In today’s The New York Times, Meryl Streep explains how she prepared to play a fictional (and not especially competent) U.S. president in Adam McKay’s apocalyptic satire “Don’t Look Up.” Who would you turn to if you learned a comet was on a collision course with Earth and decisive action was required to prevent the extinction of all life on this planet? If your first thought was Meryl Streep, you have made both an excellent and terrible choice. In “Don’t Look Up,” from the writer-director Adam McKay (“The Big Short,” “Vice”), two scientists played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence find themselves facing this end-of-the-world scenario and must turn to a United States government led by the fictional President Orlean for assistance. The good news (for the movie, which will reach theaters on Dec. 10 and Netflix on Dec. 24) is that Orlean is played by Streep, the venerated film and TV star; the bad news (for humanity) is that Orlean is a self-centered scoundrel who cares a great deal about her public image but little to nothing about running the country. Orlean is one of several malefactors in “Don’t Look Up,” a social satire that McKay wrote about climate change but that he fully expects will be interpreted as a commentary on the pandemic. The president is also a character whose many faults and shortcomings Streep delighted in bringing to life, and she credits McKay for giving her and her co-stars the latitude to indulge in awfulness. The complete article can be read over at The New York Times. Two pictures from the article and another new picture from Empire Magazine have been added to the photo gallery.

While we’re eagerly anticipating any kind of promotion for the upcoming “Don’t Look Up” (which might take some time given its December 24 release), and with not much happening right now, I’m happy to share two new old video interviews that were new to me – one from the Canadian CBC programme “The Bob McLean Show”, on which Meryl was interviewed for the promotion of “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, then an unseen interview during her time in Paris for the promotion for “Kramer vs. Kramer”. And while we have seen her interview from the Royal premiere of “Kramer” in London, I’ve never seen the full segment of The Queen making her rounds and attending the photo op with Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Justin Henry before the screening of the film. You can find all three video additions in the video archive. Enjoy.

The Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College (AAVC) has announced its 2021 awardees – according to this press release – a professor emerita and four alumnae who have all had a lasting impact on the College and beyond. As of press time, four of the five had received their awards. The remaining one, an eminent performer known to all, will be honored in the spring.

Meryl Streep ’71, P’08, ’13, a former College trustee, will receive the Distinguished Achievement Award. The award is presented to an alumna or alumnus who has reached the highest level in their field. While demonstrating exceptional talent, application, creativity, and skill within a certain career, this individual must at the same time exemplify the ideals of a liberal arts education and have used her or his position of visibility, power, or leadership to better the human community and serve the wider goals of society. The three-time Academy Award winner is not only one of the most decorated actors of all time, she is also an ardent supporter of Vassar and an effective advocate for women, education, and the arts. In 2014, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest civilian honor. “She was amazing even as a student—people would flock to her productions,” recalls committee chair Amy Pullman ’71, a classmate of Streep’s. “We would say, ‘Someday she’s going to get an Academy Award,’” she added with a laugh. “She was a very unassuming person then, and that’s how she is now.” Pullman said the award coincides with the 50th Reunion of their class and will be presented to Streep on the same weekend as the celebration of their class gift to Vassar: The Class of 1971 Gateway to the Old Vassar Farm.

In conjunction with the award presentation, Streep is expected to deliver a talk to the Vassar community in April 2022. Details are forthcoming.

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.

There are some wonderful remaining pictures from the scans updates of the last couple of weeks, including clippings from public appearances in the 1980s and 1990s (including some lesser-known events worth a revisit) and some fantastic additional editorial photography. So, let’s wrap the Scan Sunday with this collection of “leftovers” :-)

A great batch of additional production and promotional stills from a great deal of Meryl Streep’s earlier films have been added. Many of those have been new to me, so I hope you’ll find some rarities for yourself among them. For a complete overview, have a look at the list below.

We’ve come to our very last Scan Sunday – at least for now. Once again, many thanks to Alvaro for submitting all these fantastic articles and reviews. With this update, we cover everything between 2010’s box office hit “It’s Complicated”, the Oscar-winning “The Iron Lady” to the most recent “Let Them All Talk”. Among these updates are some fantastic new cover stories as well. As always, check the complete list below the images for all latest additions. Enjoy reading and have a wonderful Sunday.

We’re at our second to last Scan Sunday, covering the “box office years” with lots of new articles and reviews on “Mamma Mia”, “Doubt”, “Julie & Julia” and “It’s Complicated”. For a complete list of added magazines, have a look at the previews below. Enjoy reading and have a great Sunday.

Netflix brings us a first official clip from the upcoming “Don’t Look Up”. The comedy sees Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio teaming up as astronomy grad student, Kate Dibiasky, and her professor, Dr. Randall Mindy, who discover a comet is going to hit Earth. The two then embark on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet – but not many people seem to care. Directed by Adam McKay, “Don’t Look Up” features a slew of stars, including Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry. Ariana Grande, Rob Morgan, Mark Rylance, Ron Perlman and Kid Cudi are also featured. A first teaser dropped earlier this month, with much awards season buzz surrounding it. “Don’t Look Up” will arrive in select theaters on Dec. 10 and on Netflix on December 24.

In this week’s Scan Sunday, we’re still stuck in the “Summer of Streep” – that great time in 2006 when both “A Prairie Home Companion” and “The Devil Wears Prada” were released, while Meryl was simutlaneously starring in the Shakespeare in the Park production of “Mother Courage”. We’re also covering the equally busy (but less successful) 2007 with the releases of “Evening”, “Rendition” and “Lions for Lambs”. Enjoy reading.