Mr. Hanks Goes To Washington: Tom, Meryl & Spielberg Research ‘Post’ Film

Today Hollywood was observing the reporters for a change: Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg were among a West Coast contingent visiting the Washington Post‘s headquarters as research for the gang’s upcoming Pentagon Papers movie The Post.

“Okay, everyone, be cool,” wrote Post reporter Emily Heil in her account of the visit today.

Though Heil says Post brass asked staffers to resist the selfie urge, reporter David Nakamura and video deputy director Phoebe Connelly managed to tweet a couple pics of the visitors attending a news meeting in the Ben Bradlee Conference Room. (See both tweets below).

Also on hand were producer Amy Pascal, DreamWorks’ Kristie Macosko Krieger and screenwriter Josh Singer.

The Post – the movie – will star Hanks as Bradlee, the legendary editor (played by Jason Robards, of course, in All the President’s Men), with Streep as publisher Katharine Graham. Spielberg directs the film, which focuses on the newspaper’s battle in 1971 to publish the Pentagon Papers.

According to Heil, today’s itinerary included a morning tour, a meet-and-greet with publisher Fred Ryan, and the regular morning news meeting.

“Spotted through the conference room’s glass walls, Spielberg (wearing white Adidas, a baseball cap, tie and blazer), Hanks (gray denim jacket, no tie), and Streep (navy blouse and slacks) looked more engrossed and attentive than your average attendee,” Heil writes. “And Hanks himself wasn’t under a camera-phone ban, and after the meeting, took a selfie and then snapped a photo of the placard identifying the man the room was named after: his character, Bradlee, who guided The Post through the Watergate and Pentagon Papers stories.”

Heil says the group later met with Post veterans who’d been around during the Pentagon Papers.

Here are the tweets, with Hanks in the first, and Streep and Spielberg in the second: