ceilings in every sector,” The Daily Beast announced. Update: According to this source, Meryl Streep will pay tribute to Inez McCormack at the Women in the World Summit on April 4. Streep has portrayed Inez in the documentary play “Seven”, which tells the personal stories of Inez and six other women who triumphed over enormous obstacles to create major positive change in their home countries, at the same event three years ago.

Pictures from two recent appearances have been added to the image library. On March 06, Meryl has accompanied photographer and friend Brigitte Lacombe to the “Hey’Ya: Arab Women in Sport” Exhibition. And yesterday, Meryl was among the famous guests (including the Clintons) at the Opening Night of “Ann: The Ann Richards Play” at Lincoln Center. Click the previews to launch all last added pictures. P.S. Some additional Oscar press-room pictures have been added as well.