It was an exceptionally busy time in my life when Devil Wears Prada 2 hit theaters this spring, and I didn’t get to the theater as much as someone who covers movies for a living should. However, I was delighted I was able to use my Disney+ subscription to watch the flick with my sister this weekend, and I mostly found the movie to be fun and filled with appropriate levels of fan service. One area I found it a little lacking in though were the cameos, and no, I’m not just talking about Nate.
Adrian Grenier (aka Nate) missing from the movie was one of the main talking points ahead of its release. (That, and the movie’s accessorizable popcorn bucket.) The director said at one point they’d considered a Grenier cameo, but it didn’t really make sense in context. Therefore, I knew Nate was out going in, and I was OK with it. What I think would have made sense, however, would have been a cameo from Simon Baker’s Christian Thompson.
Hear me out, I get he’s kind of a villain in the first film and ultimately tries and fails to get one up on Miranda Priestly. He doesn’t strictly need to be in 2; and I don’t know if he would ultimately ended up in the fashion sphere after the events of the first movie. However – and I’m about to get into some minor spoilers – Devil Wears Prada 2 opens with Andy accepting an award for journalism, and you’re telling me Christian Thompson could not have been there?
I’m just saying, there’s a real world chance Christian and Andy would have kept crossing paths over the years given their shared interest and careers in journalism. I was fully hoping for a cameo from Baker in the same sort of way we got cameos from the likes of Law Roach, Heidi Klum, George Clooney's Lake Como residence and more. Maybe even just a snarky shot of Christian tipping his glass to Andy as she made her breakthrough speech in the movie's opening moments, or a scene with him still being flirty with her years later (you know he would), even though she’s old enough to know he’s not her type now.
In a way, I suppose I should not be surprised Simon Baker missed out on a cameo. The man has been open about acting less since The Mentalist wrapped back in 2015, though his gigs have picked up a wee bit with Scarpetta and The Narrow Road to the Deep North in the last couple of years. A few years back he did complete an interview on GMA where he was asked about The Devil Wears Prada and he mentioned he’s never even seen the movie.
I just haven’t gotten around to it. It’s not really something I look forward to doing is seeing myself in a film. I was working when the premiere happened on another film, so I didn’t get to go to it. But my family went. They saw it.
So, I’m not sure he cared all that much about a sequel coming together. Still, a gig’s a gig, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 would have been a high-profile one. Plus, the film did make the effort to bring back most of the major Devil Wears Prada cast who made the first one so fondly remembered. Stanley Tucci is just as precise as Nigel, while Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestley feels a bit more out of touch but still intimidating this time around. Emily Blunt is back, as is Andy’s friend Lily, played by Tracie Thoms.
It’s nice to see these connections to the original film, and the movie as a whole feels similar tonally to the original. But I did go in expecting one more cameo, and I was a bit disappointed I didn’t get that closure. Just a bit though.
