Bezos Modeled as Devil Wears Prada 2 Villain
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- Benji Barnes, played by Justin Theroux in The Devil Wears Prada 2, is widely read as a thinly veiled Jeff Bezos — an eccentric billionaire with a post-divorce 'glow-up,' a philanthropist ex-wife (Sasha Barnes, played by Lucy Liu, echoing MacKenzie Scott's pledge to donate half her $37bn divorce settlement), and a new glamorous girlfriend played by Emily Blunt.
- The Devil Wears Prada 2 screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna said the script predated rumors of Bezos considering a Condé Nast acquisition, adding the filmmakers said 'Whoa' when the real-life news broke.
- Benji's pivotal scene has him telling Miranda Priestly that Runway magazine won't need models, locations, or designers in the near future because 'it'll all just be AI' — a statement the article frames as the film's darkest cautionary beat about tech billionaires' disregard for art.
- The 2025 Met Gala has been 'plunged into controversy' over Bezos's role as honorary chair and main source of funding, with rumors of celebrity boycotts, though the article notes last night's red carpet was still packed.
- Emily Blunt's character Emily — described in the film as 'every girl who ignored him in high school' — uses her billionaire boyfriend's status to step out of Miranda's shadow, mirroring how Lauren Sánchez has leveraged her marriage for a Vogue digital cover, a Katy Perry #GirlBoss space flight, and a celebrity-packed Venice wedding attended by Oprah Winfrey, the Kardashians, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ivanka Trump.
- The film fits a broader screen trend alongside Apple TV's The Morning Show (Paul Marks, based on Elon Musk), HBO's Industry, Succession's Lukas Matsson, and Knives Out 2's Miles Bron — all portraying tech billionaires as existential threats to media, art, and culture.
Why it matters: The film crystallizes an anxiety already playing out in real life: Bezos's Met Gala funding role and his rumored Condé Nast ambitions show billionaires moving from passive wealth to active cultural gatekeeping. The pivotal AI-replaces-artistry scene underscores a tension — the people funding fashion's biggest night are the same ones publicly arguing that human creativity is dispensable.
