Episode 6 of "Only Murders in the Building"--season 5

Meryl returned to the small screen tonight for episode 6 of the latest season of Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. This is her character Loretta's first appearance in the season. Loretta's apartment in Los Angeles burns down and she shows on her husband's (Oliver) door in New York. The episode goes on to see Loretta and Oliver teaming up to track down the characters Lorraine and Sofia (played by Dianne Wiest and Téa Leoni, respectively), whom they suspect are murderers. 

OK that's a super simple summary of Loretta's involvement in the episode and I don't feel like getting further into it because the show is getting so tedious for me to want to bother. I think it would be good if they wrapped up the series after this season. All that said, it was great to see Meryl in something new. She and Martin Short have a nice chemistry, not surprising as they seem to be a couple off-screen as well. Meryl does a Cajun accent in the episode, which Loretta calls a "chunky Cajun drawl" that one of her characters in SVU has. I don't know the accent well enough to know whether or not Meryl nailed it, struggled with it, or purposely didn't do it well because "Loretta" the character wouldn't be able to do it well. It was also nice to see her working opposite Dianne Wiest again (2020's Let Them All Talk), particularly as they discuss opera singer Maria Callas and her final performance of Tosca at the Met. Meryl of course considers Callas the "greatest artist of the 20th century." 

Overall it was a cute episode, and I imagine it'll be the one that Martin Short submits for Emmy consideration next year, being it covers the arc of his character having to recall memories and experiences of a tough childhood in a series of foster homes. 

Streep and Weaver rumored for "The Useful Idiots"

Let's take this with a rather large grain of salt again considering the source, but World of Reel is reporting today that Meryl and Sigourney Weaver are circling a project at Amazon entitled Useful Idiots. Thelma & Louise writer Callie Khouri wrote the screenplay and it apparently already has a director attached, Joseph Cedar. Cedar is known for his films Footmate and Norman, among others. 

I did a little sleuthing and there are reports as far back as 2020 of Khouri having written The Useful Idiots (the "The" is in most of the articles I've seen other the the World of Reel one) as a series. The World of Reel article seemed to intimate that this would be a feature film, but who knows. 

While Jordan Ruimy doesn't have the greatest of reputations among discerning readers whom I've followed, the fact that this is/was a legit project form Khouri and has a director already named/attached, along with a specific co-star, makes me feel that it wasn't conjured from thin air. Ruimy suggests that filming is set to start in January. If that were to happen, it doesn't seem like The Corrections would get underway before that time. Speaking of the latter project, I really want it to happen. It would be so dumb for it to essentially go through development hell three times only to never see the light of day as a screen production. But they may be taking a while to complete the script. 

As far as The Useful Idiots, there is no mention in any source I can find of what it might be about. A "useful idiot" is, by definition "a pejorative description of a person, suggesting that the person thinks they are fighting for a cause without fully comprehending the consequences of their actions, and who does not realize they are being manipulated by the cause's leaders or by other political players." Seems likely to have a political bent to it, which is not surprising considering the times we live in and, of course, Meryl's interests. 

After a year and a half of hand-wringing, if every rumored or announced project comes to fruition in the next couple of years, we could have:

The Devil Wears Prada 2

The Useful Idiots

Narnia (voice)

Joni Mitchell biopic

The Corrections

Mamma Mia! 3

Glad to see she's back!

"Big Little Lies" season 3 might actually happen after all

Multiple sources are reporting today that Francesca Sloane (co-creator and showrunner of Mr. & Mrs. Smith) has been hired by HBO to pen the first episode of season 3 of Big Little Lies. Author Liane Moriarty's much anticipated follow-up to the original novel is apparently set for release in 2026. Which I'm guessing means that shooting for season 3 would not begin until the earlies the second half of next year. That book involves a time jump, per Moriarty, where the kids are all teenagers. This would fit nicely for the current ages of all the actors, as season 2 was already way back in 2019. 

We don't know what this means for Meryl. Knowing that Moriarty specifically wrote a character for Meryl for the second season, I would not be surprised if she somehow included "Mary Louise" in the new book. At the same time, I think it would totally make sense if they moved on from that storyline, and I personally would not mind if Meryl moved on to other, original projects (same with Only Murders in the Building). 

More to come, I'm sure. 

Francesca Sloane

Anya Taylor-Joy asked about Joni Mitchell biopic

When news came out a few weeks ago that Anya Taylor-Joy was attached to star in the rumored Cameron Crowe biopic on Joni Mitchell, I deliberately didn't post about it because all the sites reporting about it seemed to simply be echoing it from one source. Not that I've shied away from posting rumors on this blog over the years, but I've learned that "scoops" from The InSneider should be taken with a healthy portion of salt. 

That said, Anya Taylor-Joy is at the Toronto International Film Festival for the premier of her film Sacrifice. She was interviewed on the red carpet by ET and at the end asked about her involvement with the project. Starts at 1:04. 

It's what Taylor-Joy did not say that makes me lean toward her likely involvement. I was reminded immediately of the way Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci reacted when they've been asked about the Devil Wears Prada sequel in the year or so prior to when shooting started. They give this sort of wide-eyed "I'm not allowed to say anything to confirm or deny this" look. If she were not involved at all, she'd just say "No" or "I don't know anything about that," while likely praising Mitchell and/or Streep. It doesn't guarantee that it's going to happen, or that Meryl will even be involved, but this reaction from Taylor-Joy speaks volumes to me about whether or not this is a real thing. Which seems more and more likely to me that it is. The news of Streep and Taylor-Joy is even on Joni Mitchell's official website. 

Keeping a close eye on this of course.