When Meryl Met Anna... and Other Stories

Salon Sandra Bullock to play Texas senator Wendy Davis, who famously filibustered an anti-abortion bill for 12 hours. Oscar #2?
Variety interviews actor/playwright Tracy Letts who is really having a good year you must admit. Lady Bird is a hit in theaters and his new play just opened in Chicago
Hollywood Reporter has a good interview with Steven Soderbergh
Instagram Lupita Nyong'o loves her natural hair and is upset with a magazine for airbrushing it away
Variety Replacing Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World is going to cost at least 2.5 million
MNPP Do Dump or Marry: Thor Ragnarok edition

Stage
Deadline this is a surprise the Tony Awards have declared the recent production of "1984" ineligible for prizes. They have not stated why exactly.
Playbill reviews are in for Broadway's new musical The Band's Visit, based on the Ronit Elkabetz film of the same name if you remember that one
Theater Mania photos of Kelli O'Hara and Patrick Wilson rehearsing for Brigadoon. Hope it's swoon-worthy
Playbill Jake Shears (of Scissor Sisters fame) joining Kinky Boots on Broadway next year. Damn, I guess I'll have to see it a third time

Harassment Epidemic Updates
AV Club on Hollywood's long overdue moral reckoning
New Yorker Emily Nussbaum has a terrific piece on Louis CK's comedy through the lens of recent allegations
New York Times Louis CK has confessed to the claims against him "These stories are true"
Medium Actor Anthony Edwards has come forward to say he was molested by a producer when he was underage
Guardian Ellen Page has detailed homophobic remarks director Brett Rattner made to her during the production of X-Men: Last Stand
Washington Post showing their utter depravity GOP officials are now citing the bible to justify Roy Moore's sexual assault on an underage girl. And just think, last month they were slamming Hollywood for its depravity with Harvey Weinstein.

Oscar Campaigns Heat Up
Awards Daily Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) to receive Rising Star award at Palm Springs
Variety Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) to receive Vanguard award at Santa Barbara

And cheeky Meryl Streep met with Anna Wintour (who she sent up in her Oscar worthy work in Devil Wears Prada) to promote her new star vehicle The Post

Oscar Chart Updates: Actor & Supp Actor

All sorts of things could yet throw the Best Supporting and Best Lead Actor races into confusion. In a  somewhat uncommon development the former is much more crowded than the latter. The shallow pool of viable Lead Actors is very good news for candidates like Timothée Chalamet (someone Oscar might normally resist due to his age) and Jake Gyllenhaal (someone Oscar has resisted for reasons inexplicable to us).

What do you make of the Supporting Actor race in particular? They way it looks now it could be made up almost entirely of character actors with worthy careers who have never won an Oscar and that's a very exciting thing. More exciting if you happen to be a fan of either Michael Stuhlbarg, Sam Rockwell, Richard Jenkins, or Willem Dafoe. I doubt that all four of them will make it all the way to the shortlist but the buzz is currently in their favor.

UPDATED CHARTS
Picture | Director | Lead Actress | Lead Actor | Supporting Actress | Supporting Actor | Animated Feature | Original and Adapted Screenplays

TIFF: Sean Baker's Wondrous "The Florida Project"

by Chris Feil

With Sean Baker’s compassionate ingenuity, The Florida Project is a heartbreaking (and heart-renewing) fable of American poverty seen through the resilient eyes of children. Set in a slum motel just a stone’s through away from Disney World, the film follows a boisterous toddler names Moonee and her mother Halley as they struggle to get by. But like Baker’s other tales of people on the fringes, Project lives more in their joy than their pain.

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"The Florida Project" Drops a Gorgeous Trailer

Chris here. We were already on board for whatever director Sean Baker would be giving us post-Tangerine, but after his follow-up The Florida Project received some of the best reviews out of this year's Cannes Film Festival, it quickly became one of our most anticipated of the fall season. The first reactions primed us for something equally heartwarming and breaking, with some stunning 35MM lensing that is just as inventive as Baker's iPhone innovation on Tangerine - and the new first trailer promises just that.

What I already sense from this candy-coated jungle that we weren't expecting is that it might be just as instantly quotable as anything we got from Sin-Dee and Alexandra ("YOU'RE NOT WELCOME!" - I mean, come on, little Brooklynn Prince is already giving such gold here). The trailer certainly sells the lighter side of this look at poverty just outside of the excess of Disney World, so we'll see just how optimistic the film turns out to be. A24 is planning a big Oscar push for the film and if the film remains a tiny tough sell for that crowd, this trailer does lay a lot of ground work for a major play for Willem Dafoe. Could he be this year's "career recognition in a sentimental role" supporting nominee? Or if it is a major player, will they pass out soft serve ice cream for some cute bit during the ceremony?

We're keeping our fingers crossed that The Florida Project is added to the TIFF lineup, but the film will play NYFF before opening on October 6.

Noomi Rapace x7

Chris here. Have you been wondering where Noomi Rapace has been hiding? Well, she's been busy getting cloned for her upcoming Netflix film Seven Sisters. (Just kidding, obviously, but just imagine the gifts we could receive if we started cloning actress!)

Rapace stars as septuplets in a world where siblings are outlawed. Raised by father figure Willem Dafoe, each woman is named for the day of the week that they get to go out into the real world, all assuming the identity of one Karen Settman. As if this doesn't sound looney tunes enough, Glenn Close shows up as the bureaucratic villain for maximum camp nefariousness. When Monday doesn't return home, it's up to the rest of the week sisters to find out what happened to her. And you thought your Mondays were the worst!

Seven Sisters will arrive on stateside Netflix sometime at the end of the year (though it opens elsewhere this summer), and I'm already a little giddy for its sci-fi silliness and what looks like Rapace having a good time. In your sci-fi dystopia, what one day of the week would you choose to leave the house?