Anna Wintour has sent fans into a frenzy with an iconic Devil Wears Prada joke as Anne Hathaway made a surprise appearance at a Broadway show.
On 10 January, Wintour and Hathaway both made an unexpected cameo in Gutenberg! The Musical!, which stars Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells as two composers, Bud and Doug, who are looking to take their musical to Broadway. At the end of each performance in the James Earl Jones Theater, a celebrity usually walks onto the stage to portray a “Broadway producer”, who gives Bud and Doug their contract.
In the video posted by the show’s Instagram, Hathaway and Wintour could be seen in black outfits and hats that read “producer”, before they exchanged a hug on the stage. As the show was coming to an end, the duo went on to do their brief scene, with the Princess Diaries star praising the main characters’ work.
“Oh Bud, Doug, this show is fantastic,” she said, after receiving applause from the audience. “We don’t need to hear another note!”
Wintour then chimed in by describing her title and indicating what Hathaway’s job was, with a subtle reference to the actor’s role as a magazine editor’s assistant in The Devil Wears Prada.
“I’m a very famous Broadway producer, and this is my assistant,” she said, gesturing towards Hathaway. In response, Hathaway was seen shaking her head and looking down at the floor, to show her producer hat, before asking the fashion designer: “Still?” The crowd then burst into laughter and applause, after hearing Hathaway’s response to Wintour’s remark.
Wintour then proceeded the bit by noting that she was holding Bud and Doug’s Broadway contact “in [her] hands,” which prompted applause from the audience.
Wintour’s joke was a nod to Hathaway’s Devil Wears Prada role as Andy Sachs, who was the co-assistant to prestigious magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. The role of Miranda Priestly is believed to be partially inspired by Wintour and her career in the fashion industry.
In the comments of the Instagram video, many fans expressed their amusement over Wintour’s joke and its reference to Hathaway’s iconic movie character.
“‘And this is my assistant’ truly, truly took me out,” one wrote, while actor Tracie Thoms quipped:” I told her to quit 18 years ago…She didn’t listen.”
A third wrote: “‘This is my assistant’ ICONIC ICONIC ICONIC.”
Other fans went on to express how happy Wintour and Hathaway appeared to be on stage, with one commenting: “My favourite part about all of these videos is how genuinely elated and tickled they both are. Like, that’s not acting, that’s just them.”
This isn’t the first time that Wintour and Hathaway had a mini-reunion. In October 2022, the One Day star sat next to the US Vogue editor-in-chief at the Michael Kors show during New York Fashion Week. At the time, fans even praised Hathaway for embracing the style of Andy Sachs, as she was wearing a black turtleneck with a brown crocodile skirt and a matching jacket. Her hair was styled in a ponytail and she had a full eye-skimming fringe, similar to how her character had it in the 2006 film.
Weeks later, Hathaway revealed that she actually didn’t intend to dress like her Devil Wears Prada character at the fashion show.
“It was kind of nuts wasn’t it,” she said, referring to the reaction to her outfit. “It was by accident. I was supposed to wear something else. The shoes didn’t fit, this was the other outfit that came.”
However, she then explained that when her stylist put her hair up in a high ponytail, with her bangs in front of her face, she ultimately realised how much she resembled Andy.
“And then my hairstylist, who was so lovely and I had never worked with him before, just said: ‘Oh I know what to do,’” Hathaway recalled. “And he threw my hair up in a ponytail. And I looked in the mirror and I thought: ‘Oh that’s funny, I wonder if anybody will notice.’”
