{"id":558144,"date":"2026-04-30T04:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/558144\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T04:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:50:15","slug":"if-looks-could-kill-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/558144\/","title":{"rendered":"If looks could kill (journalism)"},"content":{"rendered":"

When The Devil Wears Prada strutted into theaters<\/a> in 2006, Vogue\u2018s famous September issue was practically the size of a doorstop, and the Internet had not yet taken the media\u2019s lunch money. Twenty years later, not only has fashion changed, but so has the industry that introduced so many readers to brands, models, what new color would define the season, deep profiles with equally impressive photos, and yes, perfume samples that would announce the magazine\u2019s arrival even before you took it out of the mail. Time has also affected the characters in the sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2.<\/p>\n

The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens at crossroads for both Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), now an award-winning journalist recently laid off from her publication, and Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), now under fire at Runway after publishing a glowing piece on a brand known for using sweatshops. The scandal and the layoff bring Andy back into the Runway fold alongside her stylish coworker Nigel (Stanley Tucci) with an opportunity to reclaim the magazine\u2019s reputation with solid reporting and hard-to-get interviews\u2014including one with a mysterious billionaire played by Lucy Liu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no recapturing the delightful surprise of the first, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is still a treat for fans of the original. The movie sparkles with little callbacks, from a \u201ccerulean blue\u201d reference in a background shot to characters discussing what\u2019s happened since the last movie left off. As with much of the returning cast, original director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna return to continue the story, although with a few alterations. The original is filled with escapism, even if we\u2014like Andy\u2014may not naturally fit into the world of a cutthroat glossy magazine. Two decades later, and while millennial Andy is more at ease taking the lead of a department than when audiences first met her as an assistant, everyone now looks weary from the toll that life has taken on them, whether that\u2019s opportunities snatched away by power-hungry bosses or from fending off different corporate owners who don\u2019t understand an outlet like Runway. Even Miranda appears more demure as she has to deal with her former assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) now representing Dior\u2019s interests in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this way, fashion feels almost like an accessory to The Devil Wears Prada 2. Much of the story follows the state of media, from Runway\u2018s move to becoming digital-first to shrinking its September issue to the size of \u201csomething you can floss with,\u201d according to Nigel. McKenna punches up the one-liners\u2014most of them Nigel\u2019s\u2014throughout the sequel, attempting to keep up the lighthearted mood in the face of anxiety around the magazine\u2019s ownership. The film needs those little moments of levity to counterbalance the very real fear around the next round of layoffs or the uncertainty of unemployment as it spreads to professions outside journalism. Although supporting characters sometimes try too hard to earn their punchlines, like when a cartoonishly evil consultant calls the long-respected editor \u201cMiranda Beastly.\u201d Gags like this take the script\u2019s pointed critique about these business tactics and make it painfully unfunny.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although a number of designers declined to grace the original movie\u2019s Runway magazine for fear of angering<\/a> the inspiration for Miranda Priestly, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, this is not a problem for The Devil Wears Prada 2. This time, almost every crowded scene features a recognizable face, including designers like Marc Jacobs and Donatella Versace. To complete the look, there\u2019s even influencers like Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg among the gaggle of the trendy models for a few seconds of screentime. By the time Lady Gaga arrives, it almost feels like an episode of TMZ running through the day\u2019s paparazzi photos. But Frankel never lingers on a shot too long\u2013\u2013in fact, he and editor Andrew Marcus cover so much ground so quickly, there are points that the film feels choppy, sped along the assembly line until scenes slow down enough for Andy to get on Miranda\u2019s nerves, Nigel and Emily to deliver another withering remark, or for the new supporting cast to earn their time in the spotlight, including Miranda\u2019s dutiful assistant Amari (Simone Ashley), her dashing partner Stuart (Kenneth Branagh), the smooth-brained tech guru Benji (Justin Theroux), and the business-casual scion to his father\u2019s magazine empire, Jay (B.J. Novak).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although not all of the jokes and emotional beats land, The Devil Wears Prada 2 still gets the essence of what made the original a hit. The characters, slightly changed by time and their industry\u2019s winds of change, are still compelling. Miranda still keeps an air of mystery about her, which Streep plays like a cat who climbs on top of furniture to avoid human meddling. Her combative dynamic with Andy doesn\u2019t waver, but now, Andy\u2019s enthusiasm is weighed down by anxiety over losing her last job, and she\u2019s more protective of Miranda despite their differences; even Andy\u2019s slight romance with an Aussie contractor can\u2019t dampen her relentless commitment to the work, even if it often gets her into trouble. Miranda and Andy\u2019s rapport has stood the test of time, anchoring what could have been a frivolous sequel into something much more surprising about surviving tumultuous times with the unlikeliest of coworkers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Director: David Frankel
Writers: Aline Brosh McKenna
Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Lucy Liu, Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci, B.J. Novak, Simone Ashley, Tracie Thoms, Tibor Feldman, Patrick Brammall, Caleb Hearon, Helen J. Shen
Release Date: May 1, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When The Devil Wears Prada strutted into theaters in 2006, Vogue\u2018s famous September issue was practically the size…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-558144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}