SAG-AFTRA Foundation president Courtney B. Vance announced Wednesday that the nonprofit organization has raised more than $15 million for its emergency financial assistance program, thanks in large part to contributions from more than a dozen of Hollywood’s top-earning stars who’ve donated $1 million or more. According to Variety, Dwayne Johnson had contributed a “historic” seven-figure donation, a figure which Vance described as “a call to arms” for everyone to “step up however you can.” But Johnson is not alone. More than a dozen A-listers have also answered the call, each donating $1 million or more, including George and Amal Clooney, Luciana and Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, Julia Roberts, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Meryl Streep, and Oprah Winfrey. “I remember my days as a waiter, cleaner, typist, even my time on the unemployment line,” Streep said, explaining her desire to give back. “In this strike action, I am lucky to be able to support those who will struggle in a long action to sustain against Goliath. We will stand strong together against these powerful corporations who are bent on taking the humanity, the human dignity, even the human out of our profession. I am proudest of my fellow actors who have immediately offered to fund the Emergency Financial Assistance Program.” The full article can be read at Variety with many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

Fans of Meryl Streep’s genius narration voice are in for a treat: For Harper Audio, Streep has read Ann Patchett’s new novel “Tom Lake” in an unabridged 11 1/2 hour version, which will be available August 01, 2023. You can pre-order the audiobook on Amazon and all other retailers. The book’s synopsis can be found below.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Only Murders in the Building has just lifted the veil on the season 3 trailer, showing us the impressive cast joining Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin for another round of mystery. The season 3 trailer shows us that we’ll be treated to the before and after of Paul Rudd’s character’s death, also revealing that there’s a lot of animosity between the cast of Oliver’s play. Specifically between Ben and Loretta Durkin we might add, played by none other than the legendary Meryl Streep. We’re going to have to wait and find out to see if the show has cast Meryl Streep as the killer, but it turns out that the iconic actress herself didn’t even know if she was the one to bump off Paul Rudd or not. The show’s boss John Hoffman told Deadline: “Throughout out the season, we keep the scripts pretty tight, even with our main cast. I loved watching Meryl be attuned to that and come to that in some way throughout season 3. “She kept on wondering, ‘Am I going to die? Am I going to be the murderer?’ She had to know what was coming up next, it was funny.”

We’re only three weeks away from the season premiere of “Only Murders in the Building”. As Hollywood is on strike and actors will not participate in any kind of promotion for their recent work, it will be interesting to see how the studios will generate buzz for their recent shows without star power. For “Only Murders”, the official poster for season 3 has been revealed by Hulu, alongside a first production still of Meryl and Martin Short. Details have been kept tight on Meryl’s character or the duration of her performance throughout the season. Edit: Additional stills and character posters have been released, alongside the season’s official synopsis:

Season 3 of “Only Murders in the Building” follows Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) as they dig deeper into a murder that takes place behind the scenes of a Broadway show. Ben Glenroy’s (Paul Rudd) Broadway debut is shortened after his sudden death, in which Charles, Oliver and Mabel band together to investigate. With the help of Ben’s co-star Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), the trio embarks on their toughest case yet as Oliver battles to keep this show on the road.

Remember “Extrapolations”? Scott Z. Burns’ highly anticipated anthology series for Apple TV+ on climate change with a galaxy of famous faces sat on the shelves for two years until it was released in March this year with zero promotion and just as much public interest. Meryl Streep’s top billing for the series turned out to be a two-scene cameo in the show’s second episode. It was a very disappointing affair for a show that tackles most of the most important issues of our time. It would have been great to learn more on why exactly this prestige project went so under the radar and why its topped billed stars chose not to speak about it ahead of its release. Maybe we have to wait a couple of years for this. In the meantime – better late than never – enjoy screencaptures of Meryl’s appearance, with many thanks to David for sending them in. Much appreciated.

With the recently announced actor’s strike, we’re not going to see any promotional appearances in the coming weeks or months, which will definately affect next month’s premiere of “Only Murders in the Building”. We’ll see how this turns out. So in the meantime, let’s get used to our “From the Archives” category, which is keeping the site active throughout the year. A great big batch of additional public appearances pictures from 2001-2003 have been added – covering the timespan of Meryl’s “comeback” in the early 2000s with both “Adaptation” and “The Hours”. Can’t believe this is already more than 20 years ago. Enjoy the new additions and have a wonderful weekend.

We’re exactly one month away from the premiere of “Only Murders in the Building”‘s third season, so fingers crossed there’ll be some new promotion ahead of us. In the meantime, a couple of past television appearances and promotional interviews have been updated with better resolution screencaptures, including most of her visits to “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. There are also screencaptures from her early appearances on “The View” – in various degrees of quality. They all came from compilations to celebrate the show’s recent anniversary, I’m afraid we’ll never be able to see those interviews in full. Some great finds to complete the archives nevertheless. A complete list of updates can be found below. Enjoy your weekend.

Meryl Streep, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jennifer Lawrence and hundreds of other high-profile actors have signed on to a pointed letter telling SAG-AFTRA leadership that they are prepared to strike in order to achieve a “transformative deal.” In the message sent to union leadership and its negotiating committee, the A-lister coalition — also including Lena Waithe, Laura Linney, Sarah Polley and Quinta Brunson — said that “a strike brings incredible hardships to so many, and no one wants it. But we are prepared to strike if it comes to that.” Calling 2023 an “unprecedented inflection point in our industry,” the group said, “what might be considered good in any other years is simply not enough.” Rolling Stone was the first to report on the letter. The letter, which made the rounds Tuesday, aired concerns that “SAG-AFTRA members may be ready to make sacrifices that leadership is not.” The group added, “We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom, and the power of our union have all been undermined in the last decade. We need to reverse those trajectories.” The full article and letter can be read over at The Hollywood Reporter.

Many thanks to everybody for the lovely comments about the new layout, much appreciated. As not much else is happening, we continue with another “From the Archives” post, this time with some lovely public appearances additions from 1997’s “Marvin’s Room” promotion to 2000’s awards circuit for “Music of the Heart”. All updates can be found below. Enjoy your weekend.

Hello everybody and welcome to the latest version of Simply Streep. As this fansite enters its 24th anniversary this year, please bear with me for some personal words. The new look resembles what I most probably had in mind all these years ago – an online scrapbook with all information in one place. Of course, the internet has changed rapidly since then, and most of the action has moved to social media (which I’m not very good at, as you can tell by the accounts for this site). So, a fansite like Simply Streep feels very retro today, which, I think, only adds to its charm and effort in maintaining it. With the help and support of many friends and visitors, Simply Streep has become the titular archive that has exceeded my expectations time and again and of which I’m very proud of. Thanks to all of you, it means a lot. Meryl Streep’s work schedule has understandably decreased in recent years and there’s not much new to frequently report on, so we will continue to fill the archives and make it as complete as possible – while I will do my best to keep the site easy to browse and tidied up. I hope you enjoy your stay and check back soon.