Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced the Little Women Digital and Blu-ray release dates. Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the timeless Louisa May Alcott masterpiece comes home on Digital March 10th and Blu-ray and DVD April 7th. The Blu-ray, DVD and Digital releases will take viewers even deeper into the beloved story of Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth with over 45 minutes of bonus features. In addition to earning the praise of critics worldwide with a Rotten Tomatoes “Certified Fresh” rating of 95%, the film has been honored with an Academy Award for Best Costume Design plus five nominations including Best Picture, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), and Best Music (Original Score).

Once again, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Meryl Streep has jumped aboard Rachel Feldman’s Lilly Ledbetter fair pay movie, Lilly. Streep has brought her backing to Feldman and fellow producers to bring the long-gestating feature based on the life of the equal pay icon to production. The Hollywood actress earlier lent her support to calls for equal pay for women in the U.S., including raising the issue while promoting her star turn in Suffragette, in which she played the iconic political activist Emmeline Pankhurst. Feldman will direct Lilly, which earlier had the working title Ledbetter, as it portrays Ledbetter inspiring the Fair Pay Restoration Act, the first piece of legislation President Barack Obama signed after his inauguration. J. Todd Harris (The Kids Are All Right) has also joined Feldman as a producing partner on the project. Ledbetter gained attention by fighting The Goodyear Tire Company for her right to pay equal to that of her male counterparts. She was a pioneer in putting a name to the issue, before Megan Rapinoe energized the fight for equal pay in sports and Michelle Williams spotlighted the pay gap for female actors in Hollywood. “Historic dramas often chronicle the external forces of politics, but Lilly tells the story of what happens to a woman’s inner life when patriarchal injustice overwhelms every aspect of her existence. Lilly is the perfect film for this moment in time,” Feldman, a director, screenwriter and activist and the former chair of the DGA Women’s Steering Committee, said in a statement.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women has strolled past the $100 million mark at the domestic box office in another win for the Oscar-nominated film. The milestone comes on the eve of Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, for which the Sony movie is nominated in six top categories, including best picture, as well as for best actress (Saoirse Ronan) and best supporting actress (Florence Pugh). While Gerwig is up for best adapted screenplay, the filmmaker was shut out of the directors’ race. Little Women, opening Christmas Day, cost roughly $40 million to produce before marketing and will be nicely profitable for Sony and producer Amy Pascal after continuing to exceed expectations. The movie has grossed more than $64 million to date overseas for a global tally of $165 million. The latest adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel about the March sisters also stars Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, Tracy Letts, Meryl Streep, Bob Odenkirk, James Norton, Louis Garrel and Chris Cooper.

Yesterday, Meryl Streep and the cast of “Big Little Lies” attended the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. They were nominated as Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series, but lost to the cast of “The Crown”. Lots of pictures from the ceremony have been added to the photo gallery with more information to follow. Enjoy. Update: A video segment of Meryl’s appearance has been added to the video archive, with many thanks to Youtuber Wei Lan. Screencaptures have been added as well.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Meryl Streep will lend her voice to Apple TV+ in an animated short film celebrating Earth Day. The three-time Oscar winner will star with Chris O’Dowd (Sundance’s State of the Union), Ruth Negga (Preacher) and Jacob Tremblay (Doctor Sleep) in Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth. The 36-minute film is based on Oliver Jeffers’ best-selling 2017 children’s book. It’s set to premiere April 17 on the tech giant’s streaming platform, five days before the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration. Here We Are will follow a precocious 7-year-old (voiced by Tremblay) who over the course of Earth Day learns about the wonders of the planet from his parents (Negga and O’Dowd) – and from a mysterious exhibit at the Museum of Everything. Streep will narrate the film. The project comes from independent animation house Studio AKA (Hey Duggee, Oscar-nominated short A Morning Stroll). Philip Hunt directed the film and co-wrote it with Luke Matheny (God of Love, Maron). Hunt, Sue Goffe and Jeffers executive produce. Alex Somers (How to Train Your Dragon) composed the music. Hunt and Jeffers previously collaborated on the BAFTA-winning animated short Lost and Found, also from Studio AKA, based on the author’s 2005 book. Here We Are joins a lineup of kids and family programming on the two-and-a-half-month-old Apple TV+ that also includes the animated Snoopy in Space – part of a deal between Apple and DHX Media for Peanuts-related content — live-action show Ghostwriter and educational series Helpsters. The latter is from Sesame Workshop, which has a content deal with Apple.

Big congrats to the team of “Little Women” on receiving 6 Academy Award nominations this morning. While the team leader Greta Gerwig was snubbed for a Best Director nomination, the film received nominations for Best Picture, Leading Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Actress in a Supporting Role (Florence Pugh), Costume Design (Jacqueline Durran), Original Score (Alexandre Desplat) and for Best Adapted Screenplay (Greta Gerwig). “Little Women” marks only the sixth movie in Meryl Streep’s career to receive a nomination for Best Picture – the other being “The Deer Hunter” (winning), “Kramer vs. Kramer” (winning), “Out of Africa” (winning), “The Hours” and “The Post”. The Oscars will be handed out on Sunday, February 9, 2020.

Yesterday, Meryl Streep attended the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills as a nominee for “Big Little Lies”. Unfortunately, she didn’t win – the award went to Partricia Arquette for “The Act”. To make matters worse, Meryl also skipped the red carpet, so there are only very few pictures, but at least some lovely ones with Helen Mirren, which is better than nothing. Right? :-) Neither “Big Little Lies” nor “Little Women” scored any wins at the Golden Globes this year. Pictures from the show have been added to the photo gallery. Update: Screencaptures from the ceremony have been added as well, and you can find the video segment in the video archive.

According to The New York Times on December 29, Sony’s “Little Women,” an adaptation by Greta Gerwig of Alcott’s 19th-century, coming-of-age novel, sold an estimated $16.5 million in tickets at domestic theaters Friday through Sunday. That places it in a dead heat for third place with Disney’s “Frozen 2,” now in its sixth weekend in theaters. Final counts on Monday will determine which film placed third. Regardless, it was a good weekend for “Little Women,” which opened on Christmas Day and finished the weekend with $29 million in estimated cumulative sales. An all-star cast doubtlessly helped sell moviegoers on “Little Women” — Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet and Meryl Streep are in it — and the movie got terrific reviews (it currently holds a 95 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes). Audiences were clearly eager to see Gerwig’s follow-up to “Lady Bird,” her 2017 movie about an angsty teenage girl that was among the most critically lauded films of the decade. And so far, while not being treated a “major awards player” in the Best Picture or Best Director category, the “Little Women” have received 14 nominations so far from various awards groups in the Best Ensemble category.

★   Boston Society of Film Critics Awards – Best Ensemble
★   Boston Online Film Critics Association – Best Ensemble
★   AARP Movies for Grownups Awards – Best Ensemble
★   Alliance of Women Film Journalists – Best Ensemble Cast
★   Critics Choice Award – Best Ensemble
★   Austin Film Critics Association – Best Ensemble
★   Central Ohio Film Critics Association – Best Ensemble
★   Georgia Film Critics Association – Best Ensemble
★   Florida Film Critics Circle Awards – Best Ensemble
★   Indiana Film Journalists Association – Best Ensemble Acting
★   Chicago Indie Critics Awards – Best Ensemble
★   Online Association of Female Film Critics – Best Acting Ensemble
★   Seattle Film Critics Awards – Best Ensemble Cast
★   Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards – Best Acting Ensemble

Upon reviewing Meryl Streep’s work this decade, let’s remind ourselves where we’re coming from. The 2000s were probably her career’s most exciting period since the 1980s. As many actresses in their 40s, Streep took a backseat in the 1990s – the only profitable or relevant film she did back then was “The Bridges of Madison County”. Films like “One True Thing” and “Music of the Heart” were appreciated and Oscar-nominated, but stood little comparison to the big classics Streep did in the 1980s. So in the 2000s, after a screen absence of three years, Streep returned big time with “Adaptation” and “The Hours”, then with the miniseries “Angels in America” on television. Two years later, she played one of her most iconic roles in “The Devil Wears Prada”, topped it off with a big box office success with “Mamma Mia” and closed the decade with two Oscar-nominated performances in “Doubt” and “Julie & Julia”. In short, the 2000s not only validated her star status, but something new Meryl Streep has rarely been in her career before – a bankable star. The 2000s were something of a Streep renaissance.

As we prepate to close 2019 and saddle our horses for a new decade, I thought about the Streep performance that has left the biggest impression on me this past decade? The rather surprising answer: There’s none. There have great performances in not-so-great films and some oddballs that have been long forgotten (Ricki and the Flash anybody?). The film industry has changed much more rapidly than it did in the 2000s, and although Meryl Streep made 14 films plus one tv series this decade, the availability of great content and memorable roles in cinema declines. So, which roles have stood out these last 10 years? Have a look at my (very opinionated) rundown of Streep’s top 5 performances:

Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” (2011)