Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Original Miranda Priestly.


Kay Thompson as Maggie Prescott in Funny Face

Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada

Audrey Hepburn as the bookworm-turned-model
Jo Stockton

Annie Hathaway as the intelligent size 6 Andy Sachs

Funny Face, starring Kay Thompson and Audrey Hepburn, was very much a Devil Wears Prada of the late 1950s. Kay played a woman named Maggie Prescott, who was a very decisive editor-in-chief determined to make her magazine, Quality, the best one on the newsstands. Much like Prada, she converted a frumpy, smart girl with a boyish name (Hepburn) into a glamorous lady and took her to Paris where she truly blossomed and lived the high life. Thompson's character was based on the actions of a real editor-in-chief, Carmel Snow of Harper's Bazaar, just as Streep's was, Anna Wintour of Vogue. A lot of what occurred in this movie is still pertinent today and should be as much of a fashion movie reference as Streep’s rendition. Thompson made a very good point about the importance of a magazine in this movie by stating, "a magazine should be like a human being, when it comes into the home it must contribute. It simply can't just… lie around."

Kay, you're 'swonderful and 'smarvelous and I throw my pillbox hat off to you.

Sources 1, 2, 3, 4

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