Recommendations of the Editorial team
Much has changed in fashion, media and culture since The Devil Wears Prada was released two decades ago. But as Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep reprise their roles for the upcoming sequel “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” they realize that some things have unfortunately remained the same. In a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Streep revealed, that Hathaway confronted producers about casting “emaciated” models.
Streep recalled being “impressed by how not only beautiful and young – everyone seems young to me – but also frighteningly thin the models were,” adding, “I thought this had all been sorted out years ago.” Hathaway also noticed this. “She went straight to the producers and made them promise that the models in the show we were putting together for our film wouldn’t be so emaciated,” Streep said. “She really is a woman with backbone.”
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” is scheduled to be released on May 1st. Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci all reprise their roles for the sequel, which was filmed in various locations in New York last summer.
Body image debate
The film comes at a time when discussion of extreme thinness – particularly as it is presented to a receptive audience online – is at the center of public discourse about celebrities. In November, Jameela Jamil posted a TikTok in which she pushed back against what she called “body shaming to point out that the slimming aesthetic is rapidly increasing among women in Hollywood. Women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, even 50s.”
She continued: “Suddenly they become so thin that you can see their ribs, that their hip bones are sticking out. Nobody says they look disgusting – that would be body shaming. We talk about it because it is so widespread, so extreme, and it happened so quickly… It saddens me that strength is no longer desirable. It saddens me that fragility and weakness are an ideal of beauty in this age of feminism. We have achieved too much to now lose our health, our happiness and our… Putting life expectancy at risk.”
