One of the most talked about moments The devil wears Prada 2 turns out to have been made the old-fashioned way, and fans are celebrating the fact that a human artist was hired to create it rather than a generative AI tool.
The sequel opens with Miranda Priestly being the subject of an online pile-on, including a meme showing Meryl Streep’s iconic editor-in-chief as a fast food worker, captioned “Would you like lies with that?”
When the film was released on Friday, artist Alexis Franklin revealed on Instagram that she painted the image herself, sharing a time-lapse of her process as proof.
“I was able to paint this at the request of [director] David Frankel for The devil wears Prada 2 (this appears in the film),” Franklin wrote, adding that the order seemed tailor-made to him.
“Absolutely no disrespect to Queen Meryl, but it’s something I would have painted in my spare time, so when they asked me to do it, it was just fun.”
She also posted to X, noting the reaction her revelation had received.
“I posted this on Instagram yesterday and was flooded with comments of relief at the thought of this gag The devil wears Prada 2 was created by a real human (me), so I thought I’d also post it here because I think these companies should get their flowers when they hire an artist.
The online response was warm, albeit tinged with some sadness at the current state of affairs.
“People crave real art not AI and this is proof,” one fan wrote.
Another noted that “the bar is truly in hell” when a production choosing a human artist over AI becomes worthy of celebration in its own right.
The devil wears Prada 2 opened to $77 million domestically and $156.6 million internationally in its opening weekend, for a worldwide total of $233.6 million.
The film reunites Streep with Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, alongside returning actors Tracie Thoms and Tibor Feldman.
