Over the last couple of weeks, my friend and frequent site contributor Alvaro has shared yet another treasure trove of old articles with interviews and reviews, ranging from 1976 to 2021. As I didn’t want to make just one update and send them out in one big chunk, I rediscovered a nice alternative I used a couple of years ago – the Scan Sunday. From this week on, every Sunday will feature a scan update with a slice from these new scanned articles. This will keep us entertained for a couple of months :-) We start today with scans from 1976 to 1983, covering her early theatre work in New York to reviews for her formative years with “Kramer vs. Kramer”, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and econcluding somewhere between “Sophie’s Choice” and “Still of the Night”. For a complete list of updates, have a look at the list below. Enjoy reading.

Founded in 2007, the National Domestic Workers Alliance is an advocacy organization promoting the rights of domestic workers in the United States. Made up of 4 local chapters and 63 affiliate organizations around the country, along with thousands of individual members, their work advocates for low-income laborers in the context of broader social justice issues, including immigration reform, domestic violence, and more recently the #Metoo movement and the COVID-19 pandemic. The NDWA advocates for a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, including overtime pay, one day off per week, and protection under state human rights laws. A version of this bill of rights was passed in New York in 2010 thanks to the NDWA’s advocacy, and similar legislation has recently been introduced in California. Alicia Garza, who co-founded the Black Lives Matter network, is the Director of Strategy and Partnerships at the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

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75th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2018)

3:30 minutes

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National Domestic Workers Alliance (2018)

2:04 minutes

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Tribute to Essential Workers (2020)

1:23 minutes

Meryl Streep has been a vocal supporter of the NDWA since 2018. She invited the foundation’s director, Ai-jen Poo, to be her date at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, the first spotlight on Hollywood after the Harvey Weinstein scandal and rise of #Metoo. In April of the same year, Streep spoke at their “Unstoppable event” – the same month, hundreds of domestic workers and farmworker women from around the country met on Capitol Hill to tell lawmakers that all women must be included in protections from sexual harassment and assault at work. And in 2020, during the novel Coronavirus pandemic, she joined their virtual “Tribute to Essential Workers” to celebrate the lives and work of essential workers.

The second year of the Corona virus pandemic remained quiet for the entertainment industry. The filming of “Don’t Look Up” wrapped in February 2021 under heavy safety protocols. Meryl Streep was seen virtually throughout the year in video appearances for Donor Direct Action, Writers Guild Initiative Virtual Benefit Gala, the 18th Annual Poetry & The Creative Mind and the “Spotlight On Plays” virtual benefit series with a reading of “Dear Elizabeth” alongside Kevin Kline. In June, she joined the cast and crew of “The Devil Wears Prada” for the film’s 15th anniversary virtual celebration hosted by Entertainment Weekly. Meryl made her first public appearance in almost two years in December, when the promotional tour for “Don’t Look Up” commenced in New York with a string of press conferences and Q&As. The film – released theatrically on December 10 and on Netflix December 24 – received mixed reviews, being called “the funniest and yet most depressing film of the year” (The San Francisco Chronicle). It was featured on the Top 10 best films list of the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review.

According to People, one lucky fan will be getting a private Zoom session with The Devil Wears Prada cast! Lollipop Theater Network is auctioning off the rare prize of zooming with the A-List cast — Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci — to benefit the organization in its 20th year. The 10-minute call will give the lucky winner the chance to see the cast reunite 15 years after the hit film was released. “We are so thrilled to be celebrating our 20th anniversary with our amazing partners at Charitybuzz and the incredibly talented cast of The Devil Wears Prada,” said Lollipop Theater Network Executive Director Evelyn Iocolano in a statement. “We have seen the tremendous impact that these kinds of interactions have on our young patients, and now one lucky bidder will have the chance to experience it themselves, all while contributing much-needed funds to keep our programs up and running! Here’s to the next 20 years of Lollipop!” the statement concluded. The auction is open now and will end on August 3 at www.charitybuzz.com/thedevilwearsprada. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

Journalist and author Reba Merrill, who will be releasing her book Nearly Famous: Tales from the Hollywood Trenches on July 21, has blessed Meryl Streep fans with a wonderfully rare and downright odd video interview with the actress, which gets all the more fascinating if you know the back story. As Merrill writes in her book and on her website: In 1987, I went on location to upstate New York for the film Ironweed, which would be Oscar-nominated in 1988 against Rain Man. I knew that I would not be allowed to interview or shoot behind the scenes footage of Jack Nicholson. That left me with his co-star, Meryl Streep. I shot footage of Jack working, but no one knew because I had my cameraman turn his light off. Jack joked around with the TV crew and me as long as the camera was not running. Meryl Streep, on the other hand, let us shoot behind the scenes footage of her. The film’s unit publicist arranged Meryl’s interview and when the scheduled time came, we were set up and ready. What a surprise when Meryl arrived with wet hair, glasses, and no make up. No one had told her that this was a video interview, not print. I told her, “This interview will last a long time, and I don’t think you want to look that way on video.” I left the film set with all the interviews except the one with the star of the film. When I came back to Los Angeles, I told the producers I did not have Meryl’s interview. I was sent back to New York to interview Meryl Streep, where I picked up a crew and met her at a hotel on Madison Avenue. When I returned to do the interview, she was comfortable with me. Maybe it was because she saw me often during the three-week period on the film; maybe it was because I had been honest with her and said, “Please don’t do the interview with wet hair and no makeup and glasses.”

For our next interview, the studio provided Meryl with her personal hair and makeup person at the cost of $1,500. About a third of the way through the interview, she put her hand through her hair and got it all messed up, undoing the work of her expensive stylist. I kept my mouth shut because the interview was going really well. The same stylist, J. Roy Helland, won an Oscar in the Hair and Makeup category for turning Meryl into Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. When he accepted his Oscar, he thanked Meryl for keeping him employed for over 30 years. Meryl gave me a very revealing, hour-long interview about the woman she was, what made her tick, and what was important in her life. “I still get nervous, very nervous, when I have to audition,” she told me, which is probably not something she has to do anymore since she is considered one of the most talented and respected actresses of our time.

I wasn’t interested in doing a biopic on Anna; I was interested in her position in her company. I wanted to take on the burdens she had to carry, along with having to look nice every day. Absolute power corrupts absolutely…. I liked that there wasn’t any backing away from the horrible parts of her, and the real scary parts of her had to do with the fact that she didn’t try to ingratiate, which is always the female emollient in any situation where you want your way – what my friend Carrie Fisher used to call “the squeezy and tilty” of it all. [Miranda] didn’t do any of that. (Meryl Streep, Entertainment Weekly)

If looks could kill, then for 15 years The Devil Wears Prada has been a serial threat. Director David Frankel’s adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s Faustian yarn – inspired by the author’s time working under Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour – emerged as a modern classic through its mélange of impossibly chic clothes, scorching dialogue, and pointed portrayal of women in power. In time, the movie has become a beacon for gender parity, too, with its ice-queen Runway editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) occupying a delectably unapologetic position of power in a male-dominated world and, as a Hollywood antihero, a rare kind of leading lady. The film struck a chord with its feminist-tinged, broadly appealing story, and has endured largely thanks to the spectacular chemistry among Streep, Anne Hathaway (who plays Miranda’s assistant-turned protegée Andy Sachs), and scene-stealers Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, and Adrian Grenier. For the first time since the film’s release in June 2006, EW has gathered those stars (and more) for a fierce reunion as they dig their heels into Devil’s legacy. You can watch the full 30 minutes reunion exclusively on Entertainment Weekly’s website.