One of the most talked about moments in The Devil Wears Prada 2 turns out to be made the old-fashioned way, and fans are celebrating the fact that a human artist was hired to create it instead of a generative AI tool.
The sequel opens with Miranda Priestly being the subject of an online pile-on, including a meme depicting Meryl Streep’s iconic editor-in-chief as a fast-food employee, captioned “Want some lies with that?”
When the film was released on Friday, artist Alexis Franklin revealed on Instagram that she had painted the image herself and shared a time-lapse of her process as proof.
“I had this painted at the request of [director] David Frankel for The Devil Wears Prada 2 (it appears in the film), Franklin wrote, adding that the commission felt tailor-made for her.
“Absolutely no disrespect to Queen Meryl, but this is something I would have painted in my spare time, so when they asked me to do this, it was nothing but fun.”
She also wrote on X, noting the reaction her revelation had sparked.
“I posted this on Instagram yesterday and was inundated with comments of relief that this caught on The Devil Wears Prada 2 was created by a real person (me) so I figured I’d post it here too because I think these companies should get their flowers when they hire an artist.”
The response online was warm, if tinged with a certain sadness at the current state of affairs.
“People crave real art and not artificial intelligence and this is proof,” one fan wrote.
Another noted that “the bar is truly in hell” when a production that chooses a human artist over AI has become worthy of celebration in its own right.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened to $77 million domestically and $156.6 million internationally in its opening weekend, for a cumulative total of $233.6 million.
The film reunites Streep with Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, along with returning actors Tracie Thoms and Tibor Feldman.
