The Devil Wears Prada 2 appears to have based a subplot on Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos — in a not-so-subtle nod to the financial power that the billionaire couple has started to wield in the fashion industry.
Although reviews are embargoed until next week, early viewers of the film have spotted a similarity between the evolution of Emily Blunt’s character, the malcontent assistant of the first film, and Sánchez Bezos.
*Spoiler warning: Plot details for the upcoming Devil Wears Prada movie are below*
Blunt’s character, Emily Charlton, arrives in the sequel as a high-flying journalist and the fiancée of a billionaire tech mogul, played by Justin Theroux.
Variety reports that Theroux’s character is a combination of Jeff Bezos and Tesla boss Elon Musk, who buys his wife whatever she wants.
The plot appears to reference the industry rumor that the Bezoses attempted to acquire Vogue’s publisher Condé Nast. A 2025 Vogue digital cover starring Sánchez Bezos in her wedding gown was viewed by commentators as a gesture from Vogue’s Global Editorial Director, Anna Wintour, but Sánchez Bezos has previously denied any rumors of a possible acquisition.
A subplot in the new film reveals Emily’s efforts to get her wealthy partner to buy Runway magazine, the franchise’s fictional magazine based on Vogue.
However, a spokesperson for Blunt told The Independent that it wasn’t true that the character was based on Sánchez Bezos. “The character was originally developed 20 years ago, so this couldn’t be farther from the truth,” they said.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Sánchez Bezos and Disney for comment.
The film also nods towards MacKenzie Scott, Bezos’s first wife, who may have inspired Lucy Liu’s character. She plays a wealthy philanthropist who is trying to do good in society with the money from her windfall divorce from Theroux’s character.
Scott has reportedly given away more than $19 billion to multiple causes since receiving a $36 billion settlement from her 2019 divorce. The Independent has contacted Scott’s representatives for comment.
The original Devil Wears Prada film, released in 2006, was based on real-life happenings in the fashion industry. Meryl Streep’s ruthless Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly was famously inspired by Wintour, who has more recently embraced her portrayal in the franchise by appearing in several marketing stunts to promote the second film.
Variety also reports that research for the sequel involved interviewing former and current Condé Nast employees, while there has been speculation that the portrayal of the Bezoses may have been inspired by journalists’ fears around the billionaires acquiring the magazine titles.
Bezos purchased The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013 to pull the business out of a period of retrenchment. His involvement has been linked to softer coverage of Trump’s second term in the White House. Staff experienced extensive layoffs earlier this year, while former staffers have spoken out about the shift in coverage.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 comes at a time when the Bezoses appear to be embedding themselves further in the fashion world.
In November, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that its annual star-studded Met Gala — the biggest night in fashion taking place on 4 May — would be “made possible” by the couple, who were named as lead sponsors, alongside secondary donors, Condé Nast and Saint Laurent. The role is understood to give the couple influence over everything from invites to the overall presentation of the event.
Their involvement has led to a boycott campaign from the political activist group Everyone Hates Elon, which has distributed flyers across New York City that read “Boycott the Bezos Met Gala” in the lead-up to the May event.
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