THE The devil wears Prada 2 its satirical target is locked not only on Anna Wintour, but also on another type of power couple, and the timing couldn’t be more charged.
According to Varietywho spoke to five people who saw the film after its world premiere at Lincoln Center and subsequent screening in London, Emily Blunt’s returning character Emily was reimagined as a character bearing a striking resemblance to Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
Dressed 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 account of Bezos’ well-documented reinvention.
Lucy Liu plays the mogul’s first wife, a philanthropist who spends her divorce doing good in the world, which sources say is a nod to MacKenzie Scott, Bezos’ first wife.
A subplot would follow Blunt’s Emily attempting to convince her billionaire partner to acquire Track, the film’s fictional stand-in for Vogue, in direct reference to long-standing speculation that the Bezos couple were considering a takeover of Condé Nast, which publishes Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ And Vanity Fair.
Sánchez Bezos has denied such interest, telling the New York Times “I wish!” when asked about it.
A spokesperson for Blunt said Variety it was “absolutely false” that his character was based on Sánchez Bezos.
The timing is extremely delicate.
The Bezos are co-chairs of this year’s Met Gala on May 4, the Monday after the film’s release, alongside Wintour, Beyoncé and Nicole Kidman, and are also financial sponsors of the event.
The Met Gala is said to be leaning heavily on the film as a promotional tie-in, meaning Blunt could end up in the same room as the woman she’s supposed to be parodying.
The situation is even more complicated for Blunt’s husband, John Krasinski, who stars in the Amazon film. Jack Ryan franchise, with Amazon, of course, remaining under Bezos’ executive presidency.
