"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

Fourteen years of Word on the Streep (and trailer for fifth season of "Only Murders in the Building")!

Today marks fourteen years that I've been writing this blog. I enjoy commemorating the date each year and sharing how happy and grateful I am for each reader's participation. The site continues to be a wonderful outlet for all the Meryl stuff that goes through my brain. And it's been so nice that we actually have some projects to talk about again! So, I thank you. 

In other news, Hulu has released the trailer for the upcoming fifth season of Only Murders in the Building. Meryl is barely in it, which strongly suggests that her role is not particularly substantial again this season. Fine by me. In fact, I kind of hope this is the last season so I don't feel like I have to keep watching (which I would likely no longer be doing if Meryl weren't in it). It's fine, it's cozy. I just don't find it all that funny. The new season premieres September 9. 

First look at Meryl on set of "The Devil Wears Prada 2" and Hulu announces release date for season 5 of "Only Murders in the Building"

All of a sudden there's news of Meryl all the time! Firstly, the internet is abuzz at the first glimpse of Miranda Priestly's return:

She looks so good! One of the big questions was whether or not she would keep her iconic hairstyle. Considering the character is based on Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who never changed her bob, the conventional take was that Miranda wouldn't really change her hair. That appears to be the case. It also seems like it may not be a wig this time around? 

In other news, Hulu has announced that they'll release the first three episode of the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building on September 9. We know that Meryl is set to return for a supporting role. Not sure exactly how many episodes we'll see her in, but it seems like she may be less of a cameo in this season that she was in the last. 

Happy 76th, Meryl!

Our girl turns 76 today. I feel more optimistic about how much we're going to see her on screen in the near future than I was last year at this time. I don't think anyone would fault her (or anyone) for deciding to hang things up. But I think acting is different than digging ditches or treating patients in a clinic. It's a different kind of work that, particularly for Meryl, is perhaps more necessary for personal wellness and gratification than it is for some sense of being useful. And we all benefit from it.

The Devil Wears Prada sequel is set to start filming next month, the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building is likely going to be released at the end of the summer, she's voicing Narnia soon, and there's still the possibility that the limited series version of The Corrections will get underway later this year. This last one is the project I'd most want her to complete. The point is that she's still kickin' when it comes to acting on screen, and that's all I care about. 

Not that I wouldn't mind having another new and exciting project announced in the next few months. As long as the get made! Positive reception and/or solid box office for her upcoming projects can only help in making things actually happen. I'm looking forward to the next year. 

Streep returns for season 5 of "Only Murders in the Building"

While I wasn't expecting that Meryl would not be part of the upcoming fifth season of Only Murders in the Building, we hadn't really had any confirmation of her participation until today. She was spotted with her on-screen husband/real-life boyfriend Martin Short on the sidewalk while filming a scene for the show. 

It's not news to anyone who reads this blog that I'm kind of ambivalent about Meryl's ongoing participation in this show. Yes, it's great if she's happy and having a good time blah blah blah. I'm just happy she's working, which shows she hasn't planned to simply fade away. 

For additional photos, click here. If previous seasons are any indication, we can expect new episodes sometime late summer.  
 

Cast of "Only Murders in the Building" nominated for SAG award

The Screen Actors Guild nominations were revealed this morning (sans an in-person announcement due to the raging L.A. wildfires), and the cast of Only Murders in the Building has been nominated for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Meryl, while not a huge part of the latest season, nonetheless is part of the ensemble and therefore nominated. Martin Short was the sole other nominee from the show, snagging a nom for Male Actor in a Comedy Series. 

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention after posting that, similar to receiving individual recognition for many awards, there are requirements for having been in a certain number of episodes to be considered as part of the ensemble. In this case, Meryl is not part of the ensemble and therefore not officially nominated. My apologies for the lazy posting. I should've known better. 

I wonder if Meryl will attend the ceremony along with the rest of the cast. My gut tells me she probably will not (especially if by chance the rumors are true and the filming of Devil Wears Prada 2 starts in February). But mostly it seems that since she's just not in a major role this season she's more likely to bow out of the ceremony. At last year's event, she, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt re-teamed to award Lead Actor in a Comedy series. I still don't know if her tripping at the beginning was a bit. Regardless, enjoy the video and congrats to the cast!

Episode 10 of "Only Murders in the Building"--season 4

That's a wrap on season 4 of Only Murders in the Building. Meryl had screen time for the third time during the season, as she (Loretta) and Oliver got hitched. But not before she's heading off to New Zealand for continuation of her TV show's filming. The show has already been renewed for season 5. 

There was an article yesterday from show runner and co-creator John Hoffman, in which he was asked whether having Loretta head off to New Zealand was a deliberate way to buy themselves times to accommodate Meryl's schedule for season 5. His reply:

It’s partly pragmatic in that way, sure. But really it’s about what the trio has built together, and what Oliver and Loretta have built together. That is a little wink to Hollywood at the moment when she’s saying how, suddenly, the budget [on her show] is requiring [they shoot in] New Zealand. That was one part of it. But then it feels to me like a beautifully adult decision that she comes to, saying, “We don’t have to do this in any way traditionally… we never have… we shouldn’t.” There was a slightly longer speech there talking about “we can long for other, and pine for each other, and then when we’re together, it’s that much more magical. That’s all I want is to keep that.” So, we’ll see how it goes. Nothing would make me happier than more Meryl Streep in the show.

What this means to me, is that they want the option to have Meryl in the next season, and if she's willing, it'll likely be brief and sporadic (kind of like this past season). Especially with Meryl (hopefully) having a couple projects due for filming next year (The Devil Wears Prada 2 in the first half of the year and possibly The Corrections in the second half of the year). I don't imagine there's any plan to have Meryl be some major character moving forward. I'd personally be fine if the show wrapped up after the next season. Five seems solid. I'm happy to have seen Meryl do something in the past two years, but it seems more likely that she's moving on to some projects that will require a greater amount of her professional time. Doesn't mean she can't swing by and spend a few days on the Only Murders set if they have scenes they feel they want or need Loretta in. 

Bring on the new projects!

Episode 7 of "Only Murders in the Building"--season 4

Meryl was back in action last night in episode seven of the fourth season of Only Murders in the Building. Her character, Loretta, has been absent since episode one. She shows up in New York after Oliver (Martin Short) had broken up with her via text, only for them both to realize that Loretta's sort of brushing off of Oliver's marriage proposal was all a misunderstanding. 

The more interesting part of the episode comes of course when Loretta gets into a physical altercation with Melissa McCarthy's character. McCarthy plays Charles's (Steve Martin) younger sister. She fancies Oliver and starts to get territorial with Loretta in her house. 

From what I understand, the two did the whole thing without any stunt doubles. Not too shabby, particularly for Meryl, as she was or was just about to turn 75 at the time of filming this scene. I've said it before and I'll say it again, with how good her posture and mobility is, she's capable of believably portraying people much younger than her chronological age, which bodes well for hopefully many more years of great performances in quality projects. 

I'm guessing that we'll see Loretta in one or two of the remaining three episodes of the season. Since the show was renewed for a fifth, and Loretta and Oliver are now engaged, I wouldn't be surprised to see Meryl at least have a cameo in the next season. But gladly, she'll also be busy with other things soon as well. Is there a possibility for guest Emmy nominations for this season?

Predicting the Emmys

The Primetime Emmys are tomorrow night, and Meryl is of course nominated for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for work in season 3 of Only Murders in the Building. I saw a pic of Meryl's face in a seating chart for the show, so it appears that she'll be attending! I wonder if we'll see her hand-in-hand with co-star Martin Short. 

I had the chance to watch the Robin Roberts Emmy special on ABC and it was interesting to hear Meryl talk about the sort of genesis of her joining the show. She basically shared that she was getting sort of down due to world events and needed to experience something happy. It makes me wonder if it's possible that she held back on participating in other projects that may have been 'heavier' because she just wasn't in a good frame of mind. Places, Please (or The Great Lillian Hall as it came to be) was not exactly a ball of laughs, for example. I know I've been clear about how ambivalent I am about Meryl possibly being sequels for The Devil Wears Prada and Mamma Mia!. But if it provides her a sort of reset to be able to possibly dig into things a bit more meaty, then I'm all for it. 

To the Emmys. Meryl has a decent shot to take this. But the odds are on Hannah Einbinder for Hacks. I wouldn't be bummed at all if she took the trophy, because I'm a huge fan of that show. Only thing that bugs me is that she's totally not supporting. She and Jean Smart are absolutely co-leads. But that's how things go these days when there are two people of the same gender too close to cancelling each other out in the same category. 

Other categories I'm interested in seeing are for Limited Series (Baby Reindeer is the front-runner and I really enjoyed the show), and how The Bear does. I love that show, but it's complete category fraud, in my opinion that it's in comedy. Shogun is going to win in a lot of top categories from drama. I'm also kind of pulling for Juno Temple in Fargo and Andrew Scott in Ripley. 

The show airs at 7 p.m. central time on ABC Sunday night. I'll leave y'all with this little nugget of Carol Burnett getting a little message from Meryl. 

Episode 1 of "Only Murders in the Building"--season 4

She's back! The first episode of the fourth season of Only Murders in the Building premiered on Hulu last night, and we got to see a bit of Meryl. My expectation is that she's not going to feature very prominently this season, but it's nice that we got to see her at all. 

In her scene with Martin Short (could there be more rumors about them as a real-life couple, btw?), I couldn't help but notice how great she looked (sort of West Coast-ified). Her character, Loretta, has moved to Los Angeles to do a silly TV show, and the gang is out there to be pitched the idea of their podcast being turned into a major motion picture. The scene between Streep and Short is cute, but I get the sense that there may not really be much more of a character arc that they're going to explore with Loretta, not that she's finally got her big break. Molly Shannon's character happened to stand out to me as particularly funny and well-played. 

Regardless, like I said, I wasn't expecting Meryl to be in this season a lot. But who knows? I'm still looking forward to more info on developments for the Devil Wears Prada sequel. The farther out we go from the news of the potential Joni Mitchell biopic, the more it seems like it may be mostly made up, or at least extremely obliquely a possibility. I certainly wouldn't mind news of something more concrete for her to do in the likely year she has before Prada films (assuming it does indeed get off the ground). And then there's always the Emmys, which are coming up on September 15. Meryl is of course nominated for her supporting performance in season 3 of Only Murders.

Until then, I'll enjoy the bits we get of her in this latest season. I'll leave you with a snippet where she talks about the appeal of her participation in the show, and of portraying this character.

Full trailer for season 4 of "Only Murders in the Building"

 Hulu has unveiled a full trailer for the upcoming fourth season of Only Murders in the Building.

I had sort of forgotten that several of the new faces (Eva Longoria, Eugene Levy) are actually playing themselves, as they will portray members of the show in a film version of the main characters' podcast. As we know, there are many new cast members in this season. The trailer was fine, nothing particularly funny that I found, mostly pretty low-brow humor. But it's cute and fun and "feel-good." 

Meryl is in about four seconds of the trailer, so I don't expect to see her much this season. But I'll still watch. 

The new season debuts on August 27!

Streep earns Emmy nomination and is rumored for Joni Mitchell biopic?

This morning, Meryl was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her supporting work in Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. Many awards pundits have predicted her name for months, so while the nomination is of course delightful to hear, it was far from unexpected. This is Meryls sixth Emmy nomination (fifth for acting), and her first for a comedy. Were she to win, it would be her fourth trophy. Streep's fellow nominees in the Actress in a Supporting Role in a Comedy:

Carol Burnett (Palm Royale)  

Liza Colón-Zayas (The Bear) 

Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) 

Janelle James (Abbott Elementary) 

Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary)

It's kind of exciting to see Meryl nominated alongside Carol Burnett, who recently commented on her interested in some day collaborating with Meryl on something. My money is on Einbinder to win this. 

Only Murders sort of cleaned up at the nominations. Along with Streep's nomination, there were six other acting nominations for the series:

Steven Martin and Martin Short (Lead Actor)

Selena Gomez (Lead Actress)

Paul Rudd (Supporting Actor)

Matthew Broderick (Guest Actor)

Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Guest Actress)

In other, perhaps more interesting news, there is a rumor that Meryl is "being eyed" to portray Joni Mitchell in an upcoming biopic, directed by Cameron Crowe. I believe Jeff Sneider was the first to report last year on Crowe's involvement in developing a script for the film. The news of Meryl's possible participation came out last night and was reposted by World of Reel this morning. World of Reel was the site that suggested Meryl was possibly going to star in The Thursday Murders Club alongside Viola Davis and directed by Steven Spielberg. That quickly revealed itself to not be the case. It's not impossible that if Spielberg had indeed directed it that Streep and Davis were circling that project, but it makes me take this Mitchell news with a major grain of salt. I was just thinking a couple day ago how nice it would be if we had news of Meryl doing something this fall to be released next year, considering the Devil Wears Prada sequel doesn't seem likely to film until next year at the earliest. The rumored Mitchell biopic is apparently slated for filming later this summer and fall. Stay tuned on this one. 

Regardless of whether or not this turns out to be true, it's fun to imagine Streep being involved in a pic about her friend Joni. Crowe's an accomplished director to boot (Almost Famous), despite having a fairly quiet career in recent years. 

Season 4 of "Only Murders in the Building" set for August 27 premiere

Deadline is reporting that season 4 of Only Murders in the Building will premiere on Hulu on August 27. A trailer was released last night with the news. 

The gang heads to Los Angeles after an offer comes in to make a movie out of their podcast. The latest season's cast is by far the most star-studded, with Melissa McCarthy being revealed as the latest addition. There was a tiny snippet of Meryl's character Loretta dressed in a fancy black gown, suggesting that she has hit the big time in the city of Angels. 

I maintain that Meryl's role seems smaller than in season 3. I wouldn't be devastated if that were the case. Following her seemingly very well-received appearance in Cannes, it sort of feels like momentum may be building for us to hear an announcement soon of a new and exciting project. A boy can dream. 

Additions to "Only Murders in the Building" cast

Aside from Meryl presenting Cher with an iHeartRadio Icon Award earlier this week, it's been pretty quiet in Streep world when it comes to actual acting work. Filming for the fourth season of Only Murders in the Building is underway. There has been some buzz about exactly how many episodes Meryl will be in. IMDbPro has her listed as only in episode one as of now, but there are several of the ten episodes where only the three main cast members (Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short) are listed as starring. Certainly there will be other cast members in those episodes, so it's possible that Meryl is in more. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if her role were considerably smaller than in season 3.  

I'm going to go into too much detail on the new cast members being added because I've never heard of any of them. Desmin Borges, Siena Werber, and Lilian Rebelo. Please refer to this link to read more about their backgrounds. 

No word on when the first episode of the new season is set to premiere. Looking like fourth quarter 2024. 

Borges, Werber, Rebelo

Zach Galifianakis joins cast of "Only Murders in the Building"

The cast just keeps growing! Multiple sources are reporting that Zach Galifianakis has joined season 4 of Only Murders in the Building, joining other new additions Kumail Nanjiani, Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria and Molly Shannon. 

No word on the specifics of Galifianakis's role (as has been the case with all other casting updates). Filming is currently underway. I expect we're likely to get a premiere on Hulu sometime late summer, similar to last season.  

Kumail Nanjiani joins cast of "Only Murders in the Building"

As the season's filming gets underway, Kumail Nanjiani is the latest addition to the cast of Only Murders in the Building. Like other casting announcements, little to nothing is being revealed in regard to specific character details. 

Nanjiani was recently seen on Hulu in the limited series Welcome to Chippendales, for which he received an Emmy nomination. 

Eugene Levy joins cast of "Only Murders in the Building"

Multiple sources are reporting that Eugene Levy (Schitt's Creek) has joined the cast for season 4 of Only Murders in the Building. Levy joins recent cast additions of Eva Longoria and Molly Shannon, all of them new for this latest season. 

With the number of new cast members, I'm starting to wonder just how big Meryl's role is going to be. I realize that in the last season, in addition to Meryl, there was Paul Rudd, Jesse Williams and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, so maybe all of the members of season 4 will have similarly-sized roles. I still have a feeling that Meryl's part will be smaller that last season, but we'll of course have to wait and see. 

Still no word on when filming will get underway. Levy's role details remain few, as do specifics on the plot for this season. 

Eva Longoria joins cast of "Only Murders in the Building"

Following the news that Meryl is set to return for season 4 of Only Murders in the Building, multiple sources are reporting today that Eva Longoria has also joined the cast. Per the report, Longoria will "appear as a recurring character who becomes integral to the twists and turns of the season’s investigation." No further info on her character was given. 

Molly Shannon was announced as joining the cast earlier this month as well. No word yet on when official filming begins for the new season, but I'm guessing it's soon. 

Streep officially returning for season 4 of "Only Murders in the Building"

Well, we were kind of already expecting this news after the announcement a couple of days ago that Only Murders in the Building was headed to Los Angeles for season four. Multiple sources are reporting today that Meryl will be officially returning for a second season. 20th Television president Karey Burke confirmed the rumor in an interview saying, "Meryl will be returning for a second season because she had a tremendous time." Molly Shannon (love her) was announced yesterday as joining the cast as well, whose character is a high-powered businesswoman. 

No word on exactly how big Meryl's role will be in this season. My guess is that filming is starting very soon (if it hasn't already). Hopefully this leaves the rest of the year available for her to film something new and fabulous! Maybe with how "fun" this project has been for her she'll be a bit more apt to get involved with something a bit heavier and dramatic. Fingers perpetually crossed these days.

Season 4 of "Only Murders in the Building" moving to Los Angeles

Several sources are reporting today that the fourth season of Hulu's Only Murders in the Building is moving to Los Angeles. The first three seasons of course took place in New York City. 

In the Collider article I read, Disney Television Group President, Craig Erwich, teased a possible return of Meryl's character, Loretta Durkin. At the end of the season 3, Loretta was getting offers for acting work in Los Angeles. The latest season's move to California seems to suggest a natural setup for seeing Meryl at least in an episode or two, even if she's not as heavily featured as she was in season 3. I suspect filming will be underway soon, with a late-summer/early-fall release. 

While I want to see a lot of Meryl, I want new stuff! I want a lead role in a feature film or a limited series and will settle for nothing less. Fingers crossed we get some more definitive news either way soon.