Emmy Review: Supporting Actress, Limited Series / Movie

By Juan Carlos Ojano

Leading up to the nominations, much of the discussion surrounding this category is about how many and who among the Mrs. America stars would get in. It says a lot when Emmy favorite Sarah Paulson and previous nominees Elizabeth Banks and Rose Byrne could not even score a nomination, despite prominent roles in the show. Outside of that limited series Patti LuPone, Rosie O’Donnell, Cherry Jones, and Winona Ryder were just some of the names floated leading up to the nominations announcement that didn't . Without any further ado, let’s review the performances that were nominated... 

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Podcast Recap 'Mrs. America,' episodes 4 and 5

by Murtada Elfadl

Over at Sundays With Cate, we continue recaping and reviewing Mrs. America starring Cate Blanchett. This week we tackle episodes 4 and 5 dealing with Betty Freidan (Tracey Ullman) and Brenda Feigen Fasteau (Ari Graynor) debating Phyllis Schlafly (Blanchett). My guest is staff writer at Backstage, Casey Mink.

What did you think of the latest episodes of Mrs. America?

Podcast Recap "Mrs. America"

by Murtada Elfadl

Over at Sundays With Cate I’m recapping the first three episodes of Mrs. America which are currently available on Hulu. We dig into Blanchett’s performance and the all star cast. The show is structured so that each episode highlights one of the figures in the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The first episode is about right wing polarizing organizer Phyllis Schlafly (Blanchett) and how she came to oppose the ERA. The second highlights Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne) at the time she launched Ms. Magazine and the third takes place at the 1972 Democratic National Convention when Shirley Chisholm (Uzo Aduba) became the first African American woman to run for president. My guest on this episode is writer and filmmaker Tayler Montague. Have a listen!

Are you watching Mrs. America?

Months of Meryl: Plenty (1985)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

Charles Dance and Meryl Streep in "Plenty"

#11 — Susan Traherne, resistance fighter turned diplomat’s wife with a gnawing sense of unease about the life she must lead.

MATTHEW:  “I just wish she were more ordinary,” a persnickety commercial director grumbles about an offscreen model hired to play the mother in a promo for dog food. “Will the audience identify?” he frets. We’re in England in the postwar 1940s and Susan Traherne, a former agent in the French resistance, is rolling her eyes through a mind-numbing advertising job that she will promptly vacate. The scene is quick but Susan walks out just in time for the director’s comments to resonate as a sly statement on the woman herself, the reliably erratic anti-heroine played by Meryl Streep in Fred Schepisi’s tepid cinematic adaptation of David Hare’s Plenty. Will an audience identify with a figure so brazenly, even coldly unconventional? And does such identification even really matter...?

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Beauty Break: Streep Sets

on Kramer vs Kramer with Dustin Hoffman

Since it's Meryl Streep's 68th birthday today, let's gawk at some behind the scenes photos. It's a good way to pay tribute since the Grand Dame of American Cinema has been working pretty much non-stop (except during the 90s when she spent a lot of time with her little children) since the world first fell for her.

Lots more after the jump including Death Becomes Her, Plenty, It's Complicated, Out of Africa, and more...

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