Chapter 1: What insights do the hosts share about watching The Devil Wears Prada?
Where is he? Where is Benson Boone?
He's singing. No, he's disappeared. No, he hasn't. He's singing Frank Sinatra songs on tour.
No, he's definitely.
And everyone's like, wow. No, he's nowhere. He's on my algorithm. I thought Benson Boone had disappeared. Sarah and I the other day.
I turned to her and I said, where is Benson? She went, what? And I said, where is Benson Boone?
I was like, I've forgotten about him already. The big Booners. The biggest Booner of all.
Yeah, what the hell? I think Boone was a flash in the pan. Maybe he was an industry plan after all.
Shameless Media.
Hello and welcome to Shameless, the pop culture podcast for smart people who love dumb stuff. You're joined, as always, by Melbourne writers Michelle Andrews, that would be me, and Zara McDonald, that would be you. Hello, Michelle Andrews, and hello, producer Eilish Gilligan. Hey. Hi, Gil. Coming up on today's show, we all rewatched, or actually not, we didn't all rewatch.
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Chapter 2: How has Anna Wintour's attitude towards The Devil Wears Prada changed?
Thanks. So do you.
So where do we want to kick off today, doll? Maybe with The Devil Wears Prada. The book.
Perhaps. Have you guys read the book? Gil, I know you haven't. You'd barely watched the film until recently.
Oh, gosh, that point.
I'm just pointing very strongly at Gil right now. I don't know why. I was just really surprised you hadn't watched the film. I know. It's just one of those things.
I just missed it. It's one of those things. Okay, I haven't read the book. I have read the book. It came out in 2003, the book The Devil Wears Prada. So the film came out three years later in 2006. It was, of course, written by the writer Lauren Weisberger.
This has to be the loosest book to film adaptation I have ever experienced. Oh, really? Zara, the book could not – oh, look, when I say it could not be more different – Andy Sachs is a character. Miranda Priestly is the editor of Runway. That's kind of where the similarities end. Can I give spoilers for a book that's 23 years old?
No, because I think I'm going to read it now.
You're not. No, I am. Can you block your ears then? A big part of the book's plotline is that her friend drinks and drives. She moves to New York and then her friend drinks and drives and ends up in a coma from memory. It's all very hazy now. And then a big part of it is like the friend doesn't get punished very much. She just ends up with community service.
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Chapter 3: What are the major differences between the book and the film adaptations?
I mean, that is a lot for a book today. It's almost 500K today. Yeah. So say an inflation calculator. Those Things always feel wrong though. So say. So say. English good today. It was a New York Times bestseller, as you said. The film made over $300 million USD at the global box office. So do we want to do the inflation count?
Who decided to do the inflation count? I put it in because I know you guys always laugh at it.
Zara really loves inflation math. I thought this was just, I don't know myself very well.
In your pop culture Venn diagram.
I hate the inflation calculator. In your personality.
It was correct. In your personality Venn diagram, you do like, though, saying things like, in USD. Or, and that was 2023, like 2003. Wait, what do you mean? What's wrong with that? You like pointing out that it's different, that it's more now. You like pointing out.
I'm really shocked that you think you hate inflation calculation because I think Gill has put this in because you love to be like, and that was 2003, much more today.
Wait, what? And now if I hadn't put it in, we wouldn't be having this great conversation.
I'm so confused. What do you mean? I love saying that. Isn't that my job to be like 300 USD? Or do you think I'm treating a listener like they're stupid?
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Chapter 4: How do the hosts analyze the character of Nate in the movie?
Like go to any level to get me home. You see her New York City brownstone. It's glitzy. It's glitzy. It's sugary. It's gossipy. I love the grit. I love the straight talking nature of it. I actually think there's a lot of character development because you start the show and you think it's going one way to be like, fuck this magazine. It's all pointless.
Andy Sachs is right to be maybe a bit- Skeptical of it. Skeptical of it. And then as it unfolds, you go, no, no, no. Let's not just discount this industry as something frivolous and ridiculous. It means something to a lot of people. It's a billion upon billion dollar industry. Yeah. I just think there's depth to this movie that the average person doesn't acknowledge enough.
I think they do. I think that's why it's so big, if I'm honest.
Oh, yeah, so true.
No, I do because I think there's so much to tease from it and has been teased for 20 years. And I think we'll get to that, like certain plot points or characters that people constantly want to analyse and pull apart. I also think this film came out at a time where you've got shows like Sex and the City. Later, we had stuff like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
It was very much the characters women were flocking to were magazine writer characters. It was very much this career that a lot of people, not everyone, but a lot of women look to to say, that feels cool. It was before digital. It was before the industry basically fell apart.
Well, this came on the heels of the magazine industry collapsing. 2006, I think by 2010, this industry was well and truly in a downturn.
Yeah. So here's the thing. Meryl Streep obviously plays Miranda Priestly. She has said a few times over the years that she wasn't necessarily inspired by Anna Wintour when it came to playing this character. I mean, it seems very much that Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep I don't know if the nature of their relationship is close friends, but they're certainly friendly. They are now.
I would have loved to know back in 2006 if they were. Totally. She says she was inspired by men for this character. So on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier this year, she said, I was basically imitating director Mike Nichols that whole time. If Mike Nichols and Clint Eastwood had a baby, it would be Miranda Priestly. Clint would never raise his voice.
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Chapter 5: What commentary is made about diet culture in The Devil Wears Prada?
Yeah, here's what she said on New Yorker radio just last year. Well, I went to the premiere wearing Prada, completely having no idea what the film was going to be about. And I think that the fashion industry were very sweetly concerned for me about the film, that it was going to paint me in some kind of difficult light. She went on, it was a caricature. I found it highly enjoyable and very funny.
Miuccia Prada and I talk about it a lot. And I say to her, well, it was really good for you. And you can imagine what she says back to me. Listen, it had a lot of humor to it. It had a lot of wit. It It had Meryl Streep. I mean, it was Emily Blunt. I mean, they're all amazing. In the end, I thought it was a fair shot.
Yeah, I think this is clearly why someone like Anna Wintour for all her controversy and things like that. I mean, this and many other reasons has survived so long in this industry because I think she's clearly made of stone in many ways, like a real rock in the river. Like this would be pretty difficult to have a film come out about you and all this discourse come out about you.
But she's like, eh.
Do you think there's any revisionist history happening with this?
Yeah, well, I think by this point she did this interview with David Remnick that we're quoting that everyone knew that Devil Wears Prada 2 was coming out. So I think as a preemptive strike, incredibly clever. But even the fact, it's not like she can fully revisionist because she still went to that premiere in Prada.
No, for sure. I just think I'm thinking as well of the Meryl Streep quotes to Vogue recently where she said, everybody was afraid of Anna on the first movie, so we couldn't find any clothes. Nobody would give us any clothes. And maybe that was the fashion industry just assuming that Anna would hate it. And so preemptively saying, no, you're not wearing a single one of our pieces.
Yeah. I do think there is something to that. I think even in this Amy O'Dell biography of Anna Wintour, you learn a lot that people just, even whether they're instructed or not, do not want to go against someone as powerful as Anna Wintour. That it's not in their best interests whether they've been told to or not to go against her. I mean...
What's fascinating is, as we've said, it definitely felt like the Vogue and Anna Wintour MO in this first movie was to kind of ignore it, let the film, you know, be the cultural sensation it was. And she, I think at the time, to your point, Michelle, didn't come out a lot and speak heaps about it. So I think has definitely lent in more recently.
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Chapter 6: How does Vogue's approach to the second film differ from the first?
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Okay. Film. We all watched it this week. Where do we want to start? Do we start with producer Gil giving us her new to Devil Wears Prada lore thoughts?
I liked it. I don't really have many thoughts aside from that I liked it. I have some thoughts about Nate.
I'm sure we'll get to that. Do I talk about Nate now? I have so many thoughts on Nate. I think Nate in pop culture is held up as one of the worst boyfriends of all time. People fucking hate Nate. What did you think about him?
I think Nate isn't a bad boyfriend, but I think Andy and Nate are just as bad as each other.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of the film's portrayal of the fashion industry?
Like I liked the old Andy. I love that, like, despite her having this almost supermodel glow up in the film, which I always love, a transformation scene. And I love that part of Devil Wears Prada. I really like it about Nate that he liked the old her who wore the dorky loafers and wasn't as interested in fashion and didn't care so much about how she looked.
I thought that was an endearing part of his personality. In fact, I'd almost give him a clean tick, like green tick for this. I don't know where he really behaved super poorly as a boyfriend.
Don't you think that they bonded over a shared superiority complex, though? Yeah, I think that's probably true. They both think they're better than everything. Like they're sitting at the bar being like, it's cool to not like your job and it's cool to think your job is useless or whatever. And I really despise that attitude. You spend so much time of your life in your job. Yeah.
you might as well like it.
No fair. I guess I say that as them as people. Him as a boyfriend specifically, I don't think he did anything that was like bad boyfriend behaviour. I agree.
Yeah, I think on the clothes stuff, I think the one point I'd add to what you're saying, just to give it like a slight mark against his name, is it feels not dissimilar to the guy that says, I prefer you without makeup. Like don't slap all that stuff on your face. And it's like, well, it's also fine to play with fashion and makeup and it'd be fine. And it's also fine for her to change her mind.
and want to kind of play the game at this fashion magazine. That said, I do think as a partner, you are allowed to watch on if you see a partner change and say, I'm not really into the new version of you I'm seeing. And I think we're not really comfortable with this conversation about change.
Like I think culturally and as particularly on the internet, we're very binary about change, which is we should support the people around us when they change no matter what. And I think that's too black and white.
I think he was saying to her, your feet aren't on the ground anymore. Yeah. And I don't think it is always clipping someone's wings to say, hey, you're becoming very self-obsessed and it's coming at the expense of everyone in your life. It's coming at the expense of your friends. It's coming at the expense of me, your romantic partner. And it's totally fair enough that he would point that out.
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Chapter 8: What final thoughts do the hosts have about the legacy of The Devil Wears Prada?
Maybe she did have the conversation. To say, did he owe her a year? I don't think you do. I actually, I genuinely don't know. She does then go and have sex with Christian who like was kind of a flirtation she had while she was dating Nate too.
I think your life really fundamentally changes when you're with someone that wants to work all the time. Like you basically, there are definitely jobs where when someone is working all the time, that is so their prerogative to chase their dreams and it is so their prerogative to achieve the things they want to achieve. But it's a fallacy that that can't come at the expense of relationships. Yeah.
And like, I don't think a partner has to sit around and say, sure, I will date someone that never sees me. You shouldn't have to just swallow it.
And it should be Nate's right to say, I don't want this lifestyle. I never see my partner. I don't want to be in a long distance relationship with someone who's sleeping in the same bed as me. Completely. Interesting. I want to talk to you guys about the diet culture of the film. Because one question I really have, obviously we haven't seen the second film yet.
dieting, losing weight, being a size six or a size four or a size two is so embedded into the script of The Devil Wears Prada, the first movie. I am fascinated and very curious as to how they're going to tackle this in movie two because we are in the era, we're kind of post-body positivity era. We're deep in GLP-1 era.
And I'm very curious how the script, which would have been written... Two years ago, probably. A couple of years ago, maybe more, what that will actually reflect. Because we're back, we're almost back in 2006.
It just looks and sounds slightly different. I think it's changed too quickly. I think at the time that this movie was written, I think definitely conversations were starting to pop up. But I also don't, I think it's also not... smart movie making to try and preempt where those conversations go when you know you're writing a script that comes out in two years. Do you know what I mean?
It's really tricky when you're trying to capture the zeitgeist. You might as well go with the safe option, which is to try and rail against the diet culture that, you know, prevailed in movie one.
If they do that, if they go really hard against diet culture, it will feel deeply inauthentic to me. Of course. Because... So this part of the industry, if it's being truthful, if we're being truthful about what Vogue actually platforms and looks like, it is the hyper thin woman. I think for a time we pretended it was something else.
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