The Devil Wears Prada 2 locked it’s satirical target not only on Anna Wintour, but also on a different kind of power couple, and the timing could not be more loaded.
According to Variety, which spoke to five people who have seen the film following its world premiere at Lincoln Center and a subsequent London screening, Emily Blunt’s returning character Emily has been reimagined as a figure bearing a striking resemblance to Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
Loaded in designer clothes and working at Christian Dior, the character is now the glamorous partner of a billionaire tech mogul played by Justin Theroux, described by sources as a mix of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Theroux’s character is shown in flashbacks wearing prosthetics to appear heavier before a dramatic physical transformation following extreme wealth, a detail that closely mirrors the real-life narrative of Bezos’ well-documented reinvention.
Lucy Liu plays the mogul’s first wife, a philanthropist spending her divorce settlement doing good in the world, which sources say is a nod to MacKenzie Scott, Bezos’ first wife.
A subplot reportedly follows Blunt’s Emily attempting to convince her billionaire partner to acquire Runway, the film’s fictional stand-in for Vogue, in a direct reference to longstanding speculation that the Bezos couple have been eyeing a takeover of Condé Nast, which publishes Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ and Vanity Fair.
Sánchez Bezos has denied any such interest, telling the New York Times “I wish!” when asked about it.
A spokesperson for Blunt told Variety it was “absolutely not true” that her character was based on Sánchez Bezos.
The timing is acutely awkward.
The Bezoses are co-chairs of this year’s Met Gala on 4 May, the Monday after the film opens, alongside Wintour, Beyoncé and Nicole Kidman, and are also financial sponsors of the event.
The Met Gala is said to be leaning heavily into the film as a promotional tie-in, meaning Blunt could find herself in the same room as the woman she is said to parody.
The situation is further complicated for Blunt’s husband John Krasinski, who stars in Amazon’s Jack Ryan franchise, Amazon, of course, remaining under Bezos’ executive chairmanship.
