{"id":932269,"date":"2026-05-02T05:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/932269\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T05:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:43:14","slug":"gaga-dior-and-24-tweezers-how-the-devil-wears-prada-2-turns-rags-to-riches-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/932269\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaga, Dior and $24 tweezers: how The Devil Wears Prada 2 turns rags to riches | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a film that serves as a commentary on the perilous economics of today\u2019s media landscape, it\u2019s fitting that promotion for The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/a> has been so frank about its finances.<\/p>\n

Streep in the original film. Photograph: Allstar<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the New York premiere, Meryl Streep<\/a> revealed she initially turned down the role of withering fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly in the 2006 original in a bid to extract more money from its producers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey called me up and they made an offer,\u201d she told US TV show Today, \u201cand I said, no, not going to do it. I knew it was going to be a hit, and I wanted to see [what would happen] if I doubled my ask. They went right away and said: \u2018Sure!\u2019 I thought, I\u2019m 56 and it took me this long to understand that I could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streep\u2019s hardball bartering paid off all round. The film made more than nine times its $35m budget at the box office, enjoyed a strong streaming afterlife and became a cultural touchstone.<\/p>\n

Asked earlier this week about the 20-year wait for a sequel, Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway jokingly noted that Stanley Tucci<\/a> was the last of the four stars to sign on the second time round \u2013 holding out, they said, for the big bucks.<\/p>\n

Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci in the sequel. Photograph: Macall Polay\/20th Century Studios\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Estimates suggest that cast salaries alone account for around half the sequel\u2019s $100m price tag, once the leads, supporting cast and costly cameos are totted up. Lady Gaga\u2019s brief appearance as herself in the film \u2013 including a bespoke body-positive song \u2013 came in at a reported $2.5m alone. She is one of about 30 assorted big names from music, fashion, sport and the media to parade briefly on screen, in a bid to lend the project credibility as well as cross-pollinate its promotion.<\/p>\n

Emily Blunt in the sequel. Photograph: Macall Polay\/20th Century Studios\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Projections estimate that the new film will take around double its budget over its opening weekend, meaning the original\u2019s overall $326m take should be surpassed within a fortnight. The sequel is riding a wave of renewed enthusiasm for cinema attendance, following box office over-performances for Project Hail Mary<\/a>, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie<\/a> and the Michael Jackson biopic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet the fashion satire has also adopted a belt and braces approach to its profits. Just as its fictional Runway magazine is increasingly at the behest of advertisers propping up its pagination, so too producers of the new movie have brokered a strategic roster of lucrative brand partnerships.<\/p>\n

The most conspicuous of these is Dior, which features in the film as the company now run by Blunt\u2019s character. The others are a touch less aspirational; the portfolio includes Diet Coke, Old Navy, Tweezerman<\/a>, listing agent Zillow, hair care brands Tresemm\u00e9 and L\u2019Or\u00e9al, plus Google, Samsung and Starbucks.<\/p>\n

Many of the tie-in products are available for purchase in the US at Walmart stores, which also boasts its own range of official merchandise<\/a>, including a Miranda doll ($35), polyester throw blanket ($14.74), shower wash ($10) and a scoop collection tie-waist midi dress in the finest cerulean blue ($49). Admission to a hideous skirt convention not included.<\/p>\n

Four cameos that happened<\/p>\n

Kenneth Branagh<\/strong>
<\/strong>It\u2019s not quite a cameo, but the modest size of the part (Miranda\u2019s nice violinist boyfriend) played by one of the UK\u2019s most venerable actors has taken some aback. This lack of airtime \u2013 as well as a random line of dialogue suggesting he\u2019s a recovering alcoholic \u2013 has prompted questions about whether the character was originally bigger, but then trimmed in the edit. A source close to Branagh said this was the first they had heard of such a suggestion.<\/p>\n

Kenneth Branagh at the film\u2019s world premiere. Photograph: Jeenah Moon\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Lady Gaga
<\/strong>Earlier this week, Streep told Blunt that she herself had convinced Gaga to take part. \u201cI called her from Islington,\u201d Streep said, during a joint interview with Heart Radio. \u201cI just said, \u2018Would you do this? Because it\u2019s going to be really good.\u2019 And she said, \u2018Yeah\u2019 Just like that. She\u2019s on her world tour, which lasted a year, playing to 75,000 people in a stadium and just flew off and did us.\u201d Whether Streep also negotiated Gaga\u2019s massive salary is unclear.<\/p>\n

Donatella Versace<\/strong>
<\/strong>The designer is given an earful by Blunt\u2019s character in the film, gamely suggesting the real-life designer is the lower status player at their lunch. Other fashionistas on display in the sequel include Ciara, Marc Jacobs, Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum and Edward Enninful.<\/p>\n

Tina Brown<\/strong>
<\/strong>A cluster of cameos occur at a lunch party in the Hamptons hosted by Priestly, where attendees include the formidable former editor of Vanity Fair, as well as musician Jon Batiste, TV host Jenna Bush Hager and the basketball player Karl-Anthony Towns. In a Substack post recalling the experience, Brown reported that the shoot began at 9am and didn\u2019t end till 8pm, the heat was awful, the lobster went off and she had to take refuge in a wine fridge.<\/p>\n

And four that didn\u2019t<\/p>\n

Hugh Jackman<\/strong>
<\/strong>Despite a party scene in which we see Andy\u2019s new Aussie boyfriend nervously psyching himself up to approach Jackman \u2013 a friend and frequent co-star of Hathaway \u2013 the man himself doesn\u2019t actually appear in the movie. Nor do we learn how the chat went.<\/p>\n

George Clooney<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Downey Jr, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Matt Damon attend the Walk of Fame Induction Ceremony for Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt on 30 April. Photograph: Kevin Winter\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Clooney is also absent, despite endless shots of his Lake Como villa, which also happens to be where Blunt got married, in the presence of Streep and Tucci. Likewise Blunt\u2019s friends and co-stars Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr and Dwayne Johnson were on-screen no shows, but they did turn out on Thursday for a joint unveiling of Blunt and Tucci\u2019s stars on the Hollywood walk of fame.<\/p>\n

Sydney Sweeney<\/strong>
<\/strong>The Euphoria and Housemaid actor shot a three-minute scene as herself opposite Blunt, but it was left on the cutting-room floor for \u201cstructural\u201d reasons.<\/p>\n

Anna Wintour<\/strong>
<\/strong>The inspiration for Priestly may have posed with Streep for the cover of Vogue last month, but a super-meta appearance in the movie was evidently an endorsement too far. Presumably Wintour is above such things anyway? Not necessarily: she\u2019s popped up in Ocean\u2019s Eight, a couple of short films, as well as Zoolander 2 \u2013 the latter alongside Valentino, Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Lewis Hamilton, MC Hammer, A$AP Rocky, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Tommy Hilfiger and Susan Boyle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a film that serves as a commentary on the perilous economics of today\u2019s media landscape, it\u2019s fitting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-932269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116503393480911564","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}