Here is the beautiful, talented, lovely, gracious, amazing and mind-blowing awesome Meryl Streep on the red carpet last night for The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Meryl was wearing “her own” Prada dress, and she looks gorgeous, doesn’t she? I love that color on her. I love how Meryl has been showing off her cleavage a lot lately – it seems like every red carpet she’s been on lately, she’s been showing off her girls. If she was thirty years younger, it would be trashy. But for Meryl, it’s just awesome.

On the red carpet, Meryl didn’t talk to most of the assembled reporters, but she did stop to talk to one. The “reporter” was a 9-year-old girl from Scholastic, and Page Six details how great Meryl was to the girl:

Meryl Streep passed by most of the red carpet reporters at the premiere of the animated “Fantastic Mr. Fox” at Bergdorf Goodman, but stopped to talk to Grace McManus, 9, from Scholastic, who asked about the difference between voicing a character and playing a character. The Oscar winner said, “That’s the most sophisticated question that anyone in this entire press line has asked me. Really, really good.” Grace, who had school the next day, skipped the after-party.

[From Page Six]

At the film’s after-party, Meryl spoke to the NY Post’s Cindy Adams, who asked Meryl what possessed her to voice a cartoon fox (married to a George Clooney-voiced Mr. Fox). Meryl’s answer was typical, basically saying that she did the voice work because she’s awesome and they sent her to Paris. Meryl says: “Well, the chance to work with [director] Wes Anderson and the chance to fly to Paris, where I did my work, with some extra recording done in Connecticut. When I did my lines, Wes played the other character speaking back to me, which helps give a feel for the action. Very important because reactions and the way your body moves defines your voice. So when I was working, George was on some of the tracks and Wes on some.”

In one other piece of Meryl-related news, word around the Oscar race is that Meryl is actually going to participate in some sort of late campaign for her role as Julia Child in Julie & Julia. Allegedly, Meryl is going to do some big magazine interviews, and she’s asked to do some photo shoots with her Julie & Julia director Nora Ephron. Some sources claim that she actually wants to put her heart into it, and try to get that third Oscar (which would be her first in, like, 27 years).

Here’s the trailer for The Fantastic Mr. Fox:

Here’s Meryl at the New York premiere of The Fantastic Mr. Fox on November 11, 2009. Credit: WENN.

I hope a lot of people stayed up last night to watch The Colbert Report, because it was totally worth it. Meryl Streep was Colbert’s guest, and he pretty much dropped his Faux’Reilly persona to totally geek out on her. In his defense, she geeked out a little on him too. Most of the interview she just sort of giggled girlishly – which, when done by Meryl, is quite charming. Meryl looked gorgeous too – she’s lightened her hair to a really pretty, warm caramel-blonde and she dressed up in what looked like a silk blouse and heels. She must really like Stephen Colbert, because Meryl doesn’t get dressed up for much anymore.

At the beginning of the interview, he jokes that he’s really “Meryl Streep playing Stephen Colbert for the whole show… I’m that good.” Colbert asks her if when she got the role of Julia Child, she thought, “Man, I get to bulk up!” Meryl says, “I kind of did, inadvertently… I looked at it like a pregnancy, you know, ‘Whatever!’ I could just eat whatever you want.” Colbert laughs and says, “Actually, saying ‘Whatever!’ is a great way to start a pregnancy.” They both tell funny stories about food and their childhoods, but one of my favorite moments is when Colbert asks Meryl, “Are you afraid that portraying Julia Child is going to make cooking seem cool? Are teenagers going to start having braising parties?” I also love when he scolds her for not being on more red carpets, asking why she isn’t partying with Kanye West.

Meryl also sat down with Salon for a nice little interview. Here are some of the highlights:

You’ve played plenty of real-life characters through the years, but rarely such a familiar person as Julia Child. Did that worry you? Did you worry about playing it too broadly — like Dan Aykroyd’s caricature on “SNL”?
Well, probably it should have. But I had just finished “Doubt” and didn’t have any time to think about it. And before “Doubt”… I didn’t have time to think about that. I think generally I’m better when I’m thrown out on the stage with a [mimes a confused look] “What, what, what do I do?” [Laughs] I really do. I think the more time you have to worry about something — actors that prepare for a year to work on something — I know I couldn’t do it, because I’d over-think. I would definitely over-think.

I just had the same outlines in my mind that everybody had. You know, the voice, the posture and things like that. But really, what I attached to in my imagination was her spirit. She was so similar in spirit and approach to life to my mother that I got to do a little tiny homage to Mary Streep while I was doing this. Which meant a lot to me and sort of located me centrally in a body I loved.

That’s interesting to know, because your performances are closely scrutinized for their potential influences. In “Manchurian Candidate” [2004] you said you’d watched women like Karen Hughes and Peggy Noonan, but a lot of people were convinced you were playing Hillary Clinton, and — I thought it was fascinating that people thought it was her. Because, honestly, I’d never thought about her for one second while I was doing it. But there was so much anti-Hillary vitriol in the press at that time that anybody with a bubble haircut — you know? Even though [my character Eleanor Shaw] was a brunette and from the South and looked like me! I think the women that are sort of driving, aggressive ambitious presences in films are still terrifying — and in life, I guess. It’s still something society is chafing to accommodate.

You had a famous quip in the 1990s about how difficult it was for older women to get good roles — that Hollywood producers don’t want to cast women who remind them of their first wives. Recently, you’ve said that you don’t think anything has changed dramatically. And yet you’re wildly in demand …
I don’t think they have changed dramatically, otherwise all the actors my age would be working as much as I am. And I think I have surfed a wave of very good fortune. I guess, starting with ["The Devil Wears Prada"] it has to do with the money coming back in big blockbusters. But if there were more female-driven, interesting projects that were widely distributed … That audience is there, they want to go.

You said recently that you’re still “shocked” when you get a role. Is that really true? Come on, you’re Meryl Streep!
Yeah. I don’t know, I think [pauses to consider] I’m a valuable commodity to a project. But I’m always shocked that there’s an interesting, full-fledged, ambitiously wrought role for somebody like me, that somebody’s willing to put in a movie, it’s unusual, that’s what I mean by shocked. I’m not shocked because … “Gosh, me? How do I know how to act?” [Laughs] But there’s so many unbelievably talented, richly talented women and men that are older, that just don’t get a chance.

[From Salon]

Does Meryl understand that she still gets roles because she’s the greatest living actress working today? That she’s every director’s first choice in casting a female character over the age of 50? Sigh. I love her. If I could have even 2% of Meryl’s coolness right now, at my age, I would be a happy camper.

Here’s Meryl Streep at the ‘Julie & Julia’ premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on July 30th. Images thanks to WENN.com .

It’s no secret that Meryl Streep is a goddess. She’s out promoting her role as Julia Child in Julie & Julia, which will likely earn her another round of awards, and probably her sixteenth Oscar nomination. Meryl sat down with Parade Magazine to talk cooking, acting and the love of butter. It’s a cute interview, and the biggest quote coming out of it is probably when Meryl says, “I’m really glad that I’m still working and that people are not sick of me, even though even I’m sick of me a little bit.” This is so refreshing, I have to say. Meryl’s not out there, lamenting how she’s too beautiful to get roles. She’s not badmouthing anyone. She’s just herself.

Julia Child reminds Meryl Streep of her mother: “Julia’s personality was so much like my mother’s that I felt very familiar with it. My mother had an undeniable sense of how to enjoy her life, and she made every room she walked into brighter. She really was something, and all my life I wanted to be more like my mother. So this is my little tribute to that spirit. Unfortunately, in my own life I can be a real whiner.”

Meryl grew up thinking potatoes came in boxes: “The cookbook my mother used was Peg Bracken’s I Hate To Cook. I remember when I was 10 going over to a friend’s house and she and her mom were seated at the kitchen table and they were doing something with what looked liked tennis balls, these big white things. They said, ‘We’re making mashed potatoes.’ I went, ‘What do you mean? Mashed potatoes come in a box.’ I’d never seen a peeled potato. My mother’s motto was, ‘If it’s not done in 20 minutes, it’s not dinner.’ She had a lot of things that she wanted to do and cooking was not one of them.”

Stanley Tucci (who plays Julia Child’s husband in the film) is a better cook than Meryl: “I’m not so good, but I got better. Julia said you just have do it over and over again, and then you’ll get it right. Finally, I decided to do a test by inviting Stanley Tucci, who plays my husband in the film, and his wife over for dinner. I made blanquette de veaux and it was not done by the time they arrived. Stanley came in and completely took over in the kitchen. He was like, ‘Is that what you’re going to do? No, seriously, I’m just asking. Is that what you’re going to do? I can show you an easier way.’ Boom! It was out of my hands. Stanley’s a great chef and I’m just a cook.”

For the love of butter: “Julia was mad about butter, and who alive isn’t? Butter does make things taste better. For a long time, Julia really resisted the whole idea that you could seriously elevate your cholesterol by partaking of that wonderful substance. Finally, the facts were incontrovertibly presented to her and Julia had to kind of do a U-turn and agree that butter should be used in moderation. She was such a vivid and straightforward personality that it was very difficult for her.”

Meryl thought acting was “silly & vain”: “It was committing to acting and thinking it was a serious enough thing to do with my life. I was like, ‘What are you going to do with your one wild life?’ I thought acting was sort of silly and vain even though it was the most fun thing that I’d ever done, and it remains that. But I was like, ‘If I enjoy it that much it can’t be good for me.’ Finally, somebody asked me, ‘What do you really want to do?’ And I blurted out, ‘I’m an actor.’ I realized I finally had made the commitment. But it took a long time.”

On being unemployed: “I’m like every other actor, I’ve been unemployed more than I’ve been working. Actors just have a lot of down time. So I’ve never gotten used to being out of work. It’s a very uncertain life and there are only a few people that would sign up to be married to somebody who’s an actor. My husband’s an artist and he understands that, the vagaries of the job. I just take every day is a miracle and I’m really glad that I’m still working and that people are not sick of me, even though even I’m sick of me a little bit.”

[From Parade]

My favorite part was the discussion of butter. So many chefs feel so strongly about it! It reminds me of my favorite Food Network cook, Paula Deen. Paula puts butter in everything. And she thinks a sprig of parsley is her “vegetable” for the day. I think Deen is the heir to Julia Child, and I’m really hoping the Food Network does some cross-promotion with this film. I would love to see Meryl and Paula together cooking. My head might explode from the coolness of those two great ladies.

Meryl Streep is shown at the Julie & Julia premiere in NY on 7/30/09. Credit: WENN.com

Before I get into She Who Is Unworthy, let’s just take a moment and enjoy Meryl Streep. Meryl was out last night with her little buddy Amy Adams, attending a screening of Julie & Julia. Meryl donned a comfortable-looking red dress that I actually like, but I’m not too thrilled with her hair. Still, she’s Meryl F-cking Streep, and I doubt she cares what I think about her hair. Julie & Julia comes out next weekend – it’s the film where Meryl takes on yet another great role – that of the first lady of chefs, Julia Child. Reviews are already coming in for the film, and while most are saying there are some weak points in the film, every critic agrees that Meryl shines yet again. Playing Julia Child will probably bring Meryl her SIXTEENTH Oscar nomination. Meryl has already blown through every record ever set by Hollywood actresses, and she’s still got dozens of great performances yet to come. Meryl is the queen.

Take it as a given that Meryl is the undisputed queen, the empress of all, the best of the best and then some. So what does that make Jessica Biel? Yeah, I thought so. Jessica gave an interview to the LA Times to promote her upcoming stage performance as Sarah Brown in Guys & Dolls. Sarah Brown is the role played by Jean Simmons in the film version, with Marlon Brando playing Sarah’s seducer, Sky Masterson. Honestly, I love the film, and you couldn’t pay me to watch Jessica Biel murder those lines and songs live.

Jessica’s doing what she does best – promoting herself through any means necessary. Which means referencing her struggles with her own beauty again, and then topping it off with career-comparisons to Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep. Bitch, please.

Biel, 27, said it took her all that time to summon the courage to take her singing beyond the shower stall. “I’ve struggled a lot in the last five years or so with my own insecurities, having done some film,” she said recently. “Will I be accepted? Is my voice good enough? I think I finally feel confident enough to do it.”

“Her voice is silvery,” said Jay-Alexander, [director of Guys & Dolls]. “It glimmers, and the higher it goes, the more it shimmers. It’s a very interesting instrument.” And she’s been training for the role “like a triathlete in a decathlon,” working with a coach two hours a day for the last two months.

Biel hopes that the role of Sarah will confound an industry that often makes assumptions about the limits of beautiful women. Her concern about that has at times ricocheted awkwardly across the Internet, as it did in May when she told Allure magazine that she wants a career like Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman’s, but her beauty “really is a problem” in Hollywood and has cost her roles.

“I just don’t want to be in a box ever where anybody feels I can only do one thing, because it’s boring,” said Biel. “I feel I have a lot to explore and a lot to give and try and probably fail doing something, but I want the shot to do it.”

That probably won’t include performing with her longtime boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, at least for now. “I never thought about doing an album,” she said. “I’m more interested in incorporating music into film or onstage. I am his No. 1 fan when it comes to music, but we’re doing our own things.”

“The only destination I’m hoping for is longevity,” she said. “I want to be able to keep working until I’m 105 years old. I want the choice. It’s difficult for women in general in entertainment. They peak earlier and the men peak at 30, 40. It’s kind of scary. But you can’t tell Meryl Streep she can’t do a part. You can’t say to Cate Blanchett ‘I don’t believe her in that.’ They do anything they want because they have explored the range, which is endless for them. That’s what I want.”

[From Los Angeles Times]

And I want Gerard Butler naked in my bed. We all want something, Biel. Wanting to be as insanely talented, beautiful, successful and cool as Cate or Meryl is fine. I want to be like them too. But name-dropping them in an LA Times interview as if you’re on the same kind of career path? As if Cate Blanchett doesn’t have more talent in her pinkie than in Jessica’s whole “too beautiful” mess? As if the only thing coming between Jessica Biel being recognized as The Next Meryl Streep is a few casting directors who can’t see past Jessica’s “gorgeous” face? Give me a f-cking break.

Update by Celebitchy: Some people are understandably commenting that Jessica Biel did not bring up her ‘beauty’ in this article in the LA Times. The piece mentions that Biel did reference it again, without stating what she said specifically. They write “Biel hopes that the role of Sarah will confound an industry that often makes assumptions about the limits of beautiful women.” They then go on to quote her Allure article, and then Biel states that she wants to make sure she’s not pigeonholed “in a box ever where anybody feels I can only do one thing.” I think we can assume that she’s again talking about her beauty without making the outrageous comment that it gets in her way as she did in Allure.

Here’s Meryl Streep and Amy Adams at the Los Angeles Premiere of ‘Julie & Julia’ yesterday. Jessica is shown at Whole Foods on July 4th. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Last month we reported on the annual Forbes “Celebrity Power 100” list, which ranks celebrities by media hits, paychecks, awards, buzz, et cetera. Angelina Jolie topped the list (beating Oprah Winfrey) for the first time, and was crowned the number one Most Powerful Celebrity. Now it seems Forbes is releasing some of the data they used to make the list, and we’re finding out who the top Hollywood earners were amongst actresses. Here are the top five, with their yearly income (I think it goes from June 2008 to June 2009): Angelina Jolie ($27 million), Jennifer Aniston ($25 million), Meryl Streep ($24 million), Sarah Jessica Parker ($23 million), Cameron Diaz ($20 million).

Angelina Jolie is Hollywood’s top earning actress, banking $27 million in the past year to beat out her partner Brad Pitt’s ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, who raked in $25 million, a Forbes.com study showed on Wednesday.

Most of Jolie’s income came from her share of the profits from her action film “Wanted,” but she was also paid a large upfront sum for her role in “Salt,” the study said. Jolie and Pitt have six children.

Aniston, who was married to Pitt before he became involved with Jolie, earned most of her millions from the romantic comedy “Marley and Me” and her upcoming film “The Baster.”

“Aniston also still earns money from (reruns of TV series) Friends and she gets a nice paycheck shilling for Glaceau’s SmartWater,” Forbes.com said.

Meryl Streep came in at No. 3 with $24 million, most of which came from her role in “Mamma Mia,” while Sarah Jessica Parker was ranked fourth with $23 million in earnings following the movie version of TV series “Sex and the City.”

Cameron Diaz rounds out the top five, banking $20 million between June 2008 and June 2009.

Forbes.com said it spoke to agents, managers, producers and lawyers to work out what actresses were paid upfront for movies they are currently shooting and what pay they might have earned after a movie hit the theaters. Money earned from perfume or clothing lines was also taken into account.

“As is still typical for Hollywood, our actresses earned significantly less than their male counterparts,” Forbes.com said, pointing out that the top earning male actor, Harrison Ford, made $65 million.

[From Reuters]

I’m surprised by two things – first, Meryl Streep gets paid so well for being so friggin’ awesome. That alone proves there is some justice in the world. Secondly, I’m surprised that Cameron Diaz only ranks number five on the list. Diaz really is a movie star, and she’s the heir to Julia Roberts (at least in paychecks). Diaz consistently gets eight-figure paychecks, even when she’s just doing voice work for the Shrek films. It’s shocking to me that she wouldn’t be the top earner. Oh, well. Guess we just have to embrace the uncool Bermuda Triangle.

Meryl Streep is on her fifteenth Oscar nomination. She’s only won two Oscars out of fifteen possibilities, and she recently claimed that being invited to the party but not winning for 25 years sucked. So it comes as no surprise to me that Meryl is actively campaigning for an Oscar this year, for her lead role in Doubt.

She gave an interview to the UK’s Radio Times, and The Telegraph has the inside dish. Meryl talks about that most uncomfortable of subjects – aging in Hollywood. She also discusses Hollywood’s obsession with only making comedies that appeal to teenage boys or young, dating couples. That’s a subject Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman also discussed when they were promoting Last Chance Harvey.

[Meryl Streep] said she would encourage studios to make films for an older female audience. Women over 40 had been “disdained” by Hollywood boardrooms in the past, she said.

Streep, who will turn 60 in June, told the Radio Times that studios have been stuck in a rut of making movies to appeal to men and younger women who are dating.

“I think with the success of a few big pictures like Mamma Mia! addressing an audience that, never mind being neglected, have been disdained in the boardrooms, there will be other films that target that audience,” she said.

“Mamma Mia! is that rare thing you can enjoy with your mother or your child, and its aim is only to make you happy.”

The adaptation of the West End show based on Abba songs was last year’s biggest box office hit in the UK, pulling in more than £69 million.

Streep said her daughters had helped her to stop worrying about her appearance over the years.

“I wasted so many years thinking I wasn’t pretty enough and why didn’t I have Jessica Lange’s body or someone else’s legs? What a waste of time,” she said.

“Now I’m enjoying the tatters of what’s left and I’m very happy. Part of it is having beautiful strong daughters and hearing them whine about what’s wrong with them. I’m like, ‘Shut up! You’re lovely!’”

Actresses in earlier generations were written off as soon as they hit 40, Streep said.

“At 48 you were getting out the shovel ready to go in … I’m out there on behalf of all the old broads and I’m proud to be there,” she said.

From The Telegraph

On behalf of all of the young(er) broads out there, we salute you, Meryl! All of this has really got me wondering what Meryl’s chances are at the Oscar. Everyone from film critics to producers had all assumed that Kate Winslet was the one shoo-in on Oscar night. But Meryl won the SAG Award, one of the best barometers of Oscar wins. And Meryl’s out there actively campaigning. It makes me think that Meryl will be winning something, on behalf of all “the old broads”.

Meryl Streep is shown at the SAG Awards on 1/25/09. Credit: WENN

Have you heard the rumor that Meryl Streep is going to be stunt-cast on “30 Rock”? Lots of sources are saying it’s for sure, but all I can find out is that Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep were talking after their SAG wins on Sunday, and that Baldwin talked Meryl into promising she would guest-star. According to A Socialite’s Life, “Alec supposedly cornered Meryl after her Best Actress SAG award win and sweet-talked her into a role when she was high on life.” Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, but I hope it does. Meryl would be wonderful on “30 Rock” – I wish she would do more comedy, she has a gift for it.

But Meryl isn’t through with award season yet! She just won another Best Actress trophy, this time by AARP’s The Magazine. AARP also honored Frank Langella and Gus Van Sant.

The U.S. publication AARP The Magazine has declared “Frost/Nixon” 2008′s Best Movie for Grownups.

Based on the post-Watergate television interviews between British journalist David Frost and former U.S. president Richard Nixon, director Ron Howard’s screen adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play “Frost/Nixon” was selected by the editors of AARP The Magazine, a publication that describes itself as the “definitive voice” for Americans over the age of 50 and the “world’s largest-circulation magazine” with more than 34 million readers.

AARP also bestowed its award for Best Grownup Love Story on Last Chance Harvey while its prize for Best Buddy Picture went to “The Family That Preys” and its Best Movie for Grownups Who Refuse to Grow Up honor went to “Iron Man.”

Frank Langella won the Best Actor 50 and Over title for his portrayal of Nixon in “Frost/Nixon;” Meryl Streep was named Best Actress 50 and Over for her performance as Sister Aloysius Beauvier in “Doubt;” and Gus Van Sant was honored as Best Director 50 and Over for filming “Milk.”

“It is clear that Hollywood is paying attention not only to the tastes of moviegoers age 50 (and over), but also to the enormous talent of filmmakers age 50-plus,” Nancy Graham, editor of AARP The Magazine, said in a statement. “From drama and history, to musicals and biopics, actors over 50 took center stage on the silver screen last year and we’re proud to recognize them for their hard work and creative achievements.”

[From United Press International]

Instead of going to a negative place and making a couple of light-hearted old-people jokes (I’m not, I swear), I’ll just congratulate the winners. They were recognized by their peers for the second time this week. First, their acting peers at the SAGs, now their same-aged peers at AARP. What I’ve always found ironic about the AARP’s The Magazine (and yes, I have read it), is that it seems like a celebration of people doing everything but retiring. Perhaps an organizational name change is in order.

Here’s Meryl Streep at the SAG awards on Sunday. Images thanks to WENN.

Meryl Streep is a national treasure. She’s humble, she’s honest, she’s cool and she’s funny. With her Best Actress Oscar nomination for Doubt, Streep has become the most-nominated actor in history, her fifteen nominations beating out Katherine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson’s twelve nominations each. And all of those Oscar nominations don’t even take into account her myriad nominations and wins at the Golden Globes, SAGs, Emmys and critics’ awards.

The downside to being nominated so often means that Streep loses a lot. Streep sat down with ABC’s “Nightline” to talk honestly about how it feels to not only be the most nominated actor, but the biggest loser. To sum up, Streep says it sucks.

Nearly every actor who loses on Oscar night smiles it off by saying it’s an honor just to be nominated. But Meryl Streep, who has been nominated a record 15 times but won only twice, knows more about losing than most and has revealed just how bad it really feels.

“When you lose you think ‘my work wasn’t any good’,” Streep told the ABC news program “Nightline” in an interview airing on Monday night.

“But it’s an honor to be nominated, and it is! It is,” Streep said. “But you just feel worse when you lose than you did before you got nominated.”

Feel worse? Now that’s a dose of honesty.

With a best actress Oscar nomination for her role as a vindictive nun in “Doubt,” Streep brings her total Academy Award nomination count to 15 — that’s more than any other actor, with Jack Nicholson and the late Katharine Hepburn tied at 12 Oscar nods each.

The last time Streep, 59, won an Oscar was in 1983 for the Holocaust film “Sophie’s Choice.” Her other win was in 1980 for the divorce drama “Kramer vs. Kramer.” Since then, she’s been smiling bravely from her seat on Oscar night as other actresses step up to the podium.

Streep, a noted perfectionist and master of accents, is often called the greatest living actress. But when “Nightline” interviewer Cynthia McFadden asked Streep about that, the actress called such talk “meaningless.”

From Reuters

Some of my favorite Meryl Streep roles are the ones that she wasn’t even nominated for – I’m a huge fan of Postcards from the Edge and Heartburn, both of which she was playing characters loosely based on real people. In Postcards, the character was loosely based on Carrie Fisher; in Heartburn, one the few films she did with her friend Jack Nicholson, she was playing a character loosely based on Nora Ephron to Nicholson’s Carl Bernstein.

I saw Doubt a few weeks ago and I was, per usual, blown away with Streep. I’m also a huge Phillip Seymour Hoffman fan, but even I have to admit that Streep wiped the floor with him. In one highly charged scene, you can even see Streep’s eyes turn red with emotion. Even though I’m pretty sure that Kate Winslet’s got a lock on the Oscar this year, part of me hopes that Meryl finally gets another victory after all of these years.

Meryl Streep, screenwriter John Patrick Shanley and Amy Adams are shown at a photocall for Doubt in Paris on 1/19/09. Credit: WENN

Philip Seymour Hoffman was the cover boy for this weekend’s New York Times Magazine, and the article is delicious for a Hoffman-head such as myself. In the lengthy interview, Hoffman talks about his early career, his theatre work, his family and new movie Doubt (also starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams). While interviewed, Hoffman was directing a play in London called “Riflemind” written by Andrew Upton, Cate Blanchett’s husband. And it’s no coincidence.

[Hoffman] was sitting in the fifth row of the audience at Trafalgar Studios in the West End, where he was directing “Riflemind” (a play about an ’80s rock band that may or may not reunite after 20 years)…[he] took a gulp of coffee from a large cup that he was holding in a brown paper bag. He turned his attention to the stage, where two actors were rehearsing a sex scene. “Riflemind,” which unfolds over a weekend, is a self-conscious study in wounds: long-simmering battles are reignited and secrets are revealed. The play has a predictable middle-aged-angst narrative that is somewhat glamorized by its rock-star milieu: the drugs may be stronger, but the emotions are oddly detached.

Hoffman’s fascination with “Riflemind” — he directed it in Sydney, Australia, last year and, when we met, had been in London for several weeks preparing this production — can be explained by both his commitment to theater and by the fact that the play is written by Andrew Upton, the husband of Cate Blanchett. Hoffman met Upton and Blanchett when he appeared with her in “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” “On that movie, we shot only one or two days a week,” Hoffman recalled. “Much of the time, I was in Rome with Cate and Andrew. I have a hard time having fun, but that was heaven. And I must really like Andrew — my girlfriend, who is in New York, is about to have our third child, and I am here.” Hoffman paused. “I don’t get nervous when I’m directing a play. It’s not like acting. If this fails, I wouldn’t be as upset by it.”

[From The NY Times]

Why aren’t they in more films together? Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman should just make movies together, they’re both so lovely. The article goes in-depth with Hoffman’s theatre experiences, and he makes an interesting comment about his time playing Jamie Tyrone in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” on Broadway – Hoffman says “That nearly killed me.” Hoffman-head trivia: Jason Robards was the actor to originate the role of Jamie Tyrone on Broadway; Hoffman and Robards worked together on my favorite Hoffman film, Magnolia. It was Robards’ last film role.

The main part of the article is about Doubt, and it’s obvious from the interviews that Doubt author John Patrick Shanley and Meryl Streep love Hoffman.

Hoffman is not a carefree person; he resolutely refuses to live lightly. “Phil is hard to know,” John Patrick Shanley [Doubt’s author] said. “Phil and his longtime girlfriend, Mimi [O’Donnell], came to a party at my house, and he had on three coats and a hat. I said, ‘Take off one of your coats; it’s hot in here.’ His girlfriend said, ‘He’ll maybe take it off in a half-hour.’ It’s such an obvious metaphor, but Phil has a protective cocoon that he sheds very slowly. It takes him a while to make friends with his environment. And yet you know the men he plays the minute you meet them.”

Still, he knows he will not be remembered for his real-life persona but rather for the characters he has chosen to embody. In “Doubt,” for instance, which was originally a play, he is a Catholic priest who may or may not have been inappropriate with a young male student. He is suspected and accused by the principal of the parish school, a nun named Sister Aloysius, played by Meryl Streep. “If I asked 10 people on the subway who I should cast for the older nun, they’d all say Meryl,” Shanley told me. “But I didn’t know what Phil would do with the part of Father Flynn, and that intrigued me. I did know that he would make Meryl sweat, that she would be up against someone of equal intelligence. Meryl is a street fighter, and she schemes as an actress — she wants to win the scene. Phil won’t play that way. He won’t engage. Before their big confrontation scene, Meryl would be muttering ‘I’m going to kick his butt’ for the entire crew to hear. She’d look at him and say, ‘I know you did it.’ And Phil would just laugh and say, ‘Meryl’s always trying to get in my head.’ ”

[From The New York Times]

Doubt looks really good, and I’m sure it will rack up several Oscar nominations, most likely for Hoffman and Streep. Next up for Hoffman is another stage role – he’s going to be playing Iago to John Ortiz’s Othello. Hoffman has a really good line, one I wish more actors would say: “I’ve never been all that interested in playing Hamlet” Hoffman also has an interesting interpretation of the characters: “To my mind, Iago actually loves Othello. And it’s hard not to think of Obama when you read ‘Othello’ now.” Yikes. I hope other people won’t draw those parallels.

Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman are shown on 12/7/08 at the NY premiere of Doubt. Credit: WENN

According to the new Madonna biography, the legend that she turned up in New York with $35 and worked her way to pop heaven is not true, but it seems that Meryl Streep actually did live the tough life on the streets of London. Just think Oliver Twist with fabulous bone structure.

The Hollywood star came to the U.K. when she was a struggling actress in her twenties and earned her keep by busking for loose change.

Streep admits that some days she would not earn enough to pay for a hotel – and once had to spend the night in London’s Green Park.

She tells British magazine Closer, “On my very, very first trip to London, when I was 20, I went around busking to afford food and overnight accommodation. One night when I hadn’t earned enough, I actually slept in the open in Green Park, under a tree.

“The view was of the Ritz hotel and I vowed to myself that night that I was going to stay there one day – and I have!”

Contact Music

I spent far too many years working for a fast food chain across the street from a magnificent hotel. As I emptied the outdoor garbage cans I could hear the noises of parties from the rooftop swimming pool and when the balls were over, people would come to get burgers in their gowns. I always wanted to go to one of the balls, and the best part of eventually going was when I dropped into my place of work for post-party munchies, I got my meal for free. Which I then proceeded to spill down my dress. I think Meryl Streep has managed to transition from street kid to red carpet with a little bit more class.

I tried to find out what she did to busk, unless she did monologues from theatre she learnt at drama school or sang (she’s a professionally trained opera singer) she probably didn’t play an instrument. She didn’t learn to play the violin until 1999.

Meryl is promoting her new film Mamma Mia, a film version of the musical about the Swedish supergroup Abba also starring Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth.

Meryl Streep is shown at the NY premiere of Mama Mia on 7/16/08 with Amanda Seyfreid. Credit: Joseph Marzullo / WENN.