Gaga, Dior and $24 tweezers: how The Devil Wears Prada 2 turns rags to riches

For a film that serves as a commentary on the perilous economics of today’s media landscape, it’s fitting that promotion for The Devil Wears Prada 2 has been so frank about its finances.

Speaking ahead of the New York premiere, Meryl Streep revealed she initially turned down the role of withering fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly in the 2006 original in a bid to extract more money from its producers.

“They called me up and they made an offer,” she told US TV show Today, “and I said, no, not going to do it. I knew it was going to be a hit, and I wanted to see [what would happen] if I doubled my ask. They went right away and said: ‘Sure!’ I thought, I’m 56 and it took me this long to understand that I could do that.”

Streep’s hardball bartering paid off all round. The film made more than nine times its $35m budget at the box office, enjoyed a strong streaming afterlife and became a cultural touchstone.

Asked earlier this week about the 20-year wait for a sequel, Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway jokingly noted that Stanley Tucci was the last of the four stars to sign on the second time round – holding out, they said, for the big bucks.

Estimates suggest that cast salaries alone account for around half the sequel’s $100m price tag, once the leads, supporting cast and costly cameos are totted up. Lady Gaga’s brief appearance as herself in the film – including a bespoke body-positive song – came in at a reported $2.5m alone. She is one of about 30 assorted big names from music, fashion, sport and the media to parade briefly on screen, in a bid to lend the project credibility as well as cross-pollinate its promotion.

Projections estimate that the new film will take around double its budget over its opening weekend, meaning the original’s overall $326m take should be surpassed within a fortnight. The sequel is riding a wave of renewed enthusiasm for cinema attendance, following box office over-performances for Project Hail Mary, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and the Michael Jackson biopic.

Yet the fashion satire has also adopted a belt and braces approach to its profits. Just as its fictional Runway magazine is increasingly at the behest of advertisers propping up its pagination, so too producers of the new movie have brokered a strategic roster of lucrative brand partnerships.

The most conspicuous of these is Dior, which features in the film as the company now run by Blunt’s character. The others are a touch less aspirational; the portfolio includes Diet Coke, Old Navy, Tweezerman, listing agent Zillow, hair care brands Tresemmé and L’Oréal, plus Google, Samsung and Starbucks.

Many of the tie-in products are available for purchase in the US at Walmart stores, which also boasts its own range of official merchandise, including a Miranda doll ($35), polyester throw blanket ($14.74), shower wash ($10) and a scoop collection tie-waist midi dress in the finest cerulean blue ($49). Admission to a hideous skirt convention not included.

Kenneth BranaghIt’s not quite a cameo, but the modest size of the part (Miranda’s nice violinist boyfriend) played by one of the UK’s most venerable actors has taken some aback. This lack of airtime – as well as a random line of dialogue suggesting he’s a recovering alcoholic – has prompted questions about whether the character was originally bigger, but then trimmed in the edit. A source close to Branagh said this was the first they had heard of such a suggestion.

Lady GagaEarlier this week, Streep told Blunt that she herself had convinced Gaga to take part. “I called her from Islington,” Streep said, during a joint interview with Heart Radio. “I just said, ‘Would you do this? Because it’s going to be really good.’ And she said, ‘Yeah’ Just like that. She’s on her world tour, which lasted a year, playing to 75,000 people in a stadium and just flew off and did us.” Whether Streep also negotiated Gaga’s massive salary is unclear.

Donatella VersaceThe designer is given an earful by Blunt’s character in the film, gamely suggesting the real-life designer is the lower status player at their lunch. Other fashionistas on display in the sequel include Ciara, Marc Jacobs, Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum and Edward Enninful.

Tina BrownA cluster of cameos occur at a lunch party in the Hamptons hosted by Priestly, where attendees include the formidable former editor of Vanity Fair, as well as musician Jon Batiste, TV host Jenna Bush Hager and the basketball player Karl-Anthony Towns. In a Substack post recalling the experience, Brown reported that the shoot began at 9am and didn’t end till 8pm, the heat was awful, the lobster went off and she had to take refuge in a wine fridge.

Hugh JackmanDespite a party scene in which we see Andy’s new Aussie boyfriend nervously psyching himself up to approach Jackman – a friend and frequent co-star of Hathaway – the man himself doesn’t actually appear in the movie. Nor do we learn how the chat went.

Clooney is also absent, despite endless shots of his Lake Como villa, which also happens to be where Blunt got married, in the presence of Streep and Tucci. Likewise Blunt’s friends and co-stars Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr and Dwayne Johnson were on-screen no shows, but they did turn out on Thursday for a joint unveiling of Blunt and Tucci’s stars on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Sydney SweeneyThe Euphoria and Housemaid actor shot a three-minute scene as herself opposite Blunt, but it was left on the cutting-room floor for “structural” reasons.

Anna WintourThe inspiration for Priestly may have posed with Streep for the cover of Vogue last month, but a super-meta appearance in the movie was evidently an endorsement too far. Presumably Wintour is above such things anyway? Not necessarily: she’s popped up in Ocean’s Eight, a couple of short films, as well as Zoolander 2 – the latter alongside Valentino, Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Lewis Hamilton, MC Hammer, A$AP Rocky, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Tommy Hilfiger and Susan Boyle.