The Devil Wears Prada (with Jameela Jamil)

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The End Hello dear listeners, and welcome back to another episode of What Went Wrong, your favorite podcast full stop that just so happens to be about movies, and how it's nearly impossible to make them, let alone a good one, let alone the movie that Damien Chazelle saw and said, not my tempo, we're talking about the original Whiplash, the Devil Wears Prada, one of my favorite E-watches. As always, I'm Chris Winterbauer, joined by Lizzie Bassett and Lizzie. Who else do we have here today? We have an unbelievably special guest for this episode. I am so excited to talk to her about this. We have actor, writer, advocate, music producer, what can't she do, and host of the podcast, Wrong Turns, which I really, really love. It's Jamila Jamil. Thank you so much for being here and welcome. Hello. Thank you for having me. I love films, so I'm always excited to talk about them. Well, I think this one is a particularly good fit for several reasons that I can't wait to dive into, but I also just want to say, I really love your podcast so much. You're a very generous host, which I feel like is a rare thing, and you're so funny, but you also just really clearly make the guests so comfortable, and it's very lovely. So go listen to Wrong Turns with Jamila Jamil if you have not yet. Oh, thank you. And if anyone wants to come see me live in LA, I'm doing my first ever Netflix as a joke festival, which is very intimidating as a non-comedian to enter a full-on comedians festival. But I will have with me Lamorne Morris, the Winston from The New Girl, and I will have Lisa Trager and Chris Fleming, the man of the moment as my guest. Oh, my God. So I'm very excited. So the tickets are available now, but anyway, if anyone wants to come see it live, it's so much crazier live even than in the room. That sounds wonderful. All right, well, so let's just dive right in. How we usually start this is I will ask both of you, and I'll start with you, Jamila, if that's all right. Had you ever seen The Devil Wears Prada before, and what was your experience on watching it more recently, let's say? I have loved that movie since it first came out. I went and saw it in the cinema and loved it so much that I waited till the next showing to watch it all over again because it was such a feast for my little eyes. You know, I think I was much younger. What year did it come out? 2006. Yeah, 2006, right. So I was, I think, barely 20, and I just started working in the fashion industry. So I was really just like soaking it all up. And then it became, even though it is deeply problematic in many ways, it became a sort of comfort rewatch and I will watch it on any flight if it's available. And I watch it when I'm sick. It's a go-to. I watched it twice over the course of the pandemic. I love showing it to other people. So I think I've seen it probably upwards of 25 times, which is ridiculous. I think it's probably the movie I've watched the most in the world, apart from maybe the Truman Show. Oh, wow, interesting. It picks. Chris, what about you? 2006, I was also getting started in the fashion industry. And, but I saw it in 2006. And I was an Anne Hathaway fan because I secretly loved the Princess Diaries. I have two sisters and we saw that in theaters. And it was great then and it remains great now. Like you said, it's a time capsule of 2006. Certain lines you go, oh, oh, oh, wow. You know, and I watched the September issue, the documentary about Anna Wintour and the making of the 2007, I think, September issue. Is it about Anna Wintour? No, it's really about Grace Cottington. Yeah, who's far more interesting. She is. But it's such like you said, it's a warm blanket movie. It's so snappy and breezy with the exception, I would say, of any time we go back to her boyfriend and friends, the movie kind of grinds to a halt. But anytime that Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Hathaway, Simon Baker is written as such an asshole, but he's so charming that you kind of just want her to leave Adrian Grenier and just take the Yarlsburg and go and let's go with this creepy older dude. But again, it's like weird peak girlboss feminism in some ways. It's like Lindy West's new memoir just came out and there are all these articles about the death of millennial feminism. So I thought it was interesting that we're covering this movie right now. But I stand by the Devil Wars product. It is a great rewatch and it's a very fun movie and we'll talk about all the problematic parts into it. Yeah, I agree. So same as everybody here, I saw this in theaters. I was, I think, 16 years old when this came out and watching it again for the podcast, I did not realize how much this shaped my psyche as a teenager. And we're going to get into this. You know, we keep referencing there are problematic parts of this. The way that the movie deals with Andy's weight is something that psychotic and illegal. It feels almost. I know. But and it's something I wrestle with every time I watch this movie. But then in researching it, I don't know. It's more complicated than I realized. It's very true to the time. Like I was working in the industry. That's what it was like. It would be disingenuous for them to have said or written anything else. And we were, we were still in the throes of size zero. Yes. So yes, that line of like, you know, wake up six, it's literally burned in my head. Like I remember thinking like, oh, you know, six isn't good enough. I'm a size eight. Like it's, you know, it well, then not anymore. I've had a baby, but you know, it's like, I didn't understand how much this movie had shaped my perception of what a female body is supposed to look like for better and for worse. That being said, I love this movie. I think that this is an incredible adaptation as we're going to get into. I'm almost done with the book that it's based on and they really do a bang up job of making this such a tight, funny movie. I love all of the performances. I'm with you, Chris. I think kind of through no fault of his own. I'm not crazy about Adrian Grenier in this movie. I've always been team Simon Baker. It's just not the most interesting part. He's the villain. Yeah. He's the fucking villain. And I think that's the craziest thing to me. I think one of the reasons I rewatch it now as an adult is because I'm so happy for my lens to have shifted to understand a that Andy is not fat at the start of the movie. No, she's not better at the end of the movie because that is what I believed when I was 19 or 20 when I first watched it. Yeah. And then I have understood that Meryl Streep's character whilst being a villain of sorts is not the villain. It's clearly fucking Adrian Grenier. And I remember being such a young pick me asshole that I was like, I can't believe she's hanging out with her gorgeous boyfriend. And now when I rewatch it, I'm like, he's a fucking cunt who doesn't support her friends. Fuck her friend. I agree with you. Fuck her friends. There's no empathy for her whatsoever. That moment where they're throwing her phone all around. I would be so mad. I would torch them all. I would set fire to that fucking table over that moment. I agree. But he is so self absorbed and the idea that she's going to now move like quit her job, whether or not her job was toxic, quit her life and her trajectory to move to whatever Boston fucking town he's fucking moving to where he's going to still make her grilled cheese sandwiches, which look burned by the way. It's propaganda. Like ultimately all of Hollywood in that era was propaganda about the the crumbs that women should tolerate. I agree. I think that the changes that they made to that character for the movie are interesting because he is very different in the book. Oh, interesting. He is not a villain in the book at all. He's like kind of a saint and actually Andy's a bit more of an asshole, which I almost liked a little bit better. But we'll get into all the differences between the book and the movie. Let's go ahead and dive in. So we always start with the details. The Devil Wears Prada is directed by David Frankel. It was produced by Wendy Finerman, who came up in our Forest Gump episode. She's a badass, especially when it comes to adapting literature. Screenplay by Eileen Brosh McKenna based on the bestselling novel by Lauren Weisberger. And of course, it stars Meryl Streep and Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, Emily Blunt and Adrian Grenier. It was released June 30th, 2006. And as always, the IMDb logline is with an aspiration to become a journalist, Andy, a smart but sensible young graduate travels to New York. She starts working as an assistant to one of the city's biggest high fashion magazine editors, The Cynical Miranda Priestley. Smart but sensible. That's an interesting logline IMDb. She's not too smart. They want to make it clear. Like she's not too smart for her own good. She's sensible. She's sensible. Is that their nice way of saying she starts with a size six? All right. So let's begin with the real Andy Sacks, which is Lauren Weisberger because spoiler alert, if anyone doesn't know, this is a very, very thinly veiled portrayal of Lauren's own time at Vogue. So it's a Roman a clef. That's what it's called Roman a clef. Yes, that's the term. Yeah. Yeah. So she grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a teacher and a mortgage broker. She was also a real smarty pants who graduated with an English lit degree from Cornell University. Wow. And as many recent college grads are want to do, she went backpacked around Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, at which point she found herself in need of a job. So she moved to Manhattan, pulled together what I kept seeing referenced as an impressive cover letter, though I could not find it myself to confirm this. And it caught the eye of HR at Condé Nast and then Bing Bang Boom. She was hired as an assistant to the one and only editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine. Who is anybody? Anna Wintour. Anna Wintour. Thank you. Yes. Okay. So Jamila, as certainly the most fashionable person here, could you maybe explain the impact of Anna Wintour or just like a tiny little bit about who she is? Anna Wintour is the editor of American Vogue, but also kind of the leader of Vogue at large globally. Ultimately, I think she has the final say on who gets hired to be editors of other arms of the publication. She decided who our supermodels were. She was instrumental in all of the designers who are big designers, you know, who've entered the lexicon of iconic designers were handpicked by her. She cherry picked the faces and the tailors and the colors of multiple generations of women. And I think also was committed so heavily to the size zero that I would hold her partially responsible for the eating disorder culture of 30 years of women. I agree. She was the editor-in-chief of Vogue from 1988 to 2025. You know what I will say just quickly, which is problematic of me, is that one thing I've always felt is that how dare all these editors not physically live up to the terrifying standards they are putting out into the world. She does. And she does. Yeah, she is one person who's somehow smaller than all of her own models. So she does walk the walk, not just talk the talk like everyone else. I don't know if that makes it better, but it's comforting to me. Fair enough. She did finally step back at the age of 75, but she stepped into a new role as the chief content officer for Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director. So I don't know if we can really call that stepping back. But anyway, it quickly became clear that Lauren, who wanted to be a writer, wasn't going to be doing a whole lot of writing at this job. She was faxing, filing, getting coffee. Now, to be fair, these are all the things that assistants do. We've all done them. I will say in my reading, there's a bit of entitlement in terms of what you think you should be doing at your literal first job out of college, but whatever. But according to another former assistant to Anna Wintour, this is how her assistance duties actually broke down. So she generally had two or three assistants at any time. And Amy O'Dell's Anna the Biography explained their responsibilities like this. The first assistant managed the other two assistants and they handled Anna Wintour's schedule. They were her primary point of contact. And this is the only one who got weekends off. The other two assistants, the second assistant, they would deal with caretakers, i.e. nannies, chefs at Wintour's Manhattan and Long Island homes. They would coordinate film screenings and of course look after her dogs. And then the third assistant would run errands. They pick up theater tickets. They helped during Fashion Week. They ordered Anna's clothes directly from designers. Assistant to the regional manager, as it would be. No, in the office. Yes, exactly. Now, according to Anna the Biography, every new assistant was given a 21-page instruction manual on how to handle most of their tasks. Workday started at 7 a.m. and often ran at least 12 hours. And former assistant Meredith Asplend revealed her starting salary was $25,000 while another one of Anna's first-ever assistants shared that she lost eight pounds in her first two weeks. Both of those things, by the way, do make it into the book. Now, another former assistant revealed the detail we get in both the book and the movie that Wintour would sometimes address her using the other assistant's name. And another one was, of course, told, you must not leave your desk. The desk must not be unmaned at any time. That woman did say this did not come directly from Anna Wintour. It was more sort of lore that, like, you cannot leave the desk unmaned. I do want to note this is an unauthorized biography that was made without Anna Wintour's participation, obviously. And Gwyneth Paltrow, who also had an unauthorized biography written by the same author, did say she totally missed everything, the truth of who I am, what my impact is. So I suppose take all of this with a grain of salt, except that it's pretty much confirmed by her former assistants. Now, Vogue's managing editor at the time, Lori Jones, gave a different reason for why Lauren didn't get to do any writing in her time at Vogue. She said Lauren was, quote, a lovely girl, but not a great writer, poor thing. It's so mean. That is such expert fashion shade. It's pretty good. To couch it in kindness is horrific. Yeah, if anybody calls me a poor thing, that's I'm done. Just take me out. It's an amazing shit sandwich. Yeah. So in 2000, after only 10 months on the job, Lauren did the unthinkable. And she asked Richard Storey, who was an editor at Vogue, to take her with him as he was leaving for Departures magazine. He agreed and she went with him. Now, she did do quite a bit of writing at Departures, but it seems that Storey thought she could use some writing lessons. Everybody's like, you're not very good at this. Oh, no. She's like, I already went to Cornell. I'm like, you should go back. Do it again. She went and took a creative writing class at night. And as part of her homework, she began writing about her former job at Vogue and more specifically her very high profile boss. Now, her teacher read this and apparently just saw dollar signs blinking in their eyes because they shared the writing with literary agent Deborah Schneider, who's response to the at this point 15 to 20 page just series of anecdotal stories was if she wants to sell this book, I can sell it this afternoon. And Deborah was correct. She sold the Devil Wears Prada one week later in May of 2002 for a reported $250,000. Wow. Did they have the name already? Because one thing I want to mention. The name is so good. This is one of the best titles. A whole time. Yeah. It's an amazing title. I think they did. Everybody knows the title and it's a great poster too. We should mention that iconic shoe on it. But anyway, it's an amazing title. The cover of the book is great too. All the marketing around this is really excellent. Yeah. By the way, a little fun fact when Anna Wintour was informed about the book and the fact that the quote unquote villain Miranda Priestly was not so loosely based on her. She reportedly said, I cannot remember who that girl is. Yeah, it's the madman. That's the brand for you. I don't think about you at all. Honestly, I believe her. So very shortly after the news of this deal broke producer Wendy Feynerman, who again, this is the woman who would not give up on Forrest Gump option the film. Now she had a three year first look deal with Fox 2000 at this point that began in 1999. So Fox 2000 is where the Devil Wears Prada landed. And when Carla Hacken, then executive VP at Fox 2000 first read Weisberger's manuscript, she said quote, I thought Miranda Priestly was one of the greatest villains ever. I remember we went aggressively in and scooped it up. But here's the thing. They did not have a finished novel. They had about a hundred pages of a manuscript that were essentially just a setup. According to Feynerman, quote, it was set obviously in the world of fashion and we all knew what it was. And we all knew the background of the book. We had to wait five or six months to get the other half of the book. We had no idea what happened with the story, but the setup was so great. So Fox 2000 is like, we're just going to start working on the story anyway, even though they had no idea where the book was going to go because they were like, doesn't really matter. But in April of 2003, the Devil Wears Prada hit bookshelves and it absolutely blew up. It spent half the year on the New York Times bestsellers list. And I can confirm every teenage girl was reading it, including myself, even though I honestly didn't understand like 90% of what was in it. All the products, the Bang and Olifson phones. I didn't know what any of this shit was. Jamila, was this on your radar when the book came out or not until the movie? Not at all. No, no, no. When I was at school around this time, I was so head in textbooks that I didn't have time to read anything that wasn't on my curriculum. Oh, good for you. But then I watched the movie and then watched it 25 times and never revisited any of those clever books. So never read a book again. Yeah, just left school with very few qualifications and fulfilled zero of my potential. And now if anyone's seen my sub-stack, the grammar would tell you that I've never been to school a day in my life. So I refuse to believe that. Well, all you have to do is take a creative writing night course like Lauren. Sure, sure, sure. And I write a bestseller. Yeah, well, so despite the book's massive cultural impact, there was one person whose feathers were reportedly not at all ruffled. Any guesses who just didn't care at all about this book? Anna Wintour. Anna Wintour. That's right. Anna Wintour, of course. No Queen Ice Dragon herself. Did she fuck? I've always thought that was horseshit. Like, I think that it rattled her terribly, but she's from a... 100%. You know, there's a very old school British concept of never complain, never explain is the kind of royal families. You know, it's a very like British aristocratic position to take so that you never, ever have to clarify or not clarify anything. And it's both a very frustrating way to live, but it's also a much more peaceful way to live because things move on in ambiguity. And there's that expression of like, it's better to be considered a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Amazing. Which is an extraordinary expression that I love so much. Not the way I live my life, unfortunately. Yeah, I was gonna say from three podcasters. No, no, no. All I do is remove. I've been removing all doubt for 17 years straight, you know. So that's sort of my, it's my exact brand, I would say, is just removing all doubt at all times. But I think it must have rattled her really badly. But also Meryl Streep turned her into an icon. And yes, if I may add to that, as I've gotten older, you know, my biggest fear when I was younger is that people would think that I'm difficult and scary because of the color of my skin and because of how outspoken I am. In spite of the fact that I'm actually a softy, I'm considered intimidating and scary to certain people. And as I've gotten older, I've realized that, oh, that is the sweet spot in life is to be a woman who other people fear because people just leave you the fuck alone. Yeah, good point. And actually, it's more dangerous for them to realize that you're just made of like, you know, I'm like a lint ball, you know, I'm just like putty in the middle. Don't tell them. No, I know, it's too late. But it's fine. This community can know. But everyone else on the Internet, I prefer that they think I'm crazy and scary and I can see why. There's a power to it. There was a part of her that's like, oh, I sort of win if everyone thinks I'm absolutely terrifying. And so possibly that's also why she never tried to navigate any of this to seem untrue. Yes. And also, look, she's an incredibly successful woman and that's something we're going to get into. I think the movie does do a very good job of is it makes her far more complicated than she is on the page in the book. And I do think that that's a good thing at the end of the day. Mm hmm. According to William Norwich, who is a former Vogue editor and also a New York Post gossip columnist, he said that she just didn't really see herself as a cultural phenomenon and told friends, I'm so bored by me. What a good statement. This is your business. This is your business supercharged with the help of zero counting software. These are your numbers. These are your numbers sorted with the help of zero counting software. This is you. Hi. This is you taking business where you want with the help of zero counting software. This is your business supercharged with the help of zero and having your numbers sorted all at the same time so you can finally focus on taking business where you want. Supercharged your business today with the help of zero. Search zero with an X. A Cast recommends. I'm Marina Burgess and I'm Gemma Forte and welcome to the Troll where we dive into the hellscape of our new cycle so you don't have to. I am beginning to think the head of the Iranian military isn't an ex-Fox news host. There's a pigeon over there. I respect that pigeon more than Trump. Have not pulled first. Join us with special guests on the Troll meets. Alistair Campbell, Stuart Lee, Carol Vordemann, Zach Polanski. That's the Troll, T-R-A-W-L. A Cast powers the world's top podcast including Off Menu, the Adam Buxton podcast and the show you're listening to right now. Now since the book was pretty much immediately a runaway hit, Fox is like, all right, we got to find a screenwriter, get this thing going. So first up was Peter Hedges. At this point, best known for writing what's eating Gilbert Grape and About a Boy. Wow. Yeah, I mean, Gilbert Grape, not an amazing comp. About a Boy though, I think. He's a great writer. He's a great writer. He's a great writer. He's a great writer. He's a great writer. He's a great writer. He's a great writer. He's a great writer. He's a great writer. About a Boy though, I think, actually a pretty good comp for this. And he delivered what everyone seemed to agree was a pretty solid first draft, but he actually quit the project very quickly because he found it way too overwhelming and did not want to be involved in it. Perhaps he was busy raising future film star Lucas Hedges. I didn't realize that that was his dad until I started researching this, but it is and they look identical. Next up was Howard Michael Gould, who was mostly a sitcom writer and then Paul Rudnick, who had written Adam's Family Values. A lot of guys. I was going to say, well, we're not done with the men. Rudnick was only available for two weeks. He did a past just on Miranda Priestley's dialogue and then came Don Roos and yeah, what's the theme amongst these four writers? They're just like, I don't know what's not working. Let's just try some more dudes. Let's hire more men. Men, men, men. Yeah. That is so bizarre to me. Like this is a story where almost every major character is a woman. You've exclusively hired men to write this screenplay. And probably men, you know, who like me find there's a great quote in September issue. Anna Wintour says, there's something about fashion that can make people very nervous. I'm guessing all of these men were made very nervous by fashion, you know, as I am. And yeah, doesn't seem like the right fit. That's spot on because apparently they had turned this into basically like a Zoolander-esque skewering of the fashion world, and I think that's what you do if you don't A, care about it and B, like understand it. Right. Right. So in fairness to these folks, there were a few big problems with adapting the book. First, it's basically just a series of anecdotes. Like there really is not a strong narrative through line pushing you towards a climax at all in this. I've been rereading it. I'm not totally done with it, but like it's a bit strange. It's the structure is weird. It almost kind of loops back on itself over and over again. It's just sort of these like series of vignettes of her life with her boss, and then it'll like start in one place and then kind of jump back to explain like how she got to this kind of, you know, the worst part of her day just over and over and over again. And it really doesn't have like any kind of driving narrative to it. So that is a pretty big challenge for this movie. There also is not a strong third act at all. According to Elizabeth Gabler, then president of Fox 2000, quote, getting that third act narrative was one of the biggest challenges of my job ever. We had all these plot points that were carryovers from the book. So there were external reasons for Andy to make a decision whether she wanted to keep her job because Miranda's threat was if you leave, you don't have your job anymore. Servicing those subplots was crippling and it was liberating to finally say, let's not make it about that. Let's make it about her decision, which I think is a very smart change they make for the movie. So obviously they had a lot to fix in order to make it a successful movie and nobody had really nailed it yet. And meanwhile, the studio was hunting for a director and they really wanted someone with a ton of very broad, like sitcom style comedy experience, which I think gives you a clue as to what those early iterations of the screenplay might have been like. This did make David Frankel a pretty weird fit. He'd only directed one feature at that point and was much better known for his work directing episodes of Band of Brothers, Sex and the City and Entourage, although to me, someone who's directed Sex and the City and Entourage. Sex and the City is a perfect fit. Exactly. It is a perfect fit. Also explains how Adrian Grenier got into this film. Yes, it does indeed. You know, I don't think his careers ever really recovered because of how much we all started to hate him on like the second or third watch. I know. And he's just an actor. I think it's unfair. Like we forever saw him as this motherfucker from that film. I know. And I don't think he ever got it back. No, between this and Entourage, which he's actually he does a good job in both. It's fantastic. I don't think anyone made it out of Entourage alive. If you look at that cast. Yeah, yeah, true. Yeah, you're right. I guess they didn't. But it turns out Wendy Feynerman had had her eye on David Frankel for a pretty long time. And even though he didn't really have a ton of experience with what broad comedy or fashion he was intrigued and he agreed to a call with Feynerman. And he's like, oh, I should probably read the book and I guess read the script before this call. So he did that and then promptly went into a panic spiral saying, quote, for very talented writers have been working for a couple of years adapting it. Having read the book, there were moments of more honesty and emotion in some of the scenes, which their movie turned into campy satire. So I bailed on the call with Wendy and abandoned the meeting. And then he said this, Miranda was a witch and Andy's motivation was to get her revenge. There was a lot of conflict that ended with Miranda being humiliated. I felt that wasn't satisfying. My view was that we should be grateful for excellence. Why do the excellent people have to be nice? I love that. I think that is such a smart take. It's very interesting. Yeah. So 10 days later, his agent called him up and was like, hey, did you like the script? And he's like, no, I absolutely did not. And his agent kindly explained to him, OK, this is what directors do. Find a germ, a nugget of something that appeals to you the first time through. And then your job is to shape it into the movie that you love. And he's like, oh, OK. So he goes ahead, meets with Wendy, and then uses the entire meeting to tell her everything he didn't like about the script and how he would fix it. He said he wanted to celebrate Miranda just as much as expose her and turn this into a real coming of age story for Andy. It's about learning to be great at something. This worked and with some help from Wendy, Frankle sold Fox on his vision for the film and he was hired. But this was basically an entirely different movie than what they had on paper. So they decided to find another screenwriter to start completely from scratch. And this time they had a novel thought. And he guesses what was different about this screenwriter. A woman, perhaps? A woman. It's a lady. We did it, Joe. So in Thanksgiving of 2004, the relatively unknown Aileen Brosh McKenna was hired. And she immediately clicked with Frankle's vision for the film. And it was very personal for her. According to McKenna who'd grown up in New Jersey, quote, Nigel's speech about how it's a beacon of hope that he read under the covers with flashlight. I wrote that as an homage to all of us for whom those fashion magazines were a peak into this world. There was no internet. So it was really hard to access that sense of what it meant to trot around the globe. Fashion magazines were very important for widening your horizons. I agree. As a little kid in Richmond, Virginia, I love reading fashion magazines. It really was so different before the internet was around. But producers were very eager to get the show on the road. And so she turned in her first draft in one month. Chris, you're a screenwriter. What's the fastest you've ever turned in a draft? I technically had to do one a little faster than that. And I would never recommend it. OK. Wow. Humble, Bragg. No, she did more changes. Obviously, I did. It was like a light polish on something in a couple weeks. OK. Considering what she did, that's crazy. She rewrote the whole thing. Yeah. Like normally eight to 10 weeks would be much more normal. That would still be quick. Wow. OK. Something interesting that McKenna did was she made a point not to research Anna Wintour and instead chose to treat the Miranda Priestley in the book as just that, Miranda Priestley. This is so smart also because the book is so detailed. Like it is basically just a transcription of everything that happened in that office down to the letter. A couple of interesting things that did get lost in the book to screen adaptation that I do want to call out though. Andy Sacks is very explicitly Jewish in the book, as is Miranda Priestley. There is a whole big reveal about Miranda's background that she grew up in a very poor Orthodox Jewish family in London. I do think it's interesting that they erase basically any ethnicity from the movie in several roles. This is one of those cases. Nigel is the other. Is Anna Wintour Jewish? No. Wasn't her dad, the editor of the London Evening Standard? Yes. Interesting. I think that's probably why in order to... Oh, that's a good point to tie it more closely to her. Yeah. Although she's not British. Meryl Streep is not British in the movie, which I do think is interesting. Yeah, but she's got that same accent there. Mid-Atlantic. Yes, I agree. Yeah, that's true. It doesn't sound always fully British to me either. No. Like when I listen to her. Yeah. They sound like Waspie New Yorkers. Yes, true. A couple other little tiny details. She's from Connecticut in the book. She went to Brown, not Northwestern. Her boyfriend is Alex, not Nate. He's very different. He is a school teacher for underprivileged children, although I will say the book handles that in a very ham-fisted early-oughts way in terms of who the underprivileged children are. And he is sort of unendingly supportive of her. She is a lot less likable. The quibbles that he has with her in the book are extremely reasonable, and she really does treat him like shit. So it is interesting to me that they flip that. She also has a much stronger personality in the book, which I kind of didn't mind. Now, while the movie may have softened Andy's edges, it did harden those of the people around her. McKenna said she pulled insult inspiration from Don Rickles to come up with some of Miranda and Emily's lines. And she actually did speak to one insider at Vogue who read the script and said everyone was way too nice. So she did a pass punching up all of the insults and also changed Nigel, who is a composite kind of of two characters in the book, but ends up being essentially a whitewashing of the real Andre Leon Talley. That's why I was wondering in the September issue. That's kind of who I thought it might be. It's absolutely him. They turn him from a sort of warm, friendly mentor into a quote, mean mentor. The mentor who tells Andy what she's really doing wrong. It's an important thing in your 20s to recognize when you're failing. I know, but Stanley Tucci's delivery of it is just still so warm. He just can't be mean in anything. I know. You know who I feel like if they were going to do more of an Andre Leon Talley, I just thought of Titus Burgess immediately. Oh, yeah. Oh my God, yes. He would be so good in that role. Yeah, so good. He would be great. If they ever did a more true to life version, maybe. If they do a Broadway version of Devil Wears Prada, they better hire him. And let him sing. Absolutely. So you may have noticed that I said she spoke to one insider, and that's because it proved very difficult to get anyone from the fashion industry to talk to her about this movie. Yeah, because Anna Wintour scared the shit out of everyone. There were rumors that she had waged a campaign against Robert Altman's film, Prada Porte, back in the 90s, and that she'd been speed-dialing designers to tell them not to participate in the Devil Wears Prada. Of course, Vogue denied this. They were like, no, obviously not. No calls were made. There will be no retribution if anyone wants to participate. Now, all right, I want to go back to the insults, and I want to talk about one particular insult that McKenna added to the film, which is, take a chance, hire the smart fat girl. Yeah. I will never not laugh at this line. Obviously, it is absurd because Anne Hathaway is gorgeous and not even remotely fat. But I do feel as though that is a nod to how insane it is. I don't think they mean it. Yes. I feel the way that they cut immediately to Anne Hathaway's face being like, what in the fuck are you saying? Yes. I think that was a really important moment of stepping outside of the industry being like, this shit is bullshit. That's just what I took from it. That's exactly right. And the screenwriter said this herself. She said, one of the things that's very palpable about fashion is that it's very hard to be overweight. It's a world where being thin is prized, partly because of the sample sizes floating around. I thought that her describing Andy as a fat person says a lot about the values of that world. Mm-hmm. Where anyplace else Andy would be considered incredibly skinny. It's also pretty different from, I was thinking of love actually. Oh my God. The woman who works in the Prime Minister's office. Yeah, yeah. And where everyone just relentlessly describes her. It's about her huge thighs. Her huge thighs and her huge butt. And she's gorgeous. I know. That one is crazy. Candidly, like her physique would be quite prized right now, culturally. Well, maybe two years ago, but yeah. Yeah, sure. Okay, I'm a little behind the time. So come me some slack. 2024, let's fucking go, multi-function. But 2026, we're right back to the Devil Wears Prada. It's actually perfect timing for the second one to be coming out as we have circled right back around culturally to the Azempic era supersize. Oh yeah, that's true. Zero vibes. Yeah, we're going to talk a little bit more about that as it pertains to the Devil Wears Prada 2 at the end of this. But the reason I'm calling out this moment is because I agree with you, Jamila. This one works for me. This one felt like it was for us. That was the one drive that felt that it was for us to show how insane this is. Yeah. I agree, but here's my main problem with the way that the movie handles this is that Anne Hathaway, by her own admission, did have to lose quite a bit of weight for the role. Oh. So much so that they had to add a prosthetic butt pad to her during this whole size six setup that of course they would later remove when she's championed for getting down to a size four. Well, I was going to say she arcs toward a four, which is... That's what bothers me. It undercuts everything. It does. I don't know why they did that because it's not celebrated in the same way in the book at all. I think that was a mistake. I get what they're trying to do and I believe that they thought that they were saying something different than the way that I think it actually comes across. No, I think it was a combination of both. I think that one moment that we were celebrating showed situational awareness and I do agree that to an extent they're just telling it how it really was in the fashion industry. But I also think that it was hyper-normalized to see weight loss as part of a transformation in a woman that we would glorify. That's true. It wasn't weird back then. That line, I'm just one stomach flew away from my goal weight that Emily Blunt says, I think when they're going up the stairs. I literally haven't seen this film in a year, but this is how many times I've seen this fucking movie. But as she's saying that, that sentence alone entered the lexicon where until COVID, for the 20 years that film had been out almost or like 16 years that film had been out, anytime I got sick, my girlfriends wanted to come over to try and get what I had because they'd be jealous that I was going to lose weight and they wanted to lose weight. So I felt like fat camp, free fat camp is to get really sick. Tell them just put their kid in daycare. You'll be vomiting. Exactly. But that's what 20-year-olds were like after that moment. That moment normalize like thinness at all costs. And it cemented into our generation that thinness equals success, thinness equals acceptance. Thinness means you get to dress better. It's like she could have dressed amazingly in all of those same outfits at the size fucking six or eight or 10 or whatever. And she would have looked amazing. But it was a subliminal message dropped in and that was the values of the time. That was the values of Hollywood for sure. I agree. She was unbelievably thin women and she would eat a tub of ice cream in the movie and the men would be joking about what a fat pig she was. It was an insane time. So I don't want to say that we just misinterpreted it. No, no, no. I think you're right. I think that this movie, this is my one, honestly one quibble with this movie is it does quite a bit of have your cake and eat it too or don't eat it. I suppose with this. And, you know, Anne Hathaway said in an interview around the time this came out that she and Emily Blunt would like clutch at each other and cry because they were so hungry because they had lost so much weight during this. By the way, that article has been scrubbed, but I found it. Well done. Way back machine. Way back machine. Yes, I had pulled a lot from the way back machine for this because much of it had been scrubbed. So also, Anne Hathaway famously took her butt pad home and had it framed with Andy's ass written underneath it, which is kind of funny, but also makes me a little sad. Devastating. So since we're talking about our stars, let's go ahead and dive into casting. And it seems that they did start with Miranda, so we will too. Meryl Streep is like kind of the reason this movie got made. The film was not even officially greenlit until Tom Rothman secured Meryl Streep for the role in 2005. And the early 2000s were a pretty fun and interesting time for Meryl. She had kind of started to take some steps away from her more serious roles. It had brought her an Oscar nomination for her part in Spike Jonze's adaptation, which I love so much. She does deliver one of my favorite lines in the entire movie. Chris, do you remember? Which one? That's what she screams at the end. You've ruined my life, you fat fuck. Yeah. Incredible. I just want to be a baby again. I want to be a baby. She's so good. She'd also appeared in Lemony Snicket's series of unfortunate events. And she was kind of just looking for more fun roles. And it really was not about making money. She was just like, she's like, I've done the serious stuff. I'm out to have some fun now. I also feel like she was an unbelievably beautiful woman who was always disowned by the fashion industry. She was always someone who no one took any interest in what she wore. No one took any interest in how beautiful she was. Which is crazy. And the theme throughout her youthful interviews of how unattractive she was made to feel by people because she had that beautiful long nose. And she was told, you need to look more like an all-American girl to be successful. You'll never be. She was so discouraged at the start of her career. And then throughout her career, she was a bit like Emma Thompson, another gorgeous woman. Who was just treated as if you're like, oh, you're not really in with the in-crowd. She was one of the least celebrated superstar women. And so I imagine this is also quite a fun little fuck you to an industry that largely shunned her even though she added so much value and worth to any of the bullshit they were doing. I agree. And also I think about her in like Kramer versus Kramer and she is just stunning. The most beautiful. Stunning. We need to cover that. That was a tough. She did not have a good time working with Dustin Hoffman on that movie. No, that slap. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Dustin Hoffman. We'll get there. Now, according to Entertainment Weekly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, and Catherine Zeta-Jones were all considered for the role. I could see Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer. I don't really see Catherine Zeta-Jones the same way. Too young. Yeah, that's true. That's true. She had just done like intolerable cruelty. She would have been way too young. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't think she looks right at all for that. But Carla Hacken and Wendy Feynerman were both on the Merrill or Bust train from the beginning. However, not everyone shared their confidence. Feynerman revealed that Streep was almost passed over because of doubts as to whether or not she could be funny. That's crazy to me. She just did adaptation, which truly she made me laugh out loud so many times in that. It is a different type of humor, but I wouldn't necessarily look at Close and Pfeiffer any differently is my point. Exactly. Pfeiffer maybe because of Batman. Batman? Yeah. Okay, that's fair. Maybe. It still wasn't like comedy, comedy. This is sitcom comedy that they were looking for. That's true. And I think it's maybe not just that they don't know if she can do it. It's also that they imagine that if people see that it's a Merrill Street movie, they'll imagine it's a very serious, Oscar-worthy, gravitas, laden film. That's true. But of course, it does end up getting her an Oscar nomination. But she got along great with David Frankel who said, quote, when I met Merrill, we talked about what would you sacrifice to be excellent? She also wanted to make a movie that at least mocked the tyranny of the thin. Now, I want to say I very much get the impression that Merrill was more on the side of mocking this than kind of anyone else making the movie. She was very angry behind the scenes. She was always trying to encourage Anne Hathaway to eat. To not lose weight. Yeah. Yes. And she was like, you don't need to be doing this. But of course, she did because they were telling her to. More on that in a few minutes. Well, Lizzie, it does remind me of the Grace Coddington moment in the September issue when she was looking at the photo of the cameraman. Oh, yeah. And they said they were going to basically Photoshop out his belly. Yeah. And she's like, I don't want you to do that. I want you to do that. I want you to look like a person. People should look like people. Not everybody needs to look like models. It was a very interesting moment behind the scenes. She's fascinating. I really, I could have watched three more hours of Grace Coddington. If you all haven't watched the September issue, it is streaming on Prime right now. And I highly recommend it. It's a nice little companion piece, the Devil Wars Prada. And they do something very smart, which by the end of it, it really is more about Grace Coddington and a little bit Andre Leon Talley, although not as much about him, but then it is about Anna Wintour. And I think that's because they realized that they're both more interesting than Anna Wintour. Wintour is pretty flat. She's pretty inaccessible. Yeah. She does not let you in. This is your business. This is your business, supercharged with the help of zero accounting software. This is managing cash flow. This is managing your cash flow with the help of zero accounting software. These are your customers paying you. These are your customers having more ways to pay you with the help of zero accounting software. This is your business, supercharged with the help of zero, helping you sort your cash flow by giving your customers more ways to pay, so now you can focus on making your business boom. Supercharged your business today with the help of zero. ACAST recommends I'm Marina Burgess and I'm Gemma Forte and welcome to the Troll, where we dive into the hellscape of our new cycle so you don't have to. I am beginning to think the head of the Iranian military isn't an ex-Fox News host. There's a pigeon over there. I respect that pigeon more than Trump. Reform have not polled first. Join us with special guests on the Troll meets. Alistair Campbell, Stuart Lee, Carol Vordemann, Zach Polanski. That's the Troll, T-R-A-W-L. ACAST powers the world's top podcast, including Off Menu, the Adam Buxton podcast. And the show you're listening to right now. Meryl did have a few conditions that had to be met before she would officially sign on. She insisted on a business of fashion scene. This became the Cerulean sweater scene. She wanted it to be taken seriously and explain how it impacts daily life. By the way, a little fun fact on that Cerulean sweater monologue. It's completely made up. Most of the detail was just invented by McKenna because it sounded real. And then the second thing that she required was the scene where Miranda appears completely makeup and fashion free in the hotel room where she tells Andy about her divorce. She said, we have to see Miranda without her, quote, protective glaze. These are such smart additions, like kind of essential additions, I think, to this movie. Two of my favorite parts of the film. Yeah, two of the most iconic parts of the movie. She's such a producer, isn't she? She's so smart. She also required a lot more money than they initially offered, which I say good for you, Meryl. She said, quote, the offer was to my mind, if not insulting, not perhaps reflective of my actual value to the project. 100%. There was my goodbye moment. And then they doubled the offer. I was 55 and I had just learned at a very late date how to deal on my own behalf. She made somewhere between four and $5 million for the role. Good for you. She is the movie. She makes the movie. She does. Yeah, 100%. She is the movie. This may be hard to fathom, but Adrian Grenier was one of the biggest stars in the cast at this time. He was peak entourage fame. And so when he was cast as Nate, that was another big boon to the movie. Simon Baker, on the other hand, he's a few years away from the mentalist at this point. And so he actually was not a big name at all. He'd had some small but recognizable roles across American and Australian film and TV. By no means was he a star. I love Simon Baker and I'm totally with you. Every time I watch this, I'm like, my God, leave him. Go with Christian. Good Lord. I hate Christian. I'm so surprised. You do. You do really. Yeah. I hate the way he's written. I just find him very charming. I get her like a good vibrator and get her away from both of these men. I found him dripping with sleaze. Oh, he is. Yes, he is. But like, I guess, am I totally off base? Maybe that's your thing. I like for me, that's like, I think I hate smooth people. So I think that's probably, I just don't trust anyone who isn't like fallible and awkward. That's fair. So I think that's probably just my personal taste where I was like, neither of these men suit this woman well at all. And he just seemed like he has a date rape drug in his pocket. But that's just my personal feeling. Sorry. Sorry. I could see it. I guess maybe it's my love of Simon Baker in general that is bleeding through because I find him very charming. But I will say upon this rewatch, I didn't find anything that Christian did particularly bad. I don't know. He's fine. What does he do that's so bad? I feel like he's dangling the professional connections. You know, to try to get the sex from her. Yeah, he's definitely got a casting count. Yes, totally. He knows she's got a boyfriend. He knows she's like inappropriate and young for him. He's an incredibly sleazy character. Okay, I'm wrong. I'll crawl back into my hole. No, no, no. Here's where I agree. He's an incredibly sleazy character. I still find Simon Baker very charming. He is. And I think he does a great American accent. Oh yeah. Also goes to Land of the Dead. He's very good as the lead of that movie. He's not that perfect to the actor, but it's just like, he's inappropriately older than her. Super inappropriate. She's clearly an aura of him. It's a total abuse of power and experience. My 16 year old brain was like, that's the good one. I know, but like, what were our options back then? Do you know what I mean? That's what I'm saying. I just find Adrian Grenway so unattractive. Poor man. You know, it was that or Paul Blart Mall Cop. You know, we were told it's one of these two or Paul Blart Mall Cop. Like we weren't given a knee. Like middle ground. It's either Seth Rogen and knocked up or this is the villain. Exactly. And all the men who are kind and good and emotionally intelligent were put in a sweater vest and marketed as the weak beta soy cock that the woman always passes over for the bad boy in the leather jacket. We didn't have those words yet though. No. That is true. Soyboy is my favorite. Exactly. Mato's fear term. It makes me laugh every time I hear it. It's so ridiculous. But back then, you know, those were the, you know, we were given stereotype options of men who are mentally and emotionally unavailable and manipulative. And we were told to go after him and save him and fix him. And we were never told to go with someone nice who cared about us and our dreams. No, no, no. And I feel as though this just was a continuation of that. Absolutely. Fucking horseshit. But anyway, as you were. So the part of Emily was particularly difficult to cast and Frankel saw over a hundred actresses for the part. None of them were right. Now Emily Blunt had mostly acted in TV movies at this point, but she was on the Fox lot at the time because she was deep in callbacks for Aragon. Oh, but yeah, it turns out in one of the meetings she took on the lot, a casting associate asked her to read for the Devil Wars Prada and she was running late. She's trying to make a flight. She had on sweatpants. So she's just like, whatever. And she read the sides very flustered, very fast in a British accent. Frankel saw this tape and he was like, that's my Emily. I love her. I want her exactly like this. But he actually had to wait for Aragon to pass on her because that's the part she wanted. And that was the higher profile film. They finally did pass on her and he called her house in England, got her mother who informed him that she was out getting very plastered with her sister, sad to have lost the Aragon role and told him to call her cell phone. And he did. And he reached her in the bathroom of a dive bar in London where he said, listen, I would love to cast you off the tape, but the studio wants to see you one more time. So can you do what you did, but dress the part more? And so she did one more screen test and she got the part. And it is worth mentioning the character Emily in the book is potentially the most different from book to screen. And that has everything to do with Emily Blunt because she and McKenna literally went in and rewrote that character. They added all of those funny lines, the British isms. And Blunt said she took some inspo from people in the real world saying, quote, I saw a mother speaking to her child in a supermarket when we were shooting that film. It's a line that gets quoted back to me now. She yelled at her kid and she kind of opened and closed her hand and she goes, yeah, I'm hearing this and I want to hear this. I went and put it in the movie. Poor kid. She stole the film. 100% she steals this movie. Yeah. Stole the movie. I think she's why I rewatch it. She's so funny. Obviously Anne Hathaway is a delight, but I watched the movie for Emily Blunt for just those little just bite sized moments of her utter unapologetic villain vibes and just the way she eats that chocolate pot in the hospital because she hasn't eaten in so long that this disgusting hospital prison food tastes so amazing to her and she's like licking the lid or whatever. I just thought she humanized such a nightmarish role so brilliantly. I remember just thinking who the fuck is that and she's why I watched it again that day in the cinema. That was it for me. I was just like me and John Krasinski both were just like, that's it. I'm in love with her. That's my woman. I'm going to watch her and support her in everything she does forever, but she made that fucking movie. I agree with you. She makes me laugh out loud more than anybody else in this movie. Yeah. All right. Now, before we get to our final piece of the puzzle, I want to talk about the casting of Nigel because there's a little bit of scandal around it. So before Stanley Tucci was attached, the production did a round of auditions, but not with actors. They auditioned several real life fashion industry people, including Simon Dunan, the former creative director of Barney's New York. And here's how Dunan said his audition went, quote, after I delivered my lines, Mr. Frankel asked me about various people at Vogue, including Miss Winter. When I told him that the editor-in-chief was straightforward, highly professional and incredible mother and extremely well liked by her staff, in sharp contrast to Miss Weisberger's implied portrait he glazed over. Soon Dunan realized that celebrity stylist Robert Verdi and Philip Block had also been asked to audition. But mere days after Dunan had read for Frankel, Stanley Tucci was announced as playing Nigel. So here's what Dunan said publicly about this quote, this whole charade I theorized was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated piece of unpaid research. Yeah, try to get them on camera talking about Anna Wintour. Yeah, he said we gays had been dragged in to swish it up on film, no less for the delictation of some precast overpaid straight actor. This thespian would then fashion his characterization from our mincings. You know what that's happened to me before. Really? So, when I was doing an audition for a movie that I think was with Jennifer Garner a few years ago, the casting director asked me all these private questions about Kristen Bell and clearly had it in for Kristen Bell and was like, do you think she would have been more successful had she been prettier? And I was like, what? I think she's very good looking and she's also really fucking successful. Very successful. She's a household name around the world. I think she's fine. I think she's doing fine. She's doing great and she looks great. And she asked me all these private questions about like Kristen's marriage to Dax and what? And I was like, oh, shit, you have a problem personally with Kristen Bell and because I'm in a show where I spend all day with her, you've only brought me in to try and get shit from me about Kristen, which I would never do. And it was in between two scenes. And so in the next scene, I have to die, which is already humiliating to pretend to be shot in like mine. Oh no. Up against a wall. And I'd never done a death scene before because it was like my second ever audition of like the good places, my first ever audition. This was like my second ever audition. Oh my God. And I was having to do, you know, drama, you know, I didn't, which I didn't know how to do. And she was so angry with me because I wouldn't give her a single nugget about Kristen Bell that then she like was just like read the sides like, yeah, and then bang, you've been shot. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And I was like, I left the room and I never heard anything back. And I was like, you motherfucker, these fuckers, this industry. That's bizarre. I know. What are you doing with that information? It's just like your own personal. Yeah. And I'm the camera's on. Does she have a Kristen Bell voodoo doll? Like a bizarre. I had no idea, but she was obsessed and I didn't give her anything. Okay. And I didn't get the job, but like, fuck working with someone like that. So tell me, what's Kristen really like? Well, as it makes you feel any better, my daughter may or may not be at least partially named after Eleanor Shellstrobe from The Good Place. Right. Well, so Stanley Tucci came out and he was like, no, he said, I don't know why someone would write such a piece. They really did not know what they wanted to do with this part. I think he's imagining a much more Machiavellian scenario than actually exists. All I know is someone called me and I realized this was a great part. Initially I thought, oh, okay, I believe Stanley Tucci, but the more I started thinking about it, I kind of believe Simon Dunan. Who's to say it's totally, both options are totally possible, but I think Simon's one is more plausible given the nature of Hollywood. I agree. Well, is there a version where Tucci's unaware of it? Yes. Frankle has used the information, right? Yes, totally. You see what I'm saying? To inform the way he's going to direct him. Well, Tucci is also the soul to the earth. Like he, I couldn't watch a movie where he played a pedophile or a rapist or something because I was like, the lovely bones. He's going to make me fucking like, he's going to make me sympathize because he's just so lovely that it's so impossible to hate him that I was like, I can't watch anything where he's actually a villain. Otherwise, I'll sympathize with the villain. So I have to avoid whenever he takes a dark turn because it'll do something weird to me. I'm just, I ride it dawn for Stanley Tucci. Of course we all, we all do. My secret pitch for that movie is they should have flipped the casting between Stanley Tucci and Mark Wahlberg. Oh God. I don't want to see Mark Wahlberg play a murdering pedophile either. That's scary for different reasons, but yes. So it is interesting though, because Tucci was apparently cast a couple of weeks into shooting and he actually accepted the role a few days before they started filming him. So it does seem like maybe they had a hard time filling this role. Perhaps they were casting a wide net. They went to, you know, real people in the fashion industry. Who knows. He's also straight playing gay. Yes. Yes. I think that was Simon's point about him being able to watch them on camera, which is a valid point. All right. Step aside, half the haters. It's time to talk about Andy Sacks. So Anne Hathaway was not the first choice to play Andy nor was she the second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth. She was the ninth choice for this role. Any guesses who the studio's top choice was? Huge star at the time coming in hot off of Mean Girls, The Notebook. Oh, oh no way. Rachel McAdams. Rachel McAdams. Rachel McAdams. Who would be in an Aileen Brosh McKenna script, Morning Glory a few years later. Yes. Yeah. They were desperate for her. So she was actually filming the Family Stone on the Fox lot at the time and they offered her. Love the Family Stone. Incredible Christmas movie. They offered her this role three times and she kept saying no. She did not want to do more commercial work at this point. And Frankel said, you know, at the time it would be easy to perceive the movie as kind of a simplistic Cinderella tale and she wanted to do more sophisticated work than that. Also like we don't know where the script was at this point. It's quite possible she was reading earlier iterations. By the way, it's not a great showcase of acting talent, that film. That's not to discredit Anne Hathaway, who I think is a phenomenon of our generation. That's the least interesting part of the whole movie. But it's the least interesting part in the whole movie. There's no real acting chops other than like a bit of frustration or a bit of tension about, you know, like a bit of stress. Really it's a fluff role where you are playing the exposition lead and everyone else gets to be colorful and the storyline happens everywhere apart from really you. Yeah. You're the audience's point of entry into a very weird world. Which is hard. That's also a hard job. It's totally a hard job. It does it incredibly well. But it's not a fun job. Yeah, it's not a job that like I think any actor would be like, oh, this is going to make a real impact. However, the commercial success of that movie made Anne Hathaway a bona fide, a list superstar, faster than Rachel McAdams. Well, well, no, I guess the notebook was the biggest film in the world. So I guess maybe she also didn't need it as much as Anne Hathaway needed it. This graduated Anne Hathaway into like I'm an adult making real blockbuster movies. Totally. So other actresses considered before and were Kirsten Dunst, Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Kate Hudson. And Kate Hudson has openly said that she regrets not taking the role. She apparently really only turned it down because of a scheduling conflict. Kate would have been phenomenal. She would have been great. Any of those would have been great. Yeah. I mean, a lot of them are just like, no, they're great, but there's just like they're very serious and very grounded. Like this role required a levity that Anne Hathaway is a master at whilst also being able to be like Le Miserable, like deep traumatized wrecked. And McAdams can do that too. Like Rachel McAdams. Yeah. Was so hilarious. Yeah. There's one in that list, I think could absolutely do this. And it's Kirsten Dunst because of Drop Dead Gorgeous alone and Dick. She's so funny. She's so funny. I think she could have done this. Yeah. But I agree with you on the other ones for sure. So finally, the casting director moved all the way down to the bottom of her list to Anne Hathaway at this point, best known for playing princesses and teen centric movies like Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries. And Fox was like, no, thank you. They wanted a dramatic actress. They didn't see her as that. They saw her as a teen. And she done broke back mountain. It had not come out yet. Oh, that's going to pop up in just a second. But in Hathaway was determined. According to Elizabeth Gabler, she said, quote, I remember Anne sitting on my sofa in my office and explaining why she wanted to do this, why she had to play the role and giving script notes about the third act. When I look back on it, it wasn't exactly what we ended up doing, but her sensibilities were completely aligned with what we did end up doing. Annie never gave up. She never stopped campaigning, calling. She came into Carla Hacken's office and wrote in her Zen garden, hire me. You have to admire it. Yeah, that's nuts. That's so intense. But also she was such a key. Like she like now I could never imagine anyone else playing that role. No, she is correct that it was made for her. Yeah. And even as much as I like, I am a Kate Hudson stand for life. I love her. But but Anne Hathaway brought something that a vulnerability that was so fucking magical to that movie. I think also there is something about Anne Hathaway's looks, even though she's absolutely stunning and obviously does not look like a real person in any way, shape, or form. But there is something that I think reads to Hollywood as more accessible about Anne Hathaway than someone like Kate Hudson, I think. That's also it is that like the transformation of like the hairdo and the new makeup and stuff and the nicer clothes was dramatic on her. Even though obviously when you zoom in on that face and the blue cerulean blue sweater, she's still gorgeous. But you're right, it was a more like, holy shit moment. Yeah. So the filmmaking team is like, all right, great. We found our Andy and they actually started negotiating her deal when the studio said not so fast. They were not on board. And it was Meryl Streep who got her over the line because Meryl saw her performance in Brokeback Mountain, which she is great in. And Streep personally called then chairman and CEO of Fox, Tom Rothman, and said, she's great, you're dumb. Go ahead and hire her. And I'm paraphrasing, but that was that got her cast. Now, meanwhile, production designer, Jess Gonshaw was having a hell of a time. He had only one feature credit to his name at this point, which was Capote, and that had not come out yet when the Devil Wears Prada was kicking off production. And he had to figure out how to recreate Anna Wintour's office. Now, according to an article around the time of the film's release, he had absolutely no way of seeing it in person. So he just had to go off of one photo he'd found online, except many years later, David Frankel told a very different story. He said the only real contact they had with Vogue for this movie was when Gonshaw snuck into the offices and managed to stick his head in Anna Wintour's office long enough to get every detail of it. And folks, I would like to show you a side by side. Lizzie, it reminds me of how they designed the bomber in Doctor Strange Love, the way you described that, where they got the one photo from the magazine and they recreated it perfectly. Oh, holy shit, lol. Yeah. Down to the hexagon mirror. I know. It's amazing. Isn't that incredible? Wow. Yeah. Well, it's funny how the movie did it better. The movies is slightly more aesthetically pleasing. Yeah. And according to Frankel, Anna redecorated as soon as the film came out, I assumed because she saw her exact office on screen. Yeah. I also assume her second assistant did. Oh, yeah. Yeah, she didn't do it, surely. Now, Gonshaw was also struggling to find any locations for the film, which they planned to shoot in New York City. It's a movie set in New York City. Doesn't seem like this should be too hard. Any ideas why this might have been a problem? Because they had no budget. Well, not no budget, but they had a low budget. Well, that's not exactly it. But let's talk about that for a second. Yeah. I was reading Meryl Streep talking about the first movie, saying like we had huge budget constraints. And she said that that was typical. That's true. They had about $35 million, which was quite low for this. Which considering how flashy and beautiful this film was and had to be to sell it as genuinely evocative of the fashion industry. She said that they had huge budget constraints added any movie that was designed for a female audience, which is so ridiculous, given that women are still 80 percent of the consumer market and we are the one to go out and support. And buy shit. Yeah. Maybe not female superhero movies, but other shit like women go out and they buy and they support. And really, it's only after films like Barbie, you know, breaking a billion that they've realized the studios that, OK, women and girls are actually were always the target movie audience. And so she said that they had a much healthier budget for the sequel of the Devil Wears Prada. Well, good. They earned it. But yeah, you're 100 percent right. They had about $35 million for this. And again, we know four or five million of that went to Meryl Streep right away. So that is not a big budget at all. We're going to get into some of the issues the budget did cause. But the locations, a little bit of a different problem. It turns out no one wanted to let them use their spaces because they were all so scared of Anna Wintour. Interesting. So if you think about what they're filming and where they're filming, the Metropolitan Museum absolutely know because of the Met Ball. They said no way. Bryant Park. Nope. They do Fashion Week. Not doing that. The Museum of Modern Art is like, ah, fuck right off. We're not doing that. But Anna didn't care. She was breezy. She didn't care. She didn't care, Jamila. Yeah, she's bored. She's bored by it all. She's not. You know, she's calling these people in her crypt at night. She's not her second assistant. Like, I think it's a mob style situation. I know, but she's Tony and she's calling the fucking shop. That's my point. Exactly. She knows how to do it. There is a moment in the book where it's revealed that Andy has to call this chef and like scream at him as Miranda is directing her exactly what to say. And I 100 percent believe that that is probably what's happening here. For sure. Iconic Upper East Side Apartments, where they had hoped to shoot Miranda's home, had co-op boards that refused the film crew's entry into the buildings. Weeks went by without them being able to secure a single location and actually got so bad that Frankel and the rest of the team wondered if this might be the thing that kills the movie. They could not get filming locations around New York. Finally, a friend of Wendy Feynerman let them use their Upper East Side Townhouse. This is why the layout in the movie of that townhouse is so different from what's in the book. It's because it was the only thing that they could get. So they had to literally change that whole sequence about don't go upstairs, although I think it works better in the movie because of that. Yeah. And last but not least, they finally found a location for the ball event. And it was the one place that, according to Frankel, Anna Wintour had no influence. It was the Museum of Natural History. That's the only one that said go ahead with the dinosaurs. So when the cast met up for the first time, Merrill Street pulled Anne Hathaway aside and said, I want you to know, I think you're going to be great. And I'm so happy to work with you. And that's the last nice thing I'm going to say to you. And this was true. She went method with Miranda Priestly, keeping herself apart from the rest of the cast for pretty much all of the shoot. For the first table read, she arrived 10 minutes late on purpose, so everyone would have to wait for her entrance. But it was worth the wait. Anne Hathaway said, quote, I think we all had an idea of what Miranda would sound like. It was a strident, bossy, barking voice. So when Merrill opened her mouth and basically whispered, everybody in the room drew a collective gasp. It was so unexpected and brilliant. Although I will say, have you heard Anna Wintour talk? Because it is also an imperceptible whisper. Yeah, that's true power is making people come to you. Well, Merrill Street did say she didn't base Priestly on Wintour. She actually said she pulled a lot from Clint Eastwood. She said, quote, he never ever raises his voice. Everyone has to lean in to listen. And he is automatically the most powerful person in the room. But he is not funny. That I stole from Mike Nichols. The way the cruelest cutting remark, if it is delivered with a tiny self-amused curlicue of irony, is the most effective instruction, the most memorable correction because everyone laughs, even the target. The walk, I'm afraid, is mine. Now, as McKenna was flying home from the table, she realized she was sitting very close to the supermodel, Giselle Bunchin, and their plane was delayed two hours. So at Frankel's request, she walked over to her, asked if she'd like to be in the movie and Bunchin said, sure. But she said, I don't want to play myself and I want to play a bitch. And so McKenna wrote the cameo for her right then and there. Love that one. I love it too. And she's fun. She did have to ask Vogue's permission to appear in the film, which she got. All right. So production kicked off with a little bit of luck. New York City's tax incentives for filming had just taken effect that essentially gave the film a 5% tax credit. And that's about where their luck ended. When Anne Hathaway was first hired, the production team told her to gain 10 pounds because of, you know, where Andy starts in the movie. And Anne Hathaway is like, great, she ate pizza, ice cream and beer for a month. But then she got to her first costume fitting with legendary costume designer, Patricia Field, who was like, why did you gain 10 pounds? You need to fit into couture. This is not going to work. So Hathaway had to immediately take off the weight she had just gained and then some in order to be able to fit into the dresses in the film, which is a nightmare. And just in case you aren't familiar, Patricia Field is the iconic costume designer behind Sex and the City and much, much more. This woman is a genius. But she was also having a terrible time on this film. You pointed this out, Jamila, but there's at least a million dollars worth of clothing used in the movie. But they, of course, did not have the budget to buy that much stuff. They had about a hundred thousand dollars for the costume budget. Yeah, no one was going to lend to them because they were scared of Anna. That's the problem. A hundred thousand dollars is a tiny for a movie this size. For a movie about fashion, it's crazy. That's insane. It's crazy. That does not make sense. I know. Yeah. That's what they gave them. And I think maybe they did that because the assumption was, oh, designers will lend their clothes to us for this. Right. But Anna Wintour strikes again. Yes. Nobody wanted to lend their clothes to the film for fear of retaliation. It actually took one designer going against the grain and agreeing to lend their clothes for the floodgates to open. Any guesses who that designer may have been? Mark Jacobs? No. Mm hmm. Oscar de la Renta. Is it the Chanel? It's Prada. Oh, lalala. Of course, because the film is done so much for their brand. Should have known. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. It's in the title. Yep. Mutea Prada did say she found the book awful, but ended up enjoying the film. And with Prada officially on board, the other designers came running. So, Jamila, I have to ask, what is your favorite outfit of this movie? It's the first one of the. The montage? No, not the montage. It's the first one of the. Oh, the Chanel boots? The first time it's the Chanel boots with the amazing. The long blazer. Jacket. And her hair is like insanely cut and layered and there's all kind of like 15 denier tights. Like, it's so good. It's the chicest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. If I ever get to look like that just one time that put together with the big but just I or I audibly gasped in the cinema when I saw her and how triggered Emily Blunt gets and is like shut up. Yes. To Giselle is absolutely ideal. It's great. So that that for me is like my my favorite outfit of the movie. It's beautiful. What about you? I love I love the long leather trench that she has. And she has an outfit that is like multiple pieces of like brown leather when she's in the montage. And I do really love that one. But I also I love the Chanel boots. Those are probably my two favorites. And I have mixed feelings about the cap sleeves on her gown in Paris, but that's fine. It looks beautiful on her. I'm just angry because I can't wear cap sleeves. Chris, I'm sorry, we can't leave you out of this. What is your favorite outfit in the Devil Wars product? It's her Harry Potter outfit when she comes in. It's like Harry Potter chic outfit. It's the first one. It's the Chanel boots. Yes, it's the Chanel boots. She comes in, she's got that oversized blazer that again, looks like it's inside out or something because of the way that they've done the stitching. And she has a patch on it that looks like a Hogwarts patch, a Gryffindor patch. Great. So women see Chanel boots. You see Harry Potter. That tells us a lot. No, I see magic. You see magic. Fair enough. Thank you. All right. So it honestly is kind of amazing that they got Patricia Field in the first place, given how connected she is to the fashion industry. But she was basically just like, whatever, guys, no one knows who Anna Wintour is. Like inside the fashion industry, yes, people know who she is. But she said, you know, how many people know the name Anna Wintour? It's not a slur to Anna Wintour. It's that fashion is a small segment. I want to tell a bigger story, not a story of Anna Wintour. Yeah, she's also the fucking sex in the city. You know what I mean? Like she's already made her money. She doesn't have to worry about her career. Right. So Meryl Streep not having a great time because she's method. She's not talking to anybody that really sucked for her. Anne Hathaway, however, was having a terrible time because of a bit of life imitating art. I don't know if you guys remember this. She was dating and living with a con man, Raffaello Follieri, an Italian con man. I'm sorry, I have to take a second to talk about this. He was running a con, which she did not know about, obviously, where he was saying that his New York firm was helping the Catholic Church unload unwanted real estate properties at a discounted rate to help the church recover financially from the sexual abuse scandals coming to light at the time, which is such a crazy pitch. But he like leaned into this. He was like, I am personally connected to the Vatican. He had an altar in his office. He had a nun as his receptionist. Absolutely wild, wild, wild. But he was terrible to her. And apparently he would get angry at her when she had to work late. David Frankel said she was really emotional on set, particularly when the shoots ran long. He always made it a problem for her. She did eventually leave him in 2008, ten days before he was dragged out of his parents' apartment by the FBI, and he served four years in prison. And just so you know, Donald Trump had something to say about it. He said, quote, Anne Hathaway hasn't remained very loyal to him, has she? So when he had plenty of money, she liked him. But then after that, not as good, right? I don't think that was the problem for Anne Hathaway, a multi-millionaire movie star. Anyway, the whole thing was very humiliating for her. She eventually had to hand over tons of jewelry he'd bought her and her personal diaries. But it sounds like she was living with an emotionally abusive con man boyfriend while also trying to stay desperately thin. Working her ass off on a movie, she'd fought incredibly hard for, AKA having honestly a much worse time than Andy Sacks does in the movie. And in December of 2005, filming wrapped. Now, the film is scheduled to release the same weekend as Brian Singer's Superman Returns, which to your point, Jamila, had a budget of over $200 million. But before it came out, Anna Wintour was invited to a private screening at the Paris Theater in New York. She came with her daughter. And even though she frequently would leave plays that she was very bored by, she stayed until the very end. And apparently her daughter leaned over and said, Mom, they really got you. So the Devil Wears product released wide on June 30th, 2006, and it absolutely tore up the box office. It made three hundred and twenty six million dollars worldwide. And by the way, Superman Returns made three hundred and ninety one million dollars worldwide, which, yes, is more money. But as we know on this podcast, that means that one probably about broke even because of marketing and the cost of the movie, while the Devil Wears product was absolutely minting money. Of course, the film was not at all bad for Anna Wintour. She became a household name and in 2006 is one of Barbara Walters' most fascinating people. And the film received two Oscar nominations, one for Patricia Fields' costume design and one for Meryl Streep. Critics praised the film and Meryl's performance. But it also it was a real sea change for the fashion industry. The Devil Wears product, too, will, of course, hit theaters on May 1st, and we will be reviewing it as a bonus episode. So stick around for that. But it's already made some headlines. I don't know if you've seen this, Jamila, but Streep and Hathaway attended Milan Fashion Week while filming, and they were reportedly both pretty horrified by how thin the models on the runways looked. Streep revealed that Ann Hathaway headed straight for the producers and secured, quote, promises that the models in the show that we were putting together for our film would not be so skeletal. That's our girl. Good for you, Ann Hathaway. Not good that that's a conversation that needs to be had, but I'm glad she did it. All right, let's end on a happy note. Ann Hathaway might not have found love on the set of the Devil Wears product, but Stanley Tucci did. So Stanley Tucci very sadly lost his beloved wife, Kate, a social worker who he'd been with since 1995 in 2009 following a battle with breast cancer. Yeah. But then Emily Blunt came to the rescue. So Tucci had met Emily Blunt's sister Felicity, a literary agent at the premier of the Devil Wears product. But a few years later, they met again at Blunt's wedding to John Krasinski. They fell in love and married in 2012. Yes, there is a massive 21 year age gap, something that made Stanley Tucci very nervous, but in the end, love won out and they have been happily married ever since. All right, Jamila, this is how we end every episode. We like to ask what went right. What went right with that film is it's an incredible time capsule of a very strange moment in history and in the industry. Yeah. I think it was cast perfectly. There's nobody I would have changed for any one of those roles. I think the casting director deserves an Oscar for that film. Amaral Streep set a new standard for female villains and also empathising with female villains. You know, we rarely empathise even with female heroes in film. And she forced a through line that it was incredibly interesting about what it takes to make it to the top of an industry that is ultimately run by men, even if it presents as a female. That is a mask because the fashion industry is ultimately owned as of the studios, as the music labels by men. And they use women kind of as like to go out and do their, you know, dogs body work whilst men sit in the shadows making all the actual money from this. Dogs body. Yeah. A British term I just learned. Indeed. So I think that the soundtrack was great. The fashion was phenomenal. It is a film that ultimately I think was trying to tell us that he was the real villain and telling us that he was a cunt. And I think we all missed it because we were all drunk on patriarchy when we were young and that her friends were dicks. And there was no charity offered to the boyfriend or to the friends. I don't know if that was subliminal or if I'm just being too charitable. No, I think you're right, especially when you think about David Frankl saying that this to him was about what does it take to be excellent. Yeah, I think you're right. And I think it was an interesting journey of for me, this is what I took from the movie and I think why I returned to the movie is that I really resonate with not being interested in the ruthlessness required for greatness. And I think that it makes her seem healthy and happy at the end when she steps away from that world, you know, there's a part of her that misses that adrenaline. Yeah. When she sees Miranda in the street, but ultimately it was like, it's not worth selling your soul for. And as someone in this industry who's been offered so much in exchange for me to give a lot of myself and make sacrifices, I'm really glad that I didn't. And I've therefore lived a peaceful and happier life than all of my peers, pretty much combined as to how like well mentally I feel because I didn't take those steps. And so I love that it is a film that champions greatness, whilst also championing peace and friendship and love and community. You know, I think it does a really good job at showing that both things have their merits and that ultimately picking herself and her sanity and not being a slave to this lunatic woman who doesn't look happy. It really makes the point that like having all the money and all the power in the world does not make a happy person. And we see that when we see Meryl stripped back and crying her divorce, etc. Beautifully said. All right, Chris, what went right for you? I think the obvious one is Meryl Streep. And maybe we'll leave that to you. But I think the less obvious one, because she was the ninth choice. And I love Emily Blunt in this movie and also just a little plug for your sister's sister, the indie film that I think kind of helped break her out a few years later. Lynn Shelton in Hathaway is great in this movie. She is great. And I think it's hard to be the straight man in movies like this. And I think she does a really nice job. She never tries to overpower any of the scenes. She kind of understands her role very well in this type of movie. And she can be very funny. She's very funny in Ocean's Eight. I didn't love that movie, but I thought she was great in it. She's one of the best parts of it. Absolutely. And I think she was easy to hate on for a while because people felt like she had this drama camp kid energy to it. I hate that. She just works hard. I do too. I think she's a great actress and she's also ageless, apparently, as we'll see. She is doing whatever Tony Goldwyn's doing, as you mentioned before. But she's really excellent in this movie. And like Rachel McAdams, I think she has a lot of range and she can do comedy and she can do drama and she can do science fiction and she can do superhero movies. And I was really impressed to hear how much she fought for this role, you know, coming off of something that means she just done broke back mountain. It could have been easy for her to say, like, I just deserve to have something handed to me, which she did. She, you know, was that's an Oscar winning film that she had just done. And she's excellent in it, as Merrill recognized. So I'll give mine to Anne Hathaway. Perfect. I'm with you 100 percent. I have never subscribed to the Anne Hathaway hate. I think honestly, it may have started a bit with that con man boyfriend, because there was a bit of the like, well, how could you have not known? And if you look back at some of the articles from the time, there were people saying, well, you know, he was only doing this so he could have money to spend it on Anne Hathaway. And it's just like, fuck you. And then there's the Oscars with James Franco and then Les Mis. And from there, you get this idea that she's sort of a try hard to which I say, yeah, she tries really hard. Is that a bad thing? No, it's not. She's an incredible actress. She works her ass off. I can't wait to see her in the Devil Wars product, too. I'm not going to give it to Meryl Streep. She's obviously incredible in this movie, as is Emily Blunt. All the actors are wonderful. I want to give it to Aileen Brosh McKenna because having read the book, I think what she is able to do with this adaptation is so impressive. She makes something that is truly inactive. It's just a transcription, really. As Charlie Kaufman would say, Lizzie, an adaptation, it's that sprawling New Yorker shit. It literally is. I can't structure this. It's exactly what the book is spot on. And she just does such a good job and she makes such a tight movie. It's a complicated movie. There's depth to all of these characters. It's funny hats off to you, Aileen Brosh McKenna. This is this is a tour de force piece of screenwriting here. So that's who I will give it to. Jamila, thank you so, so much for being here with us and taking the time to explore what is truly one of my favorite movies. Yeah. Is there anything that you'd like to plug before you leave? Oh, well, I have a podcast called Wrong Turns with Jamila Jamil. It's very funny. Lots of your favorite comedians in the world come on and tell me terrifying tales that they should have taken to the grave, really, but chose to share with all of us. I will be doing Netflix as a Joke Festival in Los Angeles on May the 4th at 7 p.m. with Chris Fleming and Lisa Traeger and Lamorne Morris. And then I also write a sub-stack called A Low Desire to Please, which I named after my dog when he got his first training card. They said that he's very smart. He just has a low desire to please. And I was like, that is my dog. I birthed him out of my vagina because we must share the same DNA. That's me all the way through. So, yeah. So those are the things. And then projects will come out later this year. Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. You were so lovely, so generous with your time and everything that you shared. And I really love your podcast. It makes me happy. Thank you. Chris, if people would like to support this podcast, how can they do that? A few very simple ways. Number one, tell a family member or friend, hey, you should check out what went wrong. Pretty good. Number two, leave us a rating and review on whatever podcast or you are listening to this show on. We appreciate it. It helps people see that people listen to this. It's a signal. Maybe you should too. Number three, subscribe on whatever podcast you are listening to us on so you get new episodes every Monday and occasionally Fridays. Number four, if you'd like more from us, we now offer bonus episodes through a couple different platforms for five dollars a month. You can get bonus episodes through Apple podcasts or Spotify. You get at least one bonus episode per month. Typically, these are reviews of newly released movies, but we are experimenting with some new formats, especially this summer. And then number three, if you really want to go the full nine yards, you can join our Patreon head to www.patreon.com. Slash what went wrong podcast and for five dollars, you can get not only the bonus episodes, but access to our fan community, comments, et cetera, and an ad free RSS feed. And for fifty dollars, you can get a Miranda Priestly shout out just like one of these. Adrian Peng, Korea, Angeline Renee Cook, Beatrix Earhart Earhart. Is it impossible to find a lovely slender paratrooper? Am I reaching for the stars here? Not really. 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Nate, Rosemary Southward, Roger, Sadie, Just Sadie, Scott Oshita, Simon Chinani, Steve Winterbauer, Suzanne Johnson, the provost family, the O's sound like O's. That's all. Wow. That was cool, Lazy. I don't know why you said such mean things about our most loyal patrons, but it will make them stronger. Excellence is what we demand. Before we announce what's coming next week, may I offer Lazy my favorite comp for the budgetary point that Jamila was making at the time? Sure. Talladega Nights, the ballad of Ricky Bobby. Same year, I really like that movie. It's very silly, very funny. $73 million budget, two times the budget of the Devil Wears Prada. I would argue roughly equivalent in Star Power, although not as acclaimed dramatically, Will Ferrell is an enormous name and John C. Riley is an amazing actor. But my point is it takes place within a specialized world, NASCAR in this instance, very male world versus more female world, the fashion world. And again, twice the budget, but made half as much at the box office as the Devil Wears Prada. So anyway, that would be my comp. That $100,000 for the costume budget is nuts. And it's crazy. I mean, I get it. I think they thought everybody was just going to lend clothes, but yeah. I think that was probably they did an initial pass at the budget and they're trying to figure out how to squeeze it into the 35 number that they have. And they say, well, if we just slash the costume budget by 90 percent, because we assume we can get these for free, then we can get the green light. Right. It's like a weird math you do to try to get something to where it needs to be. By the way, make sure that you come back not this Friday, but next Friday, because we will be covering the Devil Wears Prada two for all of our patrons and bonus subscribers. I'm so excited to watch it. I can't wait to talk about it with you, Chris. So make sure that you come back not this Friday, but next Friday for that bonus episode. But in the meantime, Chris, what do we have coming up one week from today on Monday? So the Devil Wears Prada two is going to tee us perfectly into sequel months, as Chris describes it. So for May the 4th, not only could you check out Jamila Jamil's Netflix as a joke performance, you can also tune in for our first sequel of the month, The Empire Strikes Back. We are diving into the dark second entries of a couple of trilogies that we have started on this podcast and Empire Strikes Back will be the first. Great. All right, we'll see you then. Thanks for listening. Bye. To support what went wrong and gain access to bonus episodes, subscribe on Patreon, Apple or Spotify for $5 a month. Patreon subscriptions also come with an ad free RSS feed. You can also visit our website, whatwentwrongpod.com for more info. What went wrong is a sad boom podcast presented by Lizzie Bassett and Chris Winterbauer, post production and music by David Bowman. This episode was researched by Laura Woods and edited by Karen Krupsaw.