Meryl Streep, Rachel Weisz, and 272 Whales: This Week’s NYC Celeb News Map

Memorial Day has officially ushered in the dawn of summer, and with it, the constitutional right to wear white pants. This week, we took a metaphorical beach trip to Monterey, California, for the premiere of Big Little Lies season two. (Though in true New Yorker fashion, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz, and the rest of the cast wore almost entirely black.) Meanwhile, some other leading ladies were seen around the city, though none were reportedly having quite as good of a time as the 272 whales who flooded our urban shores. Here, we’ve tracked the best of the best star sightings, outfits, and other famous-ish things, making news across New York City’s five boroughs during the week of May 26.

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MERYL STREEP, LAURA DERN, SHAILENE WOODLEY, NICOLE KIDMAN, ZOË KRAVITZ, REESE WITHERSPOON, ABBI JACOBSON, ILANA GLAZER, LIZZO, and MORE at JAZZ at LINCOLN CENTER and THE WING, SOHO, MANHATTAN

The ladies of Monterey are back, and it seems no one is not here for it. Meryl Streep, who will appear in the upcoming season two of HBO’s Big Little Lies, joined Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and the rest of the stellar cast for the premiere and after-party Wednesday night, where she also reportedly sipped martinis, fielded a selfie request from Keegan-Michael Key, and danced with him as Lizzo busted her flute. Some of our other favorite funny people were in attendance, including Jessica Williams and Broad City‘s Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer. Earlier, the cast touched down in Soho at the Wing, where they revealed spoilers and secrets like who sends the most emojis in their group chat. Cue Michael Kiwanuka and the slow, sensual crashing of waves.

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RACHEL WEISZ at the COBBLE HILL COFFEESHOP, COBBLE HILL, BROOKLYN

Rachel Weisz, the Academy Award-winning actress and dominatrix-in-training, was seen doing the very human activity of grabbing coffee at a low-key coffee shop in Brooklyn. This sighting only confirms the rumors that she and her husband Daniel Craig, another ridiculously good-looking human being, have indeed bought that $6.7 million 1901 brownstone in Cobble Hill—and in the process, have likely raised the rent of a certain Interview staffer and celebrity sightings writer [cough] who happens to live right by it.

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BETTE MIDLER at L’AVENUE SAKS, MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN

In this week of leading ladies, Bette Midler, the Queen of Camp, was seen dining at L’Avenue Saks, a favorite among celebrities of all stripes. We can only hope there was some headdress involved.

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THESE WHALES, THE HUDSON RIVER

Artie Raslich/Gotham Whale.

No celebrities, however, could upstage the 272 whales spotted on New York’s shores—a staggering 540 percent increase from the amount of whales seen in 2010. The appearance of the whales, a majority of which are humpbacks, is being attributed to several successful environmental policies, as well as a decrease in pollution in the Hudson River, according to experts at the non-profit Gotham Whale. Every time the non-profit spots a whale near New York City, it catalogues the individual animal; one of which Gotham’s photographer, an avid fan of the Grateful Dead, named Jerry. We don’t know about you, but we’re partying with Jerry this weekend.