On February 2, Penguin Books releases “Mike Nichols: A Life“, written by Mark Harris and featurig lots of remarks by Nichols’ former colleagues and friends, including Meryl Streep. Vulture has posted an exerpt from the book, and – luckily for us – it’s a lengthy, very insightful chapter on the makig of “Heartburn”, including the complete story of Mandy Patinkin’s original casting as Mark Foreman, and Nichols firing him a week into shooting scenes. It’s a very ineresting read, especially considering that “Heartburn” wasn’t a chosen star vehicle for Nicholson and Streep, but rather a casting choice out of the blue that got Streep by surprise, as she remembers in the book.

[After Nicholson’s casting], suddenly, there were a lot of ideas about how we were going to enhance the part,” says Streep. “The man’s part. This was a movie about a woman, which was even more unusual in those days than it is now. It was a unique opportunity to explore things from her perspective, from Nora’s perspective.” Nicholson’s hiring “was the first time in my life that I got mad at Mike. Jack Nicholson was a movie star, and it was intimidating to have him come in, and maybe a little piece of that made me go, ‘Hey, don’t lose me in this just because you bring your friend in,’ ” says Streep. “I went to Mike and said, ‘This movie is about the person who got hit by the bus. It’s not about the bus.’ He heard me – he really did hear me on that. And all the nonsense about new scenes stopped.”

The full article can be read over at Vulture, the book releases on February 2. Hopefully, it will feature many more details on the makings of “Silkwood”, “Postcards from the Edge” and “Angels in America”.

“Don’t Look Up” is coming to Netflix sooner than you might think. Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the rest of the star-studded cast are still filming “Don’t Look Up” in Boston and other nearby towns, but the Adam McKay comedy will make its debut later this year, and Netflix has already released the first official footage from the movie. A trailer posted by Netflix highlighting all of the original movies it will release in 2021 features a short scene from “Don’t Look Up,” which stars DiCaprio and Lawrence as two low-level astronomers who must embark on a massive media tour to warn the world about an approaching comet that will destroy the planet. In the brief, dialogue-free footage, DiCaprio and Lawrence step off of a carrier plane onto an airport tarmac as uniformed personnel stroll by in the background. So far, “Don’t Look Up” has filmed scenes in Boston, Canton, Chicopee, Fall River, Norton, Salisbury, Weymouth, and Worcester. Filmmakers shot scenes at Union Point in Weymouth, the former site of South Weymouth Naval Air Station, in December. The streaming giant has not announced a specific release date for “Don’t Look Up.” Along with DiCaprio and Lawrence, “Don’t Look Up” features Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Chris Evans, Himesh Patel, Timothée Chalamet, Matthew Perry, Tyler Perry, Melanie Lynskey, Ron Perlman Tomer Sisley, singer Ariana Grande, and rapper Kid Cudi (text courtesy boston.com).

Happy New Year everybody. I hope you all had a good start into 2021, which will hopefully be much better than 2020. I’ve been sorting my archives during the Holidays to add screencaptures from a variety of television programmes that I have collected in the past months – including some finds that I’ve been looking for for a very long time. Among the highlights are Meryl’s 1983 profile on the Australian 60 Minutes, including great footage from the Paris premiere of “Sophie’s Choice”, better quality screencaptures from “Kiss Me, Petruchio”, a PBS taping of her 1978 performance of “The Taming of the Shrew” in Central Park and “An Evening with Friends of the Environment” from 1990, more screencaptures from her 1989 on the Phil Donahue Show to promote the recently founded Mothers and Others for a Liveable Planet (unfortunately I haven’t been able to source a full video of her appearance yet) and “Coping with Serious Illness”, her very first television appearance as a host. A complete list of screencaptures can be found below. Enjoy the new additions.

Another big batch of international press coverage for both “The Prom” and “Let Them All Talk” have been added to the photo gallery, with many thanks to Alvaro. Scans come from the US, the UK, Brasil, Spain, France, Argentina and Portugal, so there’s probably something for everybody :-) A complete list of additions can be found below.

If you have watched “Let Them All Talk” and “The Prom” back to back, you’ve been in for a treat, haven’t you? Ryan Murphy has put every bit of color, singing, glitter and joy into “The Prom” that “Let Them All Talk” has been missing (rightly so). While musicals are not my genre, it was impossible not to be charmed by Meryl Stree’s comedic timing and, of course, her singing, but we knew about that. Everybody in the cast seemed to have great fun, and it shows in the film. So, if you haven’t watched it yet – or didn’t rewatch it today – you’ll find it on Netflix. Once again, many thanks to Ali for the screencaptures. Please make sure to visit her Nicole Kidman fansite as well. Also, some very funny screencaptures from the making of have been added as well. Enjoy the updates.

I hope you have all enjoyed your weekend with one or two new Meryl Streep films. “Let Them All Talk” has been released last Thursday and “The Prom” last Friday – two films and two characters that couldn’t be more different. Steven Soderbergh’s “Let Them All Talk” has been compared by critics to the good work by Woody Allen and Robert Altman – it’s a long, very talky, almost meditative stream (literally), featuring outstanding performances by Streep, Lucas Hedges, Dianne Wiest and especially Candice Bergen. I will add a longer review of the film to its career page later. For now, enjoy the screencaptures – and please be aware that they feature spoilers to the story, so please watch it first on HBO Max. Many thanks to Ali and Claudia for helping out, very appreciated.

A super big batch of magazines scans and reviews from around the globe have been added to the photo gallery – giving us a wonderful overview on how the world press has received this week’s releases of “The Prom” and “Let Them All Talk”. Among the additions are some fantastic cover stories from Variety, the Spanish SuperTele and the British Yours Magazine. A complete list of all aded scans can be found below the previews. Many thanks to Alvaro for sending them all in, very appreciated. Enjoy reading.

In interviews on both Stephen Colbert’s and James Corden’s talkshows this week, Meryl Streep spilled the tea on returning to the movie set in a year, as filming of Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” has started last Friday. “It’s about a global catastrophe but it’s sort of funny like Dr. Strangelove for 2020 about global warming, a metaphor of that,” she said. “I play the president of the United States.” Streep said Jonah Hill played her son and chief of staff in the upcoming comedy. “We had our first scene on Friday and I was so bad,” the Oscar-winning actress said while shaking her head. “I’ve been in this quarantine because they have to be very careful and I’m totally alone.” “My first scene was entering a stadium full of 20,000 people as the president, my big face on the jumbotron in front of me,” she continued. “And I completely lost it, I couldn’t remember anything.” That scene uneased Streep as she described that it was “not at all” normal. “First of all, there weren’t 20,000 people obviously,” she said. “They’ll duplicate them [in editing]. There were extras all around the stadium. Lonely people separated by 20 feet of air, wearing masks and visors that are clear.” The extras were meant to have a “huzzah” moment where they cheered for her character, but while wearing masks their cheers ended up sounding muffled. “The whole thing is so eerie and odd and disconcerting,” she said of filming during a pandemic. “I have to pull myself together for Monday.” The film follows two astronomers who set out on a media tour to warn the public that a meteor will destroy Earth in just six months. The Netflix movie is also set to star Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Ariana Grande, Timothée Chalamet, Matthew Perry, Himesh Patel, Cate Blanchett, Kid Cudi, Rob Morgan and Tomer Sisley.

We’re getting the full Streep treatment for the past week with dual (virtual) promotional tours for both “Let Them All Talk” (releasing today) and “The Prom” (releasing tomorrow). On Tuesday, Meryl Streep was a guest on her co-star’s talkshow “The Late Late Show with James Corden” while yesterday she was joined by Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen on “The Today Show” to promote “Let Them All Talk”. Both appearances can be watched in the video archive, with screencaptures being added to the photo gallery.

Three new video clips have been added to the video archive. Yesterday, Meryl Streep attended “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote both “The Prom” and “Let Them All Talk”. In the interview, she remembered a particular story from one of her own prom visits and pointed out the error that Barack Obama wrote about her in his memoir. Additonally, clips from Entertainment Tonight and the segment from the Equality Now virtual gala have been added as well. Enjo the new videos. Screencaptures from all recent virtual appearances have been added to the photo gallery.