Devil Wears Prada skewers fashion boss from hell

Meryl Streep

NEW YORK - Meryl Streep, who plays a tyrannical fashion magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada, insists she didn't draw on Vogue editor Anna Wintour for her character -- on the contrary, she based it on men she knows.

The film is based on the best-selling book, which sent shock waves through the fashion world in 2003 with its barely disguised fictional version of the inner workings of Vogue magazine, written by former Vogue staffer Lauren Weisberger.

In the book, the editor of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestley, is portrayed as unreasonable and bullying to her staff. In the film, she also has a softer side on rare occasions and her genius and business savvy are emphasised.

Fashion circles have been abuzz before the film's June 30 release about whether Wintour, the most powerful woman in fashion, might seek revenge in the pages of Vogue against those who collaborated on the movie.

But Vogue spokesman Patrick O'Connell said Wintour had enjoyed the film when she attended an advance benefit screening recently. "She found it very entertaining," he said.

Two-time Academy Award winner Streep, who revels in the role of the fur-coat-clad boss from hell, said she modelled the character on various people -- but not Wintour.

"Unfortunately you don't have enough women in power, or at least I don't know them, to copy," she said in New York before the film's US release last week. "Most of my models for this character were ... male," she said.

"I know the book was based on an assistant's eye view of Anna Wintour, but it didn't interest me to do a documentary of Anna Wintour," Streep said. "I didn't know anything about her and I only met her at the first benefit. She was a good sport about it. She's been told that I don't resemble her."

The woman responsible for dressing Streep and co-star Anne Hathaway, who plays the editor's assistant, was fashion designer Patricia Fields, who was also the costume designer on the hit television show Sex and The City.

"I didn't worry about offending anyone," Fields said, adding that fashion labels from Chanel to Prada were only too willing to lend their clothes for the movie. Italian designer Valentino even makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Fields also said the movie was about more than fashion.

"I love fashion," she said. "But if it were just about fashion, I don't think there are enough people that are interested in that per se and it had to have other factors."

Hathaway, who made her name in the teen hit The Princess Diaries, plays Andy, who aspires to be a journalist but takes a job as editor's assistant at Runway because the only other option was a car magazine. Initially clueless about fashion, she is eventually transformed into a Chanel-wearing "fashionista" not so different from those she used to mock.

Early reviews have been positive, with the Hollywood Reporter calling it "delicious fun" and predicting box office success, particularly among women.

"Clothes to die for and an outrageous fashion diva compete for attention in this dishy comedy," was its verdict.

But Streep joked that there was plenty for men to enjoy as well. Asked at a news conference whether she thought the film's message about a tough female boss succeeding in the business world made it a feminist movie, she blanched.

"There's a way to kill the box office," she said. "No, this is a guy flick, a lot of eye candy, a lot of lingerie shots."

- REUTERS